Courts

A split U.S. Supreme Court held the EPA can’t impose limitations through “end-result” permit provisions on the amount of contaminated discharge that can go into waterways.

The state Supreme Court also ruled this week that a trial court has no freestanding authority to order discovery absent certain authorizations.

The appeals court held that a defendant didn’t have an unconditional right to cross-examine a witness when that witness was no longer on probation at the time of trial.

The high court held that a case voluntarily dismissed without prejudice under Rule 41(a) counts as a “final proceeding” under Rule 60(b).

The 10th Circuit concluded that under the circumstances in the case, which involved smoke and a fire, the officer’s lethal force was justified.

A divided Supreme Court found an independent investigation by law firm Reed Smith and the attorney general’s discovery that the prosecutor knowingly elicited false testimony and failed to correct it was enough to overturn the conviction and death sentence of Richard Glossip for directing the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese by Justin Sneed.

The Colorado Supreme Court overturned a split appellate decision that reinstated a group of CSU students’ unjust enrichment claims. It held that the claims for breach of contract and unjust enrichment were mutually exclusive in this case.

The high court ruled that for Section 1983 claims challenging delays in the administrative process, state courts can’t deny those claims on failure-to-exhaust grounds.

The Colorado Court of Appeals, in a case on remand from the Colorado Supreme Court, again reversed CGIA immunity for a police officer and a Colorado town.

Colorado’s presiding disciplinary judge suspended two attorneys Feb. 14 for dishonesty or fraud and misrepresentation.