Yes
I just read the court judgment in EMI v. Promise Media from 13th August. I'm very, very pleased because finally a court in the US has ruled that unlicensed sampling can be protected as fair use. Of course, this is still state-based rather than federal, but it's nice to see that the Supreme Court of New York has managed to reach a sensible verdict, and it's even nicer to see that everything I've been writing about has finally come true :D