The U.S. Supreme Court granted review in five cases. The orders list can be found here. The Court granted certiorari in four cases, and agreed to hear an appeal from Citizens United in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (08-205). Filings in each of the cases can be found at SCOTUSblog. One of the more interesting grants, Yeager v. United States, raises the issue of "Whether, under the Double Jeopardy Clause, the government may retry defendants acquitted of some charges on factually related counts on which the jury failed to reach a verdict." A gut reaction to this question is "Yes." But in this case, Yeager is claiming that collateral estoppel precludes relitigation of the facts common to his acquitted counts (conspiracy, securities fraud, and wire fraud charges) and the counts to which the jury could not decide (insider trading and companion money laundering charges). The decision could address the applicability of Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436 (1970), and whether the preclusive effects of collateral estoppel have any bearing in cases where it is unclear that the jury acquitted because of facts that would bar a retrial.

Two other federal criminal cases were granted on defendant's petitions: (1) Abuelhawa v. U.S. on using a cell phone to buy drugs, oddly punished much more severely than just buying drugs, and (2) Dean v. U.S. on the continuing theme of what it means to use a gun in committing a crime, in this case whether an accidental discharge constitutes firing the gun.