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US Supreme Court grants cert on 3 cases

Via Scotusblog, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari on three cases this morning. In Arizona v. Gant the Court will consider the test for police authority to seach a car after an arrest and securing the scene. The issue presented is "Does the Fourth Amendment require law enforcement officers to demonstrate a threat to their safety or a need to preserve evidence related to the crime of arrest in order to justify a wwarrantless search incident to arrest conducted a vehicles's recent occupants have been arrested and secured?" In Chrones v. Pulido the Court will consider jury instructions, federal habeas relief and structural error. The question persented is "Did the Ninth Circuit fail to conform to "clearly established" Supreme Court law, as required by 28 USC 2254(d), when it granted habeas corpus relief by deeming an erroneous instruction on one of two alternative theories of guilt to be "structual error" requiring reversal because the jury might have relied on it?" In Carcieri v Kempthorne the Court will consider an issue on the government's power to take land for the benefit of Indian tribes which are not officially recognized...continue to full post

Full post as published by Harmful Error on February 25, 2008 (boomark / email).