Leading Cases

These student-written pieces focus on one important case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court during the previous Term and form the “Leading Cases” section of the November Supreme Court issue. Comments are ten pages long and written during the summer between students’ second and third years.

Separation of Powers

United States v. Arthrex, Inc.

Vol. 135 No. 1 Thirty-three years ago, in Morrison v. Olson, the Supreme Court announced a loose, functionalist test for distinguishing between “principal” and “inferior” “Officers of the...
Standing

California v. Texas

Vol. 135 No. 1 In the 2007 case Massachusetts v. EPA, the Supreme Court determined, in a 5–4 vote, that Massachusetts had standing to challenge the EPA’s failure...
Federal Courts

Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski

Vol. 135 No. 1 Scholars often analyze exercises of judicial review as a tension between two models of adjudication: the “dispute resolution model,” which limits federal courts to...
Federal Indian Law

United States v. Cooley

Vol. 135 No. 1 For over two centuries, Indian tribes have been relegated to a tenuous position within the American constitutional system. As the Supreme Court has attempted...
Eighth Amendment

Jones v. Mississippi

Vol. 135 No. 1 Over the past two decades, the Supreme Court has transformed juvenile sentencing. A key line of Eighth Amendment cases broke down the traditional barrier...
Antitrust

NCAA v. Alston

Vol. 135 No. 1 In January of 2021, as the coronavirus pandemic reached its peak in the United States, Alabama Crimson Tide football coach Nick Saban won his...
Fourth Amendment

Torres v. Madrid

Vol. 135 No. 1 Police misconduct is not a new phenomenon, nor is the shelter that law enforcement officers enjoy in the courts. As police officers “rarely face...
Standing

TransUnion v. Ramirez

Vol. 135 No. 1 To bring a lawsuit in federal court, a plaintiff must have Article III standing. While commentators perceived federal courts as having generally made it...