Professor Brian Murchison reviewed the 2013-14 U.S. Supreme Court Term as guest of the Federal Bar Association chapter in Roanoke on August 21, 2014. This was Murchison’s third annual review for the FBA. Among the cases he discussed were: Kaley v. United States (rejecting, as destructive of grand jury independence, an indicted party’s challenge of a pre-trial order freezing assets for legal fees); Riley v. California (deciding that the Fourth Amendment requires police to obtain a warrant to search digital contents of cellphone seized incident to a lawful arrest); NLRB v. Noel Canning (finding that the President’s appointment of agency heads during a three-day Senate adjournment violated the Recess Appointments Clause); Town of Greece v. Galloway (rejecting Establishment Clause challenge to a town council’s practice of allowing sectarian prayer by clergy at the opening of council meetings); and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, Inc. (finding that HHS regulations imposing ACA’s contraceptive mandate on closely held corporate plaintiffs violated Religious Freedom Restoration Act).
