The Supreme Court of the United States announced a decision in one case today:

McBurney v. Young, No. 12-17: Petitioners, who were citizens of Rhode Island and California, filed records requests under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which provides that “all public records shall be open to inspection and copying by any citizens of the Commonwealth,” Va. Code Ann. § 2.2-3704(A), but extends no such right to non-Virginians. When their request was denied, petitioners filed a Section 1983 suit alleging that the Virginia FOIA violated the Privileges and Immunities Clause and the dormant Commerce Clause. The District Court granted summary judgment against the petitioners, and the Fourth Circuit affirmed. Today, the Court affirmed, holding that because Virginia’s citizens-only FOIA provision neither abridges any of petitioners’ fundamental privileges and immunities nor impermissibly regulates commerce, petitioners’ constitutional claims fail.

The Court's decision is available here.

The Supreme Court also issued a per curiam opinion today ordering that the writ of certiorari in Boyer v. Louisiana, No. 11-9953 is dismissed as improvidently granted.

The Court’s opinion is available here.

The Court also granted review today in one case:

Burrage v. United States, No. 12-7515: (1) Whether the crime of distribution of drugs causing death under 21 U.S.C. § 841 is a strict liability crime, without a foreseeability or proximate cause requirement. (2) Whether a person can be convicted for distribution of heroin causing death utilizing jury instructions which allow a conviction when the heroin that was distributed "contributed to," death by "mixed drug intoxication," but was not the sole cause of death of person.