This Week at the Supreme Court

The Court resumes its duties this week in the absence of Justice Scalia, whose place at the bench will be draped with black per tradition.
The cases before the Court this morning are Kingdomware Technologies v. United States, which is about a mandatory set-aside for Department of Veterans Affairs contracts to veteran-owned small businesses, and Utah v. Strieff, which concerns the scope of the exclusionary rule when evidence is obtained pursuant to a valid warrant, but that warrant was discovered after an unlawful stop.

Tuesday the Court hears Taylor v. United States, involving a rare Hobbs Act prosecution and its jurisdictional hook, namely, whether “an inherent economic enterprise” can satisfy the interstate commerce requirement. After that the Court turns to patent infringement in Halo Electronics v. Pulse Electronics and Stryker Corp. v. Zimmer.
On Wednesday, the Court turns to more Federal Energy Regulatory Commission cases about pre-emption. The Court will return next week for the final arguments in the February sitting.