Today’s Orders
on Nov 16, 2009 at 10:05 am
The Court has granted certiorari in one case, Magwood v. Culliver (09-158), and invited the Solicitor General to file a brief expressing the views of the United States in Holy See v. John Doe (09-1). The Court also issued a summary judgment in the case Wong v. Belmontes (08-1263), reversing and remanding the judgment of the 9th Circuit; the opinion is per curiam.
[Disclosure: Lawyers associated with Akin Gump and Howe & Russell represent the petitioner in Magwood.]
The full order list is here. Details and briefs for the cases acted on are below the jump.
Docket: 09-158
Title: Magwood v. Culliver
Issues: Limited by the Court to this first question only: When a person is resentenced after having obtained federal habeas relief from an earlier sentence, is a claim in a federal habeas petition challenging that new sentencing judgment a “second or successive†claim under 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b) if the petitioner could have challenged his previous sentence on the same constitutional grounds?
- Opinion below (11th Circuit)
- Petition for certiorari
- Brief in opposition
- Petitioner’s reply
Docket: 09-1
Title: Holy See v. Doe
Issue: Whether the FSIA’s tort exception confers jurisdiction when the tortious act itself falls outside the scope of employment but state law extends vicarious liability based upon non-tortious precursor conduct falling within the scope of employment.
Docket: 08-1263
Title: Wong v. Belmontes
Issue: Does the Sixth Amendment right to effective counsel in the penalty phase of a capital trial require counsel to present and explain evidence in support of an alternative theory that is inconsistent with his client’s testimony and that would likely open the door to previously excluded evidence that the defendant had personally committed another murder?
- Opinion below (9th Circuit)
- Petition for certiorari
- Brief in opposition
- Petitioner’s reply
