Marcia Coyle

March 01, 2004 | Corporate Counsel

The amendment, named for its sponsor, Representative Tom Feeney (R-Florida), was quickly enacted last April without hearings and without input from the Judicial Conference of the United States, the policy-making arm of the federal judiciary. Supporters claimed the law was necessary because judges were increasingly setting sentences below ranges specified by the U.S. Sentencing Commission. The rate of so-called downward departures in federal criminal cases rose from 5.8 percent in 1981 to 18.3 percent in 200

By Marcia Coyle

4 minute read

October 15, 2010 | Law.com

A federal judge in Florida has rejected the Obama administration's motion to dismiss a challenge to the new health care reform law brought by 20 state attorneys general and four governors. The judge ruled that two key claims could go forward: the states' claim that the individual mandate to purchase coverage exceeds Congress' commerce clause power and violates the Ninth and 10th Amendments, and the claim that the act unconstitutionally coerces and commandeers the states with respect to the Medicaid program.

By Marcia Coyle

2 minute read

August 05, 2005 | Law.com

After 11 remarkably unaltered years together, the Rehnquist Court has entered its own season of change. The retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor -- who has cast the deciding vote in so many of the Court's closest cases -- will break up one of the longest-running shows in Supreme Court history. And the show ended with a fascinating finale. "There were lots of cases raising fun and sexy issues," said Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz, who argued some of those cases. "The term rocked and rolled."

By Marcia Coyle

21 minute read

August 05, 2005 | National Law Journal

After 11 remarkably unaltered years together, the Rehnquist Court has entered its own season of change. The retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor -- who has cast the deciding vote in so many of the Court's closest cases -- will break up one of the longest-running shows in Supreme Court history. And the show ended with a fascinating finale. "There were lots of cases raising fun and sexy issues," said Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz, who argued some of those cases. "The term rocked and rolled."

By Marcia Coyle

21 minute read

August 08, 2008 | National Law Journal

Although the U.S. Supreme Court handed down fewer 5-4 decisions in the term just ended than in the previous one, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is still the dominant key vote. So what can be gleaned from the third term of the Roberts Court besides the 4-1-4 divide on issues triggering the most heat and debate within society today? Some trends are emerging -- and the term's headline cases demonstrate, in this election year, that who sits on the Court and who appoints them matter.

By Marcia Coyle

20 minute read

August 11, 2003 | Law.com

In the term just ended, the U.S. Supreme Court both led and followed the nation, due in part to defining affirmative action and gay rights decisions likely to have legal, political and social repercussions for years to come. But the seeds of both rulings were sown in prior decisions by their two chief authors as well as in other Court precedents. And those two rulings do not necessarily signal a change in direction so much as a move forward.

By Marcia Coyle

18 minute read