Anthony Kennedy

eBay v. MercExchange: Supreme Court Limits Automatic Patent Injunctions, Enabling Patent Troll Business Model to Flourish

| Importance: 8/10

The Supreme Court unanimously rules in eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C. (547 U.S. 388) that patent injunctions are not automatic upon finding infringement, requiring plaintiffs to meet a four-factor equitable test: (1) irreparable injury, (2) inadequate legal remedies, (3) balance of hardships, and …

Supreme Court Clarence Thomas Anthony Kennedy eBay MercExchange intellectual-property patent-abuse supreme-court patent-trolls judicial-capture +1 more
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Supreme Court Protects Cheney Energy Task Force Secrecy

| Importance: 9/10

In Cheney v. United States District Court, the Supreme Court rules 7-2 to protect the secrecy of Vice President Cheney’s Energy Task Force meetings with oil executives. The Court vacates a lower court order requiring disclosure of task force participants and documents, ruling that federal …

Dick Cheney Supreme Court Anthony Kennedy Antonin Scalia Ruth Bader Ginsburg +3 more supreme-court executive-privilege cheney energy-task-force secrecy +2 more
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Supreme Court Delivers Partisan Bush v. Gore Decision with Corporate Legal Team Involvement

| Importance: 9/10

The Supreme Court issued a controversial 5-4 decision in Bush v. Gore that effectively awarded Florida’s 25 electoral votes to Republican candidate George W. Bush, ensuring his victory over Al Gore. The unsigned per curiam decision reversed a Florida Supreme Court request for a selective …

George W. Bush Al Gore William Rehnquist Sandra Day O'Connor Clarence Thomas +4 more judicial-capture supreme-court corporate-influence election-interference conflict-of-interest +1 more
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Supreme Court Grants Bush Emergency Stay with Scalia's "Irreparable Harm" Logic

| Importance: 9/10

The Supreme Court grants George W. Bush’s request for an emergency stay to halt the Florida recount, with Justice Antonin Scalia arguing that counting votes would cause Bush “irreparable harm” by casting “a needless and unjustified cloud” over his legitimacy. This …

Antonin Scalia Supreme Court Conservative Majority William Rehnquist Clarence Thomas Sandra Day O'Connor +1 more supreme-court-stay antonin-scalia irreparable-harm judicial-partisanship vote-counting-suppression +1 more
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Senate Rejects Robert Bork Supreme Court Nomination 42-58, First Ideological Rejection in Nearly a Century

| Importance: 9/10

The United States Senate rejected President Reagan’s nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court by a vote of 42-58 on October 23, 1987, marking the first time in nearly a century that the Senate rejected a Supreme Court nominee primarily on the basis of ideology rather than qualifications …

Robert Bork Ronald Reagan Edward Kennedy Lewis Powell Anthony Kennedy +4 more supreme-court judicial-capture federalist-society conservative-movement antitrust-abandonment +3 more
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