Petitions of the week

This week we highlight petitions pending before the Supreme Court that ask the court to decide, among other things, whether a police officer can access “semiprivate” areas within a home’s curtilage to conduct an investigation without a warrant, whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit erred when it granted habeas relief based on a de novo finding that a Sixth Amendment violation had occurred, and whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit misapplied Supreme Court precedent by granting habeas relief when there was no evidence that a juror’s contact with a third party had a substantial and injurious effect on the jury’s verdict.

The petitions of the week are below the jump:

Retzlaff v. Van Dyke
19-1272
Issue: Whether under the doctrine of Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, state anti-SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) statutes apply in federal diversity cases, as the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 1st, 2nd and 9th Circuits hold, or do not apply, as the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 5th, 10th, 11th and District of Columbia Circuits hold.

Bovat v. Vermont
19-1301
Issue: Whether a police officer can access “semiprivate” areas within a home’s curtilage to conduct an investigation without a warrant.

Shinn v. Kayer
19-1302
Issue: Whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit violated 28 U.S.C. § 2254’s deferential standard, and employed a flawed methodology that the Supreme Court has repeatedly condemned, when it granted habeas relief based on a de novo finding that a Sixth Amendment violation had occurred.

United Parcel Service Inc. v. New York
19-1306
Issues: (1) Whether multiple shipments from different shippers may be aggregated to satisfy the 10,000-cigarette threshold of the Contraband Cigarette Trafficking Act, which prohibits the knowing transportation of “a quantity” of more than 10,000 untaxed cigarettes in the “possession” of unauthorized persons; and (2) whether substantial compliance is a prerequisite to the statutory exemption of the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009, which exempts the United Parcel Service by name if its tobacco-delivery agreement with New York is “honored” nationwide.

Thomas v. Barnes
19-1307
Issue: Whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit misapplied the Supreme Court’s precedent in Brecht v. Abrahamson by granting habeas relief when there was no evidence that a juror’s contact with a third party had a substantial and injurious effect on the jury’s verdict.