AI-measured from their own opinions — each lever cites its cases
PurposivismTextualism
In Liberty Loan Corporation v. United States the court parsed Section 482 of the Internal Revenue Code literally, rejecting the IRS imputation of interest because no actual taxable income had been realized under the group borrowing arrangement. LIBERTY LOAN CORPORATION v. Unit… ↗
Deference to government powerSkepticism of government power
The court rejected the IRS reallocation in Liberty Loan and found unconstitutional conditions in the St. Louis City Jail in Johnson v. Lark, demonstrating consistent unwillingness to defer to government actors when evidence showed overreach or inadequate justification. LIBERTY LOAN CORPORATION v. Unit… ↗ Johnson v. Lark ↗
The case was a diversity action in which Ranger Insurance Company sought a declaratory judgment that it owed no coverage or defense under an aircraft liability policy for the death of passenger Coleen Loafman in a crash piloted by insured Victor J. Koenig, because an exclusion barred claims for bodily injury to an employee of the insured engaged in employment duties or obligations under workers' compensation law. The court found that Loafman was an employee of Koenig Chevrolet Company but that the Sunday evening flight to Kirksville to negotiate the purchase of another dealership was not in the course of her employment, given the time, place, and circumstances and her ordinary duties as office manager. Accordingly, the exclusion did not apply, and the insurer remained obligated to defend and indemnify the estate up to policy limits in the related wrongful-death suit. The court entered judgment for the defendants on the coverage issue.
In Hernon v. Revere Copper & Brass, Inc., plaintiff Frederick Hernon, a business consultant and executive involved with International Aluminum, Ltd., sued defendant Revere Copper & Brass for malicious prosecution of a New Jersey civil action seeking injunctive relief and replevin of materials, which Hernon claimed was filed maliciously to disrupt his business relationships. A jury awarded Hernon $550,000 in actual damages and $75,000 in punitive damages. The district court granted the defendant's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict under Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(b), holding that the evidence was insufficient to establish lack of probable cause because Revere had relied on counsel's advice after full disclosure of material facts, and that the evidence did not support the damages awarded. The court alternatively granted a new trial if the judgment were reversed, due to jury confusion over individual versus corporate injuries and excessive verdict size.
This case was a class action civil rights suit brought by federal prisoners held in the St. Louis City Jail under a contract with the Bureau of Prisons, challenging conditions including overcrowding, sanitation, medical care, discipline, mail and visitation rules, food, and access to counsel as violations of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. The court found that overcrowding in small cells, inadequate medical staffing and treatment, and certain disciplinary practices constituted cruel and unusual punishment, while rejecting claims for equal protection violations and Sixth Amendment deprivations; it denied monetary damages but ordered declaratory and injunctive relief requiring improvements in medical care, cell occupancy limits, and related procedures. The ruling was limited to conditions affecting federal prisoners during the relevant period and relied on trial evidence, stipulations, and expert testimony establishing that the practices fell below constitutional minimums without extending to a full review of all jail operations.
This case involves Marie Landess's challenge to the denial of her application for disabled widow's insurance benefits under the Social Security Act by the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. The plaintiff claimed her impairments met the regulatory standards for disability, but the agency found otherwise after reviewing medical evidence. The court reviewed the administrative record and determined that the Secretary's decision was supported by substantial evidence, including medical opinions concluding that her conditions were not equivalent to listed impairments. Accordingly, the court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendant and affirmed the denial of benefits.
Andrew Novak, Jr., a state prisoner convicted of second degree burglary and stealing, petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus claiming that police officers lacked probable cause to arrest him when they entered his apartment, leading to the discovery of incriminating evidence. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri reviewed the facts as established by the state courts and considered whether the arrest violated constitutional standards. The court concluded that the officers had probable cause based on observations of suspicious nighttime activity involving boxes from a recently burglarized store, the suspects' flight, wet footprints leading to Novak's apartment, and his evasive actions upon seeing the officers. Therefore, the petition was denied and the action dismissed.
In this habeas corpus case, prisoner Sammie Preston Irby sought free certified copies of certain exhibits and Missouri Supreme Court opinions under 28 U.S.C. § 2250 to prepare a reply addressing whether he had exhausted state remedies in challenging the use of prior convictions (allegedly obtained without counsel) to enhance his sentence under Missouri's habitual offender law. The court noted the statute's requirement for a showing of need and the judge's discretion in granting such requests. It granted copies of the relevant briefs and a transcript from prior state proceedings because they bore directly on the exhaustion issue, but denied copies of documents Irby already possessed or that were not on file with the clerk, and also denied requests for published opinions not maintained in the clerk's office.