The Supreme Court of the United States issued one decision today:

Luis v. United States, No. 14-419:  Petitioner Sila Luis was charged with various health care related crimes.  Pursuant to a federal statute that provides that courts may, before trial, freeze certain assets belonging to a criminal defendant accused of violations of federal health care or banking laws, including property “obtained as a result of” the crime, property “traceable” to the crime, and “property of equivalent value,” 18 U.S.C. §1345(a)(2), the Government obtained an order freezing Luis’s own untainted “property of equivalent value.”  Luis argued that the order violates her Sixth Amendment right to assistance of counsel, because the freezing of those funds prevented her from paying her lawyer.  The District Court found that there was no Sixth Amendment violation, and the Eleventh Circuit affirmed.  Today, the Court vacated and remanded in a plurality decision holding that Luis’s Sixth Amendment rights were violated. 

The Court's decision is available here

Yesterday afternoon, the Supreme Court issued an order in the birth control mandate cases: 

Zubik v. Burwell, No. 14-1418; Priests for Life v. Dept. of H&HS, 14-1453; Roman Catholic Archbishop v. Burwell, 14-1505; E. TX Baptist Univ. v. Burwell, 15-35; Little Sisters v. Burwell, 15-105; Southern Nazarene Univ. v. Burwell, 15-119; Geneva College v. Burwell, 15-191:  The Court directed the parties to file supplemental briefs that address whether and how contraceptive coverage may be obtained by petitioners’ employees through petitioners’ insurance companies, but in a way that does not require any involvement of petitioners beyond their own decision to provide health insurance without contraceptive coverage to their employees.