Anita Alvarez, Cook County State'S Attorney v. Chermane Smith et al.

Decided December 8, 2009. Stephen Gerald Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 08-351 · 558 U.S. 87 (2009) · Cited 349 times

Holding

Disclosure orders adverse to the attorney-client privilege do not qualify for immediate appeal under the collateral order doctrine.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 8–1.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• U.S. Bancorp Mortgage Co. v. Bonner Mall Partnership · 513 U.S. 18 (1994)
• United States v. Munsingwear, Inc. · 340 U.S. 36 (1950)
• Preiser v. Newkirk · 422 U.S. 395 (1975)
• Mills v. Green · 159 U.S. 651 (1895)
• United States v. Von Neumann · 474 U.S. 242 (1986)
• City of Los Angeles v. Lyons · 461 U.S. 95 (1983)
• Aetna Life Insurance v. Haworth · 300 U.S. 227 (1937)
• Steffel v. Thompson · 415 U.S. 452 (1974)
• Lewis v. Continental Bank Corp. · 494 U.S. 472 (1990)
• United States Parole Commission v. Geraghty · 445 U.S. 388 (1980)
• Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division v. Craft · 436 U.S. 1 (1978)
• North Carolina v. Rice · 404 U.S. 244 (1971)
• United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co. · 200 U.S. 321 (1906)
• DeFunis v. Odegaard · 416 U.S. 312 (1974)
• Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. · 551 U.S. 449 (2007)
• United States v. Eight Thousand Eight Hundred & Fifty Dollars · 461 U.S. 555 (1983)
• United States v. Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien Gesellschaft · 239 U.S. 466 (1916)
• Izumi Seimitsu Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha v. U. S. Philips Corp. · 510 U.S. 27 (1993)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez · 577 U.S. 153 (2016)
• United States v. Sanchez-Gomez · 584 U.S. 381 (2018)
• Already, LLC v. Nike, Inc. · 568 U.S. 85 (2013)
• Culley v. Marshall · 601 U.S. 377 (2024)
• Acheson Hotels, LLC v. Laufer · 601 U.S. 1 (2023)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

Explore from here

Stephen Gerald Breyer’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2009). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).