Supreme Court Gives States the Green Light to Infringe Copyrights

MICHAEL C. DORF

Cornell law professor Michael C. Dorf comments on a recent decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that Congress lacked constitutional authority to enact the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act of 1990, which gives individuals the right to sue a state for damages for copyright infringement. Dorf describes the complexity of the Court’s sovereign immunity doctrine and points out the Court’s peculiar failure to simply invalidate a portion of the statute while severing and preserving the valid portions and/or applications of it—which the Court has done in some other cases.

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State v. Guzman

Citation: 305 Neb. 376

Opinion Date: March 27, 2020

Judge: William B. Cassel

Areas of Law: Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law

The Supreme Court vacated Defendant's sentence for witness tampering but otherwise affirmed Defendant's convictions and the sentence imposed for Defendant's sexual assault conviction, holding that Defendant's sentence for witness tampering should have been an indeterminate rather than a determinate sentence. Specifically, the Supreme Court held (1) the Court will not consider Defendant's assignment of error alleging ineffective assistance of counsel because Defendant failed to comply with this Court's pronouncement regarding the specificity required for assignments of error alleging ineffective assistance of counsel; (2) when a defendant challenges a sentence imposed by the district court as excessive and the State believes the sentence to be erroneous but has not complied with Neb. Rev. Stat. 29-2315.01 or 29-2321, the State may not assert such error via a cross-appeal; (3) the district court did not err in denying Defendant's motion to suppress, failing to grant his motion for mistrial based on prosecutorial misconduct, and failing to grant a directed verdict; (4) the sentence for the sexual assault conviction was not sentence; and (5) the trial court plainly erred by imposing a determinate sentence for witness tampering.

State v. Kelley

Citation: 305 Neb. 409

Opinion Date: March 27, 2020

Judge: Papik

Areas of Law: Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law

The Supreme Court dismissed Defendant's appeal of the denial of his plea in bar, holding that because Defendant's plea in bar did not present a colorable double jeopardy claim this Court lacked appellate jurisdiction. Defendant was charged with one count of first degree sexual assault and one count of third degree sexual assault of a child. The alleged victim of both crimes was T.K. Defendant filed a plea in bar asserting that he entered guilty pleas to certain criminal charges as part of an agreement in which the State agreed not to bring any charges alleging that he sexually assaulted T.K. Defendant argued that by filing criminal charges it had previously agreed not to bring the State violated his double jeopardy protections. The district court overruled the plea in bar. The Supreme Court dismissed Defendant's appeal for lack of jurisdiction, holding that Defendant did not present a colorable double jeopardy claim, and therefore, the order overruling his plea in bar was not a final, appealable order.

State v. Britt

Citation: 305 Neb. 363

Opinion Date: March 27, 2020

Judge: Lindsey Miller-Lerman

Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's convictions of three counts of first degree murder, three counts of use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony, and one count of possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person, holding that the district court did not err in its evidentiary rulings. On appeal, Defendant argued that the district court erred when it admitted crime scene and autopsy photographs over his objection and violated the Confrontation Clause of both the state and federal constitutions when it allowed the State to present its case at trial without the testimony of Anthony Davis, a separately tried alleged coconspirator. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) the trial court's admission of the photographs of the crime scene and autopsy was not unfairly prejudicial; and (2) the district court did not have an independent duty to call Davis to testify.

State v. Stabler

Citation: 305 Neb. 415

Opinion Date: March 27, 2020

Judge: Michael G. Heavican

Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant conviction of second degree assault and use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony and sentence of fifteen to twenty-five years' imprisonment, holding that the district court (1) did not err in not giving Defendant's requested limiting instruction regarding burden shifting; (2) did not err in finding that Defendant could not testify on direct examination as to the basis of his prior felony convictions; (3) did not err in declining to instruct the jury on the lesser-included offense of third degree assault; (4) finding that the evidence was sufficient to sustain Defendant's convictions; and (5) did not abuse its discretion in sentencing Defendant.