SCOPAblog

In this month's podcast episode, Corrie interviews fellow appellate attorney Teri B. Himebaugh to discuss Commonwealth v. Shaw, in which SCOPA held that petitioners pursuant to the PCRA may assert claims of ineffective assistance of their appellate counsel for the first time on appeal. Listen, share, and subscribe to The Standard of Review by visiting our podcast website. 

This month the Court issued X precedential opinions and Y grants of allocatur. On the opinion side, two cases this month, Reid and Flor, demonstrate an important feature/bug of the Court's jurisprudence.  In Pennsylvania, appeals in criminal cases generally are taken first to the Superior Court,...

In this month's podcast episode, Corrie interviews fellow appellate attorneys Dan McLane and Tom Sanchez  of Eckert Seamans to discuss Pittsburgh Logistics Sys., Inc. v. Beemac Trucking, LLC, a case in which the Court held unanimously that the Restatement test for no-hire/no-poach provisions ancillary to a services contract between two business entities governs in Pennsylvania and finding the subject no-hire/no-poach provision to be unenforceable.

This month, the Court issued 10 precedential opinions and 11 grants of allocatur. On the opinion side, I'm most interested in Howard, in which the Court's ostensible question is whether a parent's mere failure to put a child in a car-seat in a car-for-hire constitutes the criminal offense of end...

In this month's podcast episode, Corrie interviews fellow appellate attorney Nathan Murawsky of Hamburg, Rubin, Mullin, Maxwell & Lupin, PC to discuss Wise v. Huntingdon Cnty. Housing Dev. Corp., a case involving statutory sovereign immunity, and an exception thereto for injuries resulting from dangerous conditions of the Commonwealth's real estate.  In Wise, the Court at long last reassesses and rejects some of the more bizarre distinctions in this area of the law.

This month, the Court issued X precedential opinions and Y grants of allocatur. On the opinion side, . . . On the allocatur side, . . .      Precedential Opinions Commonwealth v. Fitzpatrick, 6 MAP 2020 (Opinion by Wecht, J.) (holding homicide victim's statements as to who would kill her were...

In this month's podcast episode, Corrie interviews fellow appellate attorney Aaron Marcus of the Defender Association of Philadelphia to discuss Commonwealth v. Alexander, in which SCOPA held that the Pennsylvania Constitution provides motorists greater privacy rights than the federal Constitution, requiring any search of an automobile in Pennsylvania be supported not only by probable cause, as the federal Constitution requires, but also by exigent circumstances that make it impracticable to obtain a warrant. Their invigorating discussion delves into the privacy protection distinctions between the US and PA Constitutions, how bootlegging is responsible for current vehicle search precedent, and when stare decisis factors into a court's decision.

This month, the Court issued 4 precedential opinions and 5 grants of allocatur. On the opinion side, the far-and-away headline-grabbing case is Cosby, in which the Court held that convicted sexual offender Bill Cosby was entitled to enforcement of former Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce...

In this month's podcast episode, Corrie talks with York County Appellate Public Defender Brian McNeil about recently decided Commonwealth v. Peck, wherein the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania addressed the issue of whether the Commonwealth can prosecute defendants for drug delivery resulting in death where the alleged delivery occurs outside Pennsylvania.  Although that issue is a pretty narrow one, Brian and Corrie's discussion expanded to a far more universal one about statutory interpretation and the difference between political and judicial conservative ideology that frequent appellate advocates would do well to consider in forming their own arguments.

This month, the Court issued 2 opinions and 5 allocatur grants. On the opinion side, . . .  On the allocatur side . . .  Precedential Opinions In re: B.W., 14 WAP 2020 (Opinion by Mundy, J.) (holding that where an involuntary mental health commitment is predicated on threats of harm and acts ...

Just in time for Election Day, we are releasing Episode 3 of our podcast. Pennsylvania election law expert Adam C. Bonin graciously joined Corrie to discuss the election law cases surrounding last year's general election, including In Re: Canvass of Absentee and Mail-In Ballots of November 3, 20...

This month, the Court issued X precedential opinions and 7 orders granting allocatur. On the opinion side, the Court On the allocatur side, the Court Precedential Opinion In re: Nomination Petitions of Major, 15 EAP 2021 (Opinion by Dougherty, J.) (holding See also Concurring Opinion b...

We're excited to release the 2nd episode of the Standard of Review. Corrie connected with Charlie Kelly and Mike Joyce of Saul Ewing's Pittsburgh office and discussed their years-long travails to vindicate a Uniontown Newspaper journalist's right to receive all responsive records pursuant to a R...

This month, the Court issued 11 precedential opinions and 7 orders granting allocatur. On the opinion side, the Court had something of a row in Mason, which involved the question of whether an in-house childcare worker had a reasonable expectation of privacy in her charge's bedroom such that the...

We would like to present the first episode of The Standard of Review. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court issues many decisions that are intellectually interesting, or practically impactful, but which aren't really covered in an accessible way. In an effort to address this issue, we have created this...

This month, the Court issued 2 precedential opinions and 5 orders granting allocatur. On the opinion side, Gregg is a shockwave in Pennsylvania consumer protection law. For decades, both federal and state courts have struggled with how to properly interpret a 1996 amendment to the “catchall prov...

This month, the Court issued 7 precedential opinions and 9 orders granting allocatur. Fresh off a November-December season in which it decided numerous, high-controversy, high-stakes election cases, the Court's January docket appears much more languorous. On the opinion side, the Court's decisio...

This month, the Court issued 12 precedential opinions and 7 orders granting allocatur. On the opinion side, perhaps the most widely applicable case is Alexander, which holds that all warrantless automobile searches in Pennsylvania must be supported by both probable cause and exigent circumstances...

This month, the Court issued 5 precedential opinions and 7 orders granting allocatur. On the opinion side, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the Court's difficult and expeditious work to provide clarity to Pennsylvania election law amidst circumstances that might otherwise have sparked a...

This month, the Court issued 13 precedential opinions (linked below) and 2 orders granting allocatur. On the opinion side, the Court's decisions in Small and Chmiel are boons for criminal defense attorneys. In Small, the Court abrogated the presumption that petitioners for relief pursuant to the ...

This month, the Court issued 4 precedential opinions (linked below) and 6 orders granting allocatur. On the opinion side, two big elections cases this month. In Pennsylvania Democratic Party,the Court faced several questions concerning the Commonwealth's new no-excuse mail-in (or hand-in) voting ...

This month, the Court issued 5 precedential opinions (linked below) and 9 orders granting allocatur. On the opinion side, there is nothing particularly earth-shattering, but a special complement of the Court in Reid reiterated that a new judicial decision does not, in and of itself, allow similar...

This month, the Court issued 17 precedential opinions (linked below) and 2 orders granting allocatur. On the opinion side, the most headline-grabbing case is Wolf, in which the Court granted the Governor's request to declare the General Assembly's legislative veto of his coronavirus-related emerg...

This month, the Court issued 11 precedential opinions (linked below) and 10 orders granting allocatur. On the opinion side, the most striking case is Torsilleri, in which the Court appears to be continuing its recent course of holding legislative enactments up to stringent constitutional review. ...

This month, the Court issued 7 precedential opinions (linked below) and 2 orders granting allocatur. On the opinion side, two items of note for the appellate practitioner, and both tend to point toward the Court's increasing comfort with limiting prudential doctrines that, depending on your point...