It's been a weird week on First Street: There were postponed arguments thanks to Superstorm Sandy, a Halloween hearing, and a new award for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
If you were affected by the storm, you probably haven't been following the Court this week. Here are a few highlights to bring you up to speed.
Dog Sniffs. The Court was not impressed with Gregory
Garre's argument that people have no legitimate expectation of privacy regarding contraband in
their homes. Based on comments during arguments, it seems likely that the
justices will find that a police dog sniff outside a marijuana grower's home
violated the Fourth Amendment. The Court was equally skeptical of a Florida
Supreme Court finding that the state must provide sufficient evidence of a dog's
sniffing success to uphold a sniff-prompted-search, Reuters reports.
Gray Matter. The Court seemed to struggle with the issue of
whether the first sale doctrine applies to copyrighted works
produced outside of the United States, but imported and resold in the U.S., The
Associated Press reports. The outcome in this case is anyone's guess. The Court
was similarly divided during Thursday's Chaidez v. United States
arguments regarding the retroactive application of Padilla v.
Kentucky.
Grants. The Court granted four more petitions on Monday.
The cases are: Trevino v. Thaler, McQuiggin v. Perkins, PPL
Corporation v. Commissioner, and Bullock v. BankChampaign.
Conference Schedule. The Court has scheduled all of the
same-sex marriage cases for consideration at its November 20 Conference, according to SCOTUSblog. That includes
eight petitions dealing with the Defense of Marriage Act, one dealing with California
Proposition 8, and one dealing with an Arizona law similar to DOMA that restricts
marital benefits for state workers to opposite-sex married couples
only.
Glamour Woman. Glamour magazine named Justice Ruth
Bader Ginsburg its Lifetime Achievement Award winner because "More than any
other person, she can take credit for making the law of this country work for
women." Take a second to check out the full list of Glamour Award winners; it's probably the only
time that you will see Justice Ginsburg in a group that includes Selena Gomez
and J. Crew Creative Director Jenna Lyons.