The Appellate Corner, 0913 ALBJ, 74 The Alabama Lawyer 338 (2013)
| Author | Wilson F. Green |
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\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Wilson F. Green is a partner in Fleenor & Green LLP in Tuscaloosa. He is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Alabama School of Law and a former law clerk to the Hon. Robert B. Propst, United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. From 2000-09, Green served as adjunct professor at the law school, where he taught courses in class actions and complex litigation. He represents consumers and businesses in consumer and commercial litigation.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0By Marc A. Starrett
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Marc A. Starrett is an assistant attorney general for the State of Alabama and represents the state in criminal appeals and habeas corpus in all state and federal courts. He is a graduate of the University of Alabama School of Law. Starrett served as staff attorney to justice Kenneth Ingram and justice Mark Kennedy on the Alabama Supreme Court, and was engaged in civil and criminal practice in Montgomery before appointment to the Office of the Attorney General. Among other cases for the office, Starrett successfully prosecuted Bobby Frank Cherry on appeal from his murder convictions for the 1963 bombing of Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0This is our annual "crunch" issue-where we try to cram into one issue [a] upcoming cases on the U.S. Supreme Court's docket for this coming October term, (b) significant decisions from the end of the U.S. Supreme Court's past October term and (c) the usual May uptick in the haul of decisions from the state courts. Since space is scarce, brevity is boss-and thoroughness (though not Paradise) lost.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Selected Upcoming Cases in the October 2013 United States Supreme Court Term
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Madigan v. Levin, No. 12-872: Whether state and local government employees may avoid the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act's comprehensive remedial regime by bringing age discrimination claims on Equal Protection grounds.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Atlantic Marine Constr. Co. v. USDC, No. 12-323: (1) Whether review of forum-selection clauses is limited to a discretionary, balancing-of-conveniences analysis under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a); and (2) whether district courts should allocate the burdens of proof among parties seeking to enforce or to avoid a forum-selection clause.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, No. 12-682: Whether a state violates the Equal Protection Clause by amending its constitution to prohibit race- and sex-based discrimination or preferential treatment in public-university admissions decisions.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Heimeshoff v. Hartford Life S. Ace. Ins. Co., No. 12-723: When should a statute of limitations accrue for judicial review of a disability adverse benefit determination under ERISA?
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0DaimlerChrysler AG v. Bauman, No. 11-965: Can a court exercise general personal jurisdiction over a foreign corporation based solely on the fact that an indirect corporate subsidiary performs services on behalf of the defendant in the forum state?
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Walden v. Flore, No. 12-574: (1) Whether due process permits a court to exercise personal jurisdiction over a defendant whose sole "contact" with the forum state is his knowledge that the plaintiff has connections to that state; and (2) whether the judicial district where the plaintiff suffered injury is a district "in which a substantial part of the events or omissions giving rise to the claim occurred" for purposes of establishing venue under 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b)(2) even if the defendant's alleged acts and omissions all occurred in another district.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Kansas v. Cheever, No. 12-609: Whether, when a criminal defendant affirmatively introduces expert testimony that he lacked the requisite mental state to commit capital murder of a law enforcement officer due to the alleged temporary and long-term effects of the defendant's methamphetamine use, the state violates the defendant's Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination by rebutting the defendant's mental state defense with evidence from a court-ordered mental evaluation of the defendant.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Fernandez v. California, No. 12-7S22: Whether a defendant must be personally present and objecting when police officers ask a co-tenant for consent to conduct a warrantless search or whether a defendant's previously stated objection, while physically present, to a warrantless search is a continuing assertion of Fourth Amendment rights which cannot be overridden by a co-tenant.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Mt. Holly v. Mt. Holly Gardens Citizens in Action, No. 11-1507: Whether disparate impact claims are cognizable under the Fair Housing Act.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Lexmark Int'l., Inc. v. Static Control Components, No. 12-373: Whether standing to assert a Lanham Act false advertising claims is determined by: (1) the multi-factor test as adopted by the Third, Fifth, Eighth and Eleventh circuits; [2] the categorical test, permitting suits only by an actual competitor, employed by the Seventh, Ninth and Tenth circuits; or (3) a version of the more expansive "reasonable interest" test, either as applied by the Sixth Circuit in this case or as applied by the Second Circuit in prior cases.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Sandifer v. U.S. Steel Corp., No. 12-417: What constitutes "changing clothes" within the meaning of Section 203(o) of the Fair Labor Standards Act?
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