Punch and Jurists

U.S. v. Williams, No. 90-1972 (U.S. Supreme Court) (504 U.S. 36; 112 S.Ct. 1735) (May 4, 1992) (Justice Scalia) by In this case a divided Court held that the courts' supervisory powers over the grand jury did not include the power to make a rule allowing the dismissal of an …

Bank of Nova Scotia v. U.S., No. 87-578 (U.S. Supreme Court) (487 U.S. 250; 108 S.Ct. 2369) (June 22, 1988) (Justice Kennedy) by This issue presented in this case was whether a district court may invoke its supervisory power to dismiss an indictment for prosecutorial misconduct in a grand jury …

U.S. v. Mechanik, No. 84-1640 (U.S. Supreme Court) (475 U.S. 66; 106 S.Ct. 938) (February 25, 1986) (Justice Rehnquist) by Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(d) states that only specified persons including "the witness under examination" may be present at a grand jury proceeding. In these consolidated cases, two Government …

Costello v. U.S., No. 72 (U.S. Supreme Court) (350 U.S. 359; 76 S.Ct. 406) (March 5, 2056) (Justice Black) by The sole issue before the Court in this case was "May a defendant be required to stand trial and a conviction be sustained where only hearsay evidence was presented to …

U.S. v. Strouse, No. 00-20558 (5th Cir.) (286 F.3d 767) (March 20, 2002) (Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham) by Back in 1988, a swat team from the Houston Police Department (HPD) staked out an apartment where an informant was attempting to sell some drugs to a purported drug dealer in a …

U.S. v. Hasting, No. 81-1463 (U.S. Supreme Court) (461 U.S. 499; 103 S.Ct. 1974) (May 23, 1983) (Justice Burger) by The Court stated that federal courts "may, within limits, formulate procedural rules not specifically required by the Constitution or the Congress. The purposes underlying use of the supervisory powers are …

U.S. v. Bryant, No. 95-3148 (D.C. Cir.) (117 F.3d 1464) (July 8, 1997) (Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson) by This is one of those bizarre cases that raises some troubling questions about the political realities of the courts' oft-invoked and much-vaunted supervisory powers. Here, two of the three judges acknowledged that …