SCOPAblog

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...

This month, the Court issued 12 precedential opinions (linked below) and 6 orders granting allocatur. On the opinion side, the most topical decision is Friends of Danny Devito (no, not that Danny Devito; this one is a Republican candidate for state representative in Allegheny County). In that cas...

This month, the Court issued 5 precedential opinions (linked below) and 6 orders granting allocatur. Two observations of note this month. First, it is notable that 3 of the 11 items below deal with child sexual abuse, with two opinions coming down on the side of robust investigation and monitorin...

This month, the Court issued 8 precedential opinions (linked below) and 7 orders granting allocatur. On the opinion side, the most newsworthy case is probably Briggs. In Briggs, the Court rejected an attempt by an fracking company (and an onslaught of fracking industry amici) to transform the co...

This month, the Court issued 4 precedential opinions (linked below) and 5 orders granting allocatur. On the opinion side, although Baldwin will likely be the most media-covered case issued this month (because it is tangentially related to the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal), this auth...

This month, the Court issued 2 precedential opinions (linked below) and 5 orders granting allocatur (or its equivalent). On the opinion side, the more salient of the two is clearly Weeks, which held that the Commonwealth Court did not abuse its discretion in failing to preliminarily enjoin the e...

This month, the Court issued 12 precedential opinions (linked below) and 7 orders granting allocatur. On the opinion side, the court is continuing its course of protecting (or arguably expanding) the rights of civil plaintiffs and criminal defendants against corporate and governmental institution...

This month, the Court issued 9 precedential opinions (linked below) and 4 orders granting allocatur. On the opinion side, it is a good month to be a plaintiff's medical malpractice attorney, as the Court's decision in Yanakos has opened up a whole new population of potential clients by declaring ...