553 U. S., Part 1

United States v. Clintwood Elkhorn Mining Co., 553 U. S. __ (2008)

R029; No. 07-308; 4/15/08. The plain language of 26 U. S. C. §§7422(a) and 6511 requires a taxpayer seeking a refund for a tax assessed in violation of the Export Clause, just as for any other unlawfully assessed tax, to file a timely administrative refund claim before bringing suit against the Government.

MeadWestvaco Corp. v. Illinois Dept. of Revenue, 553 U. S. __ (2008)

R030; No. 06-1413; 4/15/08. The Illinois courts erred in upholding a state tax on an apportioned share of a multistate corporation’s capital gain realized from the sale of a business division after those courts determined that the division and the corporation were not “unitary.”

Baze v. Rees, 553 U. S. __ (2008)

R031; No. 07-5439; 4/16/08. The Kentucky Supreme Court’s judgment upholding Kentucky’s three-drug lethal-injection protocol against petitioners’ claim that it violates the Eighth Amendment’s “cruel and unusual punishments” ban is affirmed.

Burgess v. United States, 553 U. S. __ (2008)

R032; No. 06-11429; 4/16/08. Under 21 U. S. C. §841(b)(1)(A), which enhances the mandatory minimum sentence for certain federal drug crimes when the defendant was previously convicted of a “felony drug offense,” the quoted term is defined exclusively by §802(44) to “mea[n] an offense . . . punishable by imprisonment for more than one year under any law of . . . a State,” and does not incorporate the §802(13) definition of “felony” as any “offense classified by applicable . . . law as a felony,” so that a state drug offense punishable by more than one year qualifies as a “felony drug offense,” even if state law classifies the offense as a misdemeanor.

Begay v. United States, 553 U. S. __ (2008)

R033; No. 06-11543; 4/16/08. Felony driving under the influence of alcohol, as defined by New Mexico law, is not a “violent felony” for purposes of the Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 U. S. C. §924(e), which provides a 15-year mandatory minimum prison term for a defendant, convicted of possessing a firearm, who has three prior convictions “for a violent felony,” and defines “violent felony,” in relevant part, as a crime that “is burglary, arson, or extortion, involves use of explosives, or otherwise involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another,” §924(e)(2)(b)(ii).

Virginia v. Moore, 553 U. S. __ (2008)

R034; No. 06-1082; 4/23/08. The police did not violate the Fourth Amendment when they made an arrest that was based on probable cause but prohibited by Virginia law, or when they performed a search incident to the arrest.

Crawford v. Marion County Election Bd., 553 U. S. __ (2008)

R035; No. 07-21; 4/28/08. The Seventh Circuit’s judgment upholding the constitutionality of an Indiana statute requiring citizens voting in person to present government-issued photo identification is affirmed.

Gonzalez v. United States, 553 U. S. ___ (2008)

R036; No. 06-11612; 5/12/08. Express consent by a defendant’s counsel suffices to waive the right to have an Article III judge preside over jury selection in a federal felony trial and to permit a magistrate judge to preside pursuant to the Federal Magistrates Act, 28 U. S. C. §636(b)(3), which allows a magistrate judge to “be assigned such additional duties as are not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States.”

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Last Updated: May 12, 2008
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