Background: Steven Mathew Armstrong entered Accuracy Gun Shop in Las Vegas hoping to sell two firearms. A sales associate examining one of them, a Glock 30 handgun, saw that it carried an auto-sear—also called a switch. The device allows a semiautomatic pistol to fire more than one round from a single trigger function, converting it into…
Held: The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed most of the judgment but reversed the conviction for possessing a modified semiautomatic firearm. Justice Bell first concluded that Nevada’s machine-gun and auto-sear prohibitions violate neither the federal nor state constitution. Although the Glock and auto-sear are “arms,” their combination creates a machine gun: a weapon capable of firing multiple rounds through one trigger function.…
Background: In 2016, the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Magistrates' Court ordered the late Shmuel Ben David Hagai to vacate land in Tel Aviv after finding that he occupied it unlawfully. The judgment survived an appeal to the District Court and a request for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. When the Israel Land Authority began enforcement proceedings…
Held: Justice Ofer Grosskopf denied permission to appeal. Under Regulations 2(a) and 2(c) of the Courts Regulations (Fees), 2007, payment of the applicable court fee—or receipt of an exemption—is ordinarily a condition to the court's consideration of a proceeding. The Court recognized an exception when a fee-exemption application accompanies a request for interim relief and exceptional urgency or an immediate, substantial…
Background: William Lee Thompson was sentenced to death for the 1976 first-degree murder of Sally Ivester. After his original sentence was vacated, he was resentenced to death in 1989, and that sentence became final in 1993. He later pursued numerous state and federal challenges, including claims that he was intellectually disabled and therefore constitutionally ineligible for…
Held: The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the summary denial of postconviction relief. It held that Thompson’s clemency claim rested on the unsupported premise that due process required a new clemency proceeding tied specifically to his 1989 sentence. The record also showed that the governor considered and denied clemency in 2026. On the lethal-injection claim, the Court did not reach Thompson’s challenges…
Background: Peter and Kristin Taunton acquired the disputed property in 2008 and transferred it to Lakota Lakes, LLC, in 2009. After Lakota Lakes failed to pay its 2015 property taxes, Pennington County purchased the property at a tax sale and later assigned the tax certificate to Emily Bialota. Bialota served notice of her intent to take…
Held: The Supreme Court reversed. It held that SDCL chapter 21-42, including its provision allowing any defendant in an action under that chapter to redeem, did not govern Bialota’s suit. Chapter 21-42 supplies an alternative procedure that combines obtaining a tax deed with quieting title, but Bialota instead followed the two-step procedure of obtaining a tax deed under chapter 10-25 and…
Background: Vera Brummell, a longtime District of Columbia Department of Corrections employee, began receiving temporary total disability benefits after suffering an emotional breakdown attributed to workplace harassment and retaliation. When the District terminated those benefits in 2006, she applied for and began receiving federal Civil Service Retirement System benefits available to certain District employees hired before…
Held: The Court of Appeals first held that Brummell properly pursued her challenge before the Office of Administrative Hearings and the Compensation Review Board. Terminating an existing benefits award is a “modification” under the CMPA, triggering the statute’s administrative-review procedures, even though prior cases had placed claims for new or additional benefits outside that review route.
Background: The respondent, a sheet-music publisher, created and sold band scores by transcribing recordings into notation for vocals, guitars, keyboards, drums, and other parts. That transcription process required specialized training and substantial time, labor, and expense. The respondent produced scores for 579 songs, although those scores were not “works” protected under Article 2(1)(i) of Japan’s Copyright…
Held: The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the appeal and assessed appellate costs against the appellants. It reaffirmed that conduct equivalent to exploiting a work ordinarily does not constitute a tort when the material is outside Copyright Act protection, absent special circumstances involving infringement of a legally protected interest distinct from the interest in exploiting the material itself. Such circumstances can exist,…
Background: Anthony Nugent sold a gel blaster resembling a real pistol to Witness A for $22,000. Witness A was Mohamad Raad’s longtime friend, had known Tyrone Tuli for only a couple of months, and had never met Mohd Azlan Latham Aznan. Tuli and Latham Aznan helped broker the transaction and retained part of the purchase money…
Held: Hamill J found that Raad deliberately shot Nugent with an intention to kill. Raad was therefore the principal offender and bore the greatest objective criminality. The Court sentenced him to an effective term of 23 years and 3 months, with a non-parole period of 17 years and 6 months commencing on 2 August 2023.
Background: Mississippi-based AF, LLC, doing business as ACF Wholesale, sold furniture through an interactive website under the direction of its sole principal, Benjamin Chad Moody. Although the company had no physical presence in Michigan, it knowingly completed more than 1,000 deliveries to Michigan customers over several years. Beginning in 2020, it accepted payments from some Michigan…
Held: The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed. Reviewing personal jurisdiction anew, it held that Michigan’s long-arm statutes reached the defendants and that exercising jurisdiction satisfied due process. The defendants purposefully availed themselves of Michigan’s market by repeatedly accepting orders and payments from buyers whose Michigan delivery addresses they knew, arranging more than 1,000 deliveries into the state, and communicating with Michigan customers…
Background: Members of the Berkshire family sued Richard “Rick” Berkshire on behalf of themselves and Berkshire Partnership, LP. They alleged that while serving as managing partner, Rick failed to maintain and provide complete financial records, made or permitted unexplained transfers and withdrawals, used partnership assets improperly, and failed to account for partnership-related funds. Rick disputed the…
Held: The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed. It concluded that it had appellate jurisdiction and that the district court properly exercised subject-matter jurisdiction over the partnership dispute despite separate county-court proceedings involving a family trust. It also upheld the determination that Rick’s negative capital account eliminated his ownership interest in Berkshire Partnership.
Background: Independent Television News Limited and Guardian News & Media Limited investigated serious allegations concerning the claimant’s conduct over a period of years. After each organisation notified him of its proposed publication and invited a response, the claimant broadly denied the allegations and said that the prospect of publication caused a serious deterioration in his mental…
Held: Mr Justice Nicklin held that it was strictly necessary to keep the claimant anonymous as “PPT.” Publicly identifying him in connection with the proceedings would link him to the proposed publications, expose highly sensitive medical material, and risk undermining effective determination of his claim. The court prohibited publication of his identity, any assertion that a named person is PPT, and…
Background: A jury convicted Luis Rosas-Jose of first-degree burglary, eight counts of first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree unlawful sexual contact, and offensive touching arising from his assault of an eleven-year-old girl. Medical evidence documented significant injuries, vaginal and rectal swabs contained sperm cells matching Rosas-Jose’s DNA, and his fingerprints were found on tape that the…
Held: The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed. It rejected Rosas-Jose’s claim that trial counsel inadequately explained the victim’s medical records before he declined an offer to plead guilty to one count of first-degree rape. At the final case review, counsel stated that he had recommended accepting the offer, and the court confirmed that Rosas-Jose understood his potential sentencing exposure, had received the…
Background: X Internet Unlimited Company challenged four decisions made by Coimisiún na Meán on 2 October 2025 concerning complaints from users of the X platform. The complaints alleged various breaches of Articles 16, 17 and 20 of the EU Digital Services Act, which govern mechanisms for reporting illegal content, statements of reasons for platform restrictions and…
Held: Mr Justice Cian Ferriter rejected X’s general challenge to the four decisions. The Court held that section 201(4)(d) permitted the Commission to pass complaint information to its Supervisory Team for use in its broader supervisory functions. It also held that the relevant decision-making functions could lawfully be delegated under section 8 of the 2009 Act. The arrangements did not improperly…