The Hidden Ideological Stakes of SCOTUS Patent Case

MICHAEL C. DORF

Cornell law professor Michael C. Dorf describes the ostensibly complex legal issues presented in United States v. Arthrex, Inc., in which the U.S. Supreme Court heard argument earlier this week, and explains how those issues reflect an ideological divide as to other, more accessible matters. Professor Dorf argues that although many conservatives would like to dismantle the modern administrative state, our complex modern society all but requires these government agencies, so conservatives instead seek to make them politically accountable through a Senate-confirmed officer answerable to the president, furthering the so-called unitary-executive theory of Article II.

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Hines v. Delaware

Docket: 562, 2019

Opinion Date: February 17, 2021

Judge: Karen L. Valihura

Areas of Law: Constitutional Law, Criminal Law

Walter Hines appealed his conviction and sentence for second-degree assault, possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony (“PDWDCF”), and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child (“EWC”). Hines’s issue on appeal related to an incident that occurred on September 27, 2018. At that time, Hines lived with Valeah Lewis, her mother Juliann Congo, and Lewis’s children D.L. and T.L. Michael Gibbs was Lewis’s ex-boyfriend and was D.L.’s father. As Lewis and Hines were leaving for work, Gibbs and his girlfriend, Putrice Barnes, arrived at the Lewis residence to pick up D.L. After a verbal exchange, Hines and Lewis drove a short way down the street then stopped. Barnes testified that she “flipped the bird” as Lewis drove past. Hines, Lewis, Barnes, and Gibbs all agree that an altercation ensued shortly thereafter, but their accounts differ regarding the key details. Lewis asserted that Gibbs swung a tire iron at Hines, while Hines asserted Gibbs did not take the tire iron from Barnes but instead tried to punch him. Both Hines and Lewis agreed Hines retrieved a baseball bat from the back seat and used it defensively against Gibbs in response to Barnes’s and Gibbs’s aggression. On appeal, Hines claimed the Superior Court committed plain error when it permitted the State’s final cross-examination question about his prior convictions for Possession with Intent to Deliver a Controlled Substance (“PWID”) and Possession of a Firearm by a Person Prohibited (“PFBPP”). Finding no reversible error, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed Hines' convictions.