We just yesterday noted that the Supreme Court hadn’t filed an opinion since the end of August, and also why that gap wasn’t unusual. Well, the drought ends tomorrow when the court will decide three cases — Yahoo! Inc. v. National Union Fire Insurance Co., People v. Henderson, and People v. Miranda-Guerrero. (Briefs here (maybe); oral argument videos here, here, and here.) Three opinions in one day is a lot; it’s not unprecedented, but it is unusual.
These opinions will decide half of the court’s September calendar. Opinions in the other three September-argued cases should file by December 5.
In March 2019, the court agreed in Yahoo! to answer a Ninth Circuit question, which the court restated: “Does a commercial general liability insurance policy that provides coverage for personal injury, defined as injury arising out of oral or written publication, in any manner, of material that violates a person’s right of privacy, and that has been modified by endorsement with regard to advertising injuries, trigger the insurer’s duty to defend the insured against a claim that the insured violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (47 U.S.C. § 227) by sending unsolicited text message advertisements that did not reveal any private information?” Horvitz & Levy is counsel for the defendant.
In Henderson, the court limited the issue to, “Does the Three Strikes law (Pen. Code, §§ 667, subd. (c)(6) & (7), 1170.12, subd. (a)(6) & (7)) require consecutive terms on multiple current violent or serious felony convictions, regardless of whether the offenses occurred on the same occasion or arose from the same set of operative facts?” The court granted review in December 2020.
Miranda-Guerrero is an automatic direct appeal from an August 2003 judgment of death. The court’s website does not list issues for death penalty appeals. Counsel was appointed in December 2007. Briefing was completed in October 2015.
The opinions can be viewed tomorrow starting at 10:00 a.m.