These are the opinons of the Tennessee Criminal Court of Appeals for the 3rd Quarter of 2009.

The United States Supreme Court released these opinions on June 25, 2009.  The first opinion is about the 13 year old stripped searched by her shool; the Court held the search was unconstitutional.

Opinions from the United States Supreme Court from June 8-June 18 2009.  The syllabus is word searchable and the opinions are in PDF format.

Reporting from Washington -- The Supreme Court said Thursday that DNA possesses a unique ability to free the innocent and convict the guilty, but the justices nonetheless ruled that prisoners do not have a constitutional right to demand DNA testing of evidence that remains in police files.

With workplace age-discrimination claims rising rapidly, the Supreme Court made it much harder Thursday for older workers to win in court.

The 5-4 decision reversed a long-standing rule. Many federal appellate courts had decided that if a worker could show age was one of the factors in a layoff or demotion, then the employer was required to prove it had a legitimate reason for its action apart from age.

After consulting with petitioners, respondents Wayne Carlisle, James Bushman, and Gary Strassel used a shelter to minimize taxes from the sale of their company. Limited liability corporations created by Carlisle, Bushman, and Strassel (also respondents) entered into investment-management agreements with Bricolage Capital, LLC, that provided for arbitration of disputes. After the Internal Revenue Service found the tax shelter illegal, respondents filed a diversity suit against petitioners. Claiming that equitable estoppel required respondents to arbitrate their claims per the agreements with Bricolage, petitioners invoked §3 of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), 9 U. S. C. §3, which entitles litigants to stay an action that is "referable to arbitration under an agreement in writing." Section 16(a)(1)(A) of the FAA allows an appeal from "an order ... refusing a stay of any action under section 3." The District Court denied petitioners' stay motions, and the Sixth Circuit dismissed their interlocutory appeal for want of jurisdiction.