Details on today’s orders and opinions

By Kiera Flynn
on Jun 6, 2011 at 1:27 pm

This morning, the Court granted certiorari in two cases:  Martinez v. Ryan, in which the Court will consider whether and when an inmate has a constitutional right to effective counsel in post-conviction proceedings, and Kurns v. Railroad Friction Products Corp.

Two notable denials came in the fight over the Illinois Senate seat formerly occupied by President Obama. These petitions were Burris v. Judge and Quinn v. Judge.

The Court issued four opinions.

In its first opinion of the morning, Fox v. Vice, the Court held that when there are both frivolous and non-frivolous claims in a plaintiff’s civil rights suit, a court may grant reasonable attorney’s fees to the defendant, but only for costs that the defendant would not have incurred but for the frivolous claims.  Additionally, the Court held that by failing to separate the work that the attorneys had done on both the frivolous and non-frivolous claims, the district court had applied an incorrect standard to calculate fees for Vice – a standard that the Fifth Circuit had affirmed.  The Court vacated the Fifth Circuit’s decision and remanded the case for further proceedings.   Justice Kagan delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court. 

In a second opinion,  McNeill v. United States, the Court affirmed the decision of the Fourth Circuit, holding that a federal sentencing court must determine whether an “offense under State law” is a “serious drug offense” by consulting the “maximum term of imprisonment” applicable to a defendant’s prior state drug offense at the time of the defendant’s conviction for that offense, rather than current state law, because the maximum sentence for his offenses had been reduced since his conviction.  Justice Thomas delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.

The Court also issued its opinion this morning in Erica P. John Fund, Inc. v. Halliburton, holding that securities fraud plaintiffs need not prove loss causation to obtain class certification. The Chief Justice delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court, vacating the decision of the Fifth Circuit and remanding for further proceedings. 

The last opinion issued by the Court today was in Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Jr. v. Molecular Systems, Inc.  By a vote of seven to two, the Court affirmed the decision of the Federal Circuit, holding that that the Bayh-Dole Act does not automatically vest title to federally funded inventions in federal contractors or authorize contractors to unilaterally take title to such inventions.  The Chief Justice delivered the opinion of the Court.  Justice Sotomayor joined the Court’s opinion but also filed a concurring opinion; Justice Breyer filed a dissenting opinion, which was joined by Justice Ginsburg.