Summary: This week the court issued four opinions and did not grant certiorari to any new cases or hear any cases in oral arguments. We begin today with the court's much anticipated opinion this week in the case of United States v. Jones, which considered whether police should have obtained a warrant before placing a GPS tracking device on a suspect's car and tracking its movements for four weeks. We next consider another Fourth Amendment decision this week in Ryburn v. Huff, wherein the court considered whether police officers violated a family's right to be free from warrantless searches when they entered the family's home during an investigation into a rumor that their son was going to “shoot up” his school - Bellarmine-Jefferson High School in Burbank, California. We next consider the Court's opinion this week in National Meat Association v. Harris, wherein the Supreme Court decided whether federal law pre-empted California state law in regard to the treatment of pigs and other animals at slaughterhouses, when the animal in question has lost the ability to walk on its own. Finally, we consider the statutory interpretation case of Reynolds v. United States, which concerns whether the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act ("SORNA") applies to sex offenders who committed their crimes prior to the effective date of the law in the absence of a clear indication by the Attorney General that the act applies to them. OPINIONS (click to download) Ryburn v. Huff (11-208) National Meat Assn. v. Harris (10-224) Reynolds v. United States (10-6549) United States v. Jones (10-1259)
