Supreme Court dismisses Microsoft search case
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has dismissed a dispute between the Trump administration and Microsoft over emails the government wanted as part of a drug trafficking investigation.
The justices on Tuesday agreed with both the administration and Microsoft that last month’s passage of the Cloud Act as part of a spending bill resolves the dispute and makes the court’s intervention unnecessary.
The legislation updated a 32-year-old law that governs how authorities can get electronic communications held by technology companies. The issue was whether Microsoft had to turn over emails that were stored on its server in Ireland.
The Cloud Act makes clear that the government can obtain the emails.
The court says in an unsigned opinion that “no live dispute remains between the parties.”
Supreme Court strikes down as vague part of immigration law
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Tuesday that part of a federal law that makes it easier to deport immigrants who have been convicted of crimes is too vague to be enforced.
The court’s 5-4 decision concerns a provision of immigration law that defines a “crime of violence.” Conviction for a crime of violence subjects an immigrant to deportation and usually speeds up the process.
A federal appeals court in San Francisco previously struck down the provision as too vague, and on Monday the Supreme Court agreed. The appeals court based its ruling on a 2015 Supreme Court decision that struck down a similarly worded part of another federal law that imposes longer prison sentences on repeat criminals.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the 20015 decision “tells us how to resolve this case.”
The decision is a loss for President Donald Trump’s administration which, like President Barack Obama’s administration before it, had defended the provision at issue before the Supreme Court. And it comes amid an ongoing focus on immigration by Trump.
The case the high court ruled in involves James Dimaya, a native of the Philippines who came to the United States legally as a 13-year-old in 1992. After he pleaded no contest to two charges of burglary in California, the government began deportation proceedings against him. The government argued among other things that he could be removed from the country because his convictions qualified as crimes of violence that allowed his removal under immigration law.
The case was initially argued in January of 2017 by a court that was short a member because the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat had not yet been filled. An eight member court didn’t decide the issue, presumably because the justices were deadlocked 4-4. After Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the court, the justices heard the case re-argued. Gorsuch joined the court’s more liberal justices in finding the clause too vague.
The case is Sessions v. Dimaya, 15-1498.
Supreme Court says Sotomayor breaks shoulder in fall
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says Justice Sonia Sotomayor broke her left shoulder in a fall at her Washington home.
The court says the 63-year-old Sotomayor will wear a sling for several weeks and undergo physical therapy. She is not expected to miss any time on the bench. The justices are hearing arguments this week and next.
The court says the fall occurred Monday morning and that a doctor confirmed the break in the afternoon. Sotomayor was in court Monday and did not appear to be in pain.
In January, emergency medical personnel treated her at home for symptoms of low blood sugar. Sotomayor is diabetic.
