Under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), a state crime cannot qualify as an ACCA predicate if its elements are broader than those of a listed generic offense.
E. Kagan
Heien v. North Carolina, No. 13-604, __ U.S. __ (Dec. 15, 2014).
An officer has the reasonable suspicion required by the Fourth Amendment for a traffic stop even if she is mistaken about the law she believes was violated, as long as her mistake of law is “objectively reasonable.”
Florida v. Harris, No. 11–817, __ U.S. __ (Feb. 19, 2013).
To determine if there is probable cause based on a drug dog alert, this decision establishes the Fourth Amendment analysis for when “a sniff is up to snuff.”
Chaidez v. United States, No. 11–820, __ U.S. __ (Feb. 20, 2013).
The Padilla v. Kentucky Sixth Amendment holding, requiring defense counsel to advise of risk of deportation entailed in a guilty plea, does not have retroactive application to convictions which became final prior to Padilla’s decision date (which was March 31, 2010).
Williams v. Illinois, No. 10-8505, __ U.S. __ (June 18, 2012).
Plurality opinion on whether Confrontation Clause permits the prosecution to introduce an analyst’s forensic report through an expert witness; plurality holds in this case Clause did not preclude an expert’s testimony that defendant’s DNA profile matched a vaginal swab semen DNA profile produced by a Cellmark analyst who did not testify.