MLM Counties News. Notices. Need-to-know Information.

Sometimes even the highest court in the land can blunder, right? Sure, according to legal scholars who gathered recently at Pepperdine University’s School of Law to discuss the five worst U.S. Supreme Court rulings ever.

Two years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Wyeth v. Levine that state law failure-to-warn claims against brand-name drugmakers are not automatically preempted by federal law, the justices are considering whether that same rule applies to generic drugmakers.

The case of Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes involves a complex set of legal and procedural issues that will determine whether a group of 1.5 million current and former retail store employees can join to form the largest class ever in an employment discrimination case.

The U.S. Supreme Court considered Wednesday whether a civil contempt proceeding that results in a jail term triggers the constitutional right to counsel. Turner v. Rogers — formerly Turner v. Price — involves Michael Turner’s failure to pay more than $5,000 in child support. After failing to appear at a contempt hearing, he was ordered to be jailed for six months or until he paid the outstanding amount. At another contempt hearing, where Turner was not represented by counsel, he said was unable to pay due to his incarceration, drug addiction and physical disability. The court sentenced him to a term of incarceration not to exceed 12 months or until he could pay.

“You are free to leave” is a statement that seems easy enough to understand. But when those words are told to a young person at school, does the child’s age make a difference under Miranda v. Arizona? That’s the question the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court considered this week during oral arguments in J.D.B v. North Carolina. The case involves a 13-year-old special education student who was questioned by police at his middle school about recent burglaries in which a digital camera and jewelry were stolen. The boy was not read his Miranda rights, nor was he told he could speak to a parent or guardian before being questioned.

In a per curiam decision this week, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a ruling by the 9th Circuit, scolding the court for reversing the denial of a Batson petition without giving the state court decisions on the matter proper deferential treatment. The defendant in Felkner v. Jackson raised a Batson challenge to the prosecutor’s use peremptory strikes to remove two of three black jurors from his rape trial. After exhausting his state court remedies, he sought habeas relief from federal district court, where he was also unsuccessful.

New Americans with Disabilities Act rules going into effect this week broaden the requirements for pedestrian walkways to include wheelchairs and Segways, here being demonstrated by inventor Dean Kamen.

In the wake of the U.S Supreme Court’s ruling in Skinner v. Switzer that prisoners may assert civil rights claims seeking access to DNA evidence, defense attorneys and prosecutors are predicting very different consequences.

A bill that would require U.S. Supreme Court justices to adhere to the same ethics rules as other federal judges has been introduced in the House.

U.S. Supreme Court justices wrangled Tuesday with the question of just what kind of pretrial motions stop the clock under the Speedy Trial Act.

President Barack Obama this week named Donald Verrilli, deputy White House counsel, as his pick for the next solicitor general. That post has been filled on an interim basis by Justice Department attorney Neal Katyal since former Solicitor General Elena ...