Background: The Wyoming Supreme Court upheld the state’s 96-day deadline for voters to declare or change a political-party affiliation before a primary election. The challenged statutes, Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§ 22-3-115, 22-5-212, and 22-5-214, prevent already registered voters from changing or declaring a party after the first day candidates may file for party nomination. Before the…
Held: The Court nevertheless declined to apply strict scrutiny automatically to every election regulation affecting that fundamental right. Reading the Constitution as a whole, it harmonized the voter protections in article 1, section 27 with article 6, section 13, which directs the legislature to secure election purity and guard against abuse of the franchise. The resulting Wyoming approach balances the burden…
Background: Ebboni Gaspard received Section 8 housing assistance through the Monroe County Housing Authority. During her initial application and annual recertifications, she did not disclose that she owned and operated a soap and gift business. A housing authority employee discovered the business after calling Gaspard and hearing its name in her voicemail greeting. Gaspard then supplied…
Held: The Supreme Court unanimously reversed the Superior Court and vacated the theft-by-deception conviction. Justice Christine Donohue explained that pecuniary significance demands proof that the falsehood had a financial consequence in the transaction. The Commonwealth had to establish that Gaspard would not have received the same housing benefit but for her omission. It did not satisfy that element merely by showing…
Background: Kenjuan McDaniel’s case arose from a 2018 shooting at the Boulevard Mall in Las Vegas. He pleaded guilty in 2022 to attempted murder, discharging a firearm, and possessing a firearm as a prohibited person. The district court imposed five years of probation and suspended an 8-to-20-year prison sentence. Conditions barred alcohol, drugs, and firearms and…
Held: The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed the revocation but rejected the district court’s threshold analysis. Justice Pickering held as a matter of first impression that NRS 176A.510 and NRS 176A.630 apply to any sentence imposed on or after July 1, 2020, even if the underlying crime occurred earlier. The statutes govern administration of probation, not the conduct constituting the original offense.…
Background: Navatek Capital Inc. transferred a 99% interest in Navatek LLC’s future profits and losses to Martin Kao, who became the company’s sole manager. After Kao fraudulently obtained more than $12.8 million in federal Paycheck Protection Program funds and transferred approximately $2 million to himself, federal authorities charged him with fraud and money laundering. Navatek Capital…
Held: The Supreme Court held that “sufficient cause for postponement” under HRS § 658A-23(a)(3) means “good cause.” It rejected the federal Keating test because Hawaiʻi’s Constitution provides more protection against self-incrimination than the federal Constitution. Hawaiʻi courts considering whether to stay a civil proceeding because of actual or anticipated criminal charges must instead assess: whether the constitutional risk is concrete and…
Background: Michael Snyder suffered permanent, disabling injuries after a catheter placed during major surgery at Virginia Mason Medical Center entered an artery, causing a massive hemorrhage and prolonged cardiac arrest. Snyder sued Virginia Mason and the lead surgeon but did not sue three other physicians involved in the procedure—Drs. Molly Downey, Weslee Chew, and Nathan Aranson—who…
Held: The Washington Supreme Court held that Virginia Mason violated Loudon by engaging in ex parte communications with Snyder’s nonparty treating physicians. Neither the hospital’s continuing contractual duties to defend and indemnify its former employees nor the common-interest doctrine brought the communications within the limited exception permitting corporate counsel to speak privately with current employees or their functional equivalents. The physicians…
Background: Aryeh Amidror served as the Gaza Division’s intelligence officer during the October 7 attacks. In related administrative proceedings, senior Israel Defense Forces officials sought to terminate his military-service commitment based on an alleged professional failure. The Tel Aviv–Jaffa District Court, sitting as a Court for Administrative Affairs, ruled on September 7, 2026, that his name…
Held: Supreme Court President Yitzhak Amit dismissed the appeal and dissolved the stay of the District Court’s decision, making Amidror’s name and identifying details publishable immediately. The Court applied the presumption of administrative regularity, finding no basis to doubt that the state had presented the position of the competent security authorities. Counsel for the relevant military respondent also confirmed that the…
Background: The applicants challenged An Coimisiún Pleanála’s permission for Uisce Éireann to construct a foul pumping station, wastewater treatment plant and associated works at Kilkee, County Clare. In the principal judgment, the High Court upheld the permission. The project was intended to address Kilkee’s lack of wastewater-treatment infrastructure and the continuing discharge of untreated wastewater, including…
Held: Humphreys J dismissed the application for leave to appeal. The first proposed question misrepresented the principal judgment and did not properly arise: the applicants had not been barred from advancing their interpretation of the regulations, and the court had considered and rejected that argument. The judgment had instead applied the settled principle that the legality of an administrative decision is…
Background: Natalie Ayers owns Industrial Electrical Services, Inc., which purchased a commercial automobile policy from Travelers Casualty Insurance Company. For an additional premium, the company obtained a “Drive Other Car Coverage—Broadened Coverage for Named Individuals” endorsement. The endorsement’s schedule identified Ayers and extended underinsured motorist coverage to scheduled individuals and their family members in specified circumstances…
Held: The Delaware Supreme Court first held that the endorsement unambiguously excluded UIM coverage when a scheduled individual occupied a vehicle owned by that individual or a family member. It rejected Ayers’s competing interpretation because it would leave the phrase “while occupying” without a corresponding description of the vehicle. The endorsement also contained no business-use restriction, so the court declined to…
Background: Omar A. Euceda pleaded guilty in 2014 to second-degree murder and attempted robbery arising from a failed 2003 robbery in which he fatally shot a drug dealer. Euceda, who was twenty-three at the time of the offenses, received twenty-four years in prison followed by five years of supervised release.
Held: The D.C. Court of Appeals affirmed. It held that a movant’s age at the time of the offense must always weigh in favor of IRAA relief, although the weight may vary depending on the person’s age and individualized circumstances. The court described age as a “one-way ratchet” and instructed trial courts to explain the weight assigned to it. Although the…
Background: Quandray J. Nelson was retried on rape and sexual-abuse charges after an earlier appeal. During jury deliberations, at least three jurors encountered Nelson in a courthouse hallway wearing jail clothing, handcuffs, ankle restraints, and a belly chain. Nelson told trial counsel when proceedings resumed, and counsel apparently spoke with deputies, the judge, and the prosecutor,…
Held: The Oregon Supreme Court held that counsel failed to exercise reasonable professional skill and judgment under Article I, section 11, of the Oregon Constitution. Although no Oregon appellate decision had addressed these exact circumstances, the established law governing visible in-court shackling and the principles underlying it gave counsel colorable grounds for a mistrial. Given the facts found by the post-conviction…
Background: Ryan M. Elseman was convicted of first-degree murder and use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony after the State alleged that he and others attempted to rob Kristopher Winters and that Elseman shot Winters. Drake Northrop was the only witness who testified that Elseman was the shooter. Elseman received life imprisonment plus 25…
Held: The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed the denial of a hearing on the juror-related claims. The voir dire record did not establish that the juror was biased or unequivocally unable to be impartial, so Elseman could not show prejudice from counsel’s failure to strike the juror or preserve and appeal the challenge for cause. His stand-alone trial-error claim was procedurally barred…
Background: After water damage affected a studio they owned, Mr. [U] and Mrs. [Q] sued the condominium syndicate for their building and the syndicate for a neighboring building before the Grenoble Judicial Court. The neighboring syndicate brought into the case its property manager, Foncière étoile, and the condominium insurer, Groupama; Groupama Rhône-Alpes later intervened voluntarily.
Held: The Court of Cassation quashed the appellate judgment in full. Under Articles 2, 3, 383(2), and 386 of the Code of Civil Procedure, a step interrupts the two-year lapse period when it is an initiative taken by a party, useful in the course of the proceedings, and manifests that party’s intention to obtain resolution of the dispute. Whether those conditions…