Showing 1–50 of 93 items published in October 2008, most recent first.
The Justices are scheduled to hold a private conference this morning, orders from which are expected to be released on Monday. To view our list of petitions to watch at today’s conference, click here. No oral arguments are scheduled and no non-capital orders are expected to be released today.
UPDATE 12:31 p.m. Washington attorney Theodore B. Olson will argue first on Monday afternoon in the case discussed below. The parties notified the Supreme Court on Friday that they had agreed that Olson would represent the governor, the state and the town of Charlestown.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., has refused a request by the C-SPAN cable and radio network to release on Tuesday the audiotape of the Court’s oral argument that morning in Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations (07-582).
No oral arguments are scheduled and no non-capital orders are expected to be released today from the Court. Arguments are next scheduled for November 3.
Unless Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., intervenes, some of the argument in the Supreme Court chamber next Tuesday morning may sound at times like a typical conversation in a seventh grade boys’ restroom — the uninhibited use of four-letter words.
This edition of “Petitions to Watch” features cases up for consideration at the Justices’ private conference on November 14. As always, the list contains the petitions on the Court’s paid docket that Tom has deemed to have a reasonable chance of being granted.
A military commission at Guantanamo Bay refused on Wednesday to reconsider the sentence it imposed on a Yemeni national, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, after his conviction in August.
No oral arguments are scheduled and no non-capital orders are expected to be released today from the Court. Arguments are next scheduled for November 3.
At 1 p.m. next Monday, an attorney will step to the Supreme Court’s podium to open the argument in a case pitting the rights of states against the rights of Indian tribes and the power of the federal government.
No oral arguments are scheduled and no non-capital orders are expected to be released today from the Court. Arguments are next scheduled for November 3.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered lawyers to file new briefs by Nov. 10 on a new issue in a pending case testing a divorced spouse’s right to the other spouse’s pension benefits.
No oral arguments are scheduled and no non-capital orders are expected to be released today from the Court. Arguments are next scheduled for November 3.
UPDATE 7:35 p.m. On Monday afternoon, Judge Leon put his order in memorandum form, and it was published. It can be found here.
According to sources in the Justice Department, Solicitor General Greg Garre has named Darryl Joseffer as his Principal Deputy. Joseffer argued three cases last term — on the merits in Logan v. United States (06-6911), and as amicus supporting petitioners in Warner-Lambert v. Kent (06-1498) and Meacham v. Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (06-1505).
The following column by Akin Gump associate Troy D. Cahill, featuring a selected petition up for consideration at the Justices’ conference on October 31, appears in today’s edition of Legal Times (available to subscribers here).
No oral arguments are scheduled and no non-capital orders are expected to be issued from the Court this week. On Monday at 10:30 a.m., U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon is expected to announce his decision on how to define “enemy combatant” for purposes of the Guantanamo Bay habeas cases pending in his Court.
No oral arguments are scheduled and no non-capital orders are expected to be released today from the Court. Arguments are next scheduled for November 3.
Trying to head off a government move to shut down one layer of civilian court review of military detentions, lawyers for a group of Guantanamo Bay prisoners argued Thursday night that the D.C. Circuit Court has no authority to scuttle that option.
A group of former federal judges and ex-officials of the Justice Department have urged the Supreme Court to take action that would channel prosecution of terrorists into the regular civilian courts, arguing that they are fully up to the task.
UPDATED 4:40 p.m. with filing of new U.S. brief (see below) Over two judges’ dissents, the en banc D.C. Circuit Court refused on Friday to review a three-judge panel’s order postponing until at least late November any transfer of 17 Guantanamo Bay detainees to the U.S. The order denying rehearing en banc before the 10-judge Court noted only the dissents of Circuit Judges Janice Rogers Brown and Judith W. Rogers.
No oral arguments are scheduled and no non-capital orders are expected to be released today from the Court. Arguments are next scheduled for November 3.
This edition of “Petitions to Watch” features cases up for consideration at the Justices’ private conference on November 7. As always, the list contains the petitions on the Court’s paid docket that Tom has deemed to have a reasonable chance of being granted.
Scott Street, an associate in Akin Gump’s LA office, offers the following commentary on the oral argument in Pearson v. Callahan (07-751). When it heard oral argument in Pearson v. Callahan last week, the Supreme Court wrestled – as it has done often in recent years – with a potentially enormous expansion to the list of circumstances that justify an exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement.
No oral arguments are scheduled and no non-capital orders are expected to be released today from the Court. The next arguments are scheduled for November 3.
In a hearing that could have major consequences for the government’s entire program of indefinitely detaining terrorism suspects, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon on Thursday confronts the outwardly simple issue of who qualifies as an enemy — specifically, an “enemy combatant.” Only if a prisoner is so designated can the government continue to keep that individual in prolonged custody.
The papers of the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist have been donated by his family to the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University. A news release by the Hoover Institution said that the collection “includes case-related materials, speeches, personal correspondence, drafts and notes on the many books he authored, and in-chambers correspondence among the justices.
No oral arguments are scheduled and no non-capital orders are expected to be released today from the Court.
In a split decision, the D.C. Circuit Court on Monday evening barred — until at least late November — the transfer of 17 Guantanamo Bay detainees to the U.S., where they were to be released.
Saying they fear at least another year in confinement for Guantanamo Bay detainees who are no longer being treated as enemies, lawyers for 17 Chinese Muslim prisoners asked the D.C. Circuit Court on Tuesday to move rapidly before the full ten-judge Court to review the detainees’ plea for release
At 10 a.m., the Court is expected to release orders from the Justices’ private conference last Friday. We will provide a link to the orders list as soon as it is available.
Today’s orders list is now available here. The Court granted certiorari in one case, Flores-Figueroa v. United States (08-108). Justice Stevens issued a statement respecting the denial of certiorari in Walker v. Georgia (08-5385), a capital case (available here).
The Supreme Court, in the only new grant on Monday, agreed to spell out the proof that federal prosecutors must offer in order to obtain a more severe punishment for criminal identity theft under a 2004 law. The granted case is Flores-Figueroa v. U.S. (08-108).
No oral arguments are scheduled at the Supreme Court this week. On Monday, the Court is expected to release orders from the Justices’ private conference last Friday. To view our list of petitions to watch from the conference, click here.
Anticipating an imminent new test of the constitutional right the Supreme Court has recognized for Guantanamo Bay detainees, the Justice Department and Pentagon are seeking to keep a Yemeni national, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, in captivity at Guantanamo Bay long after his war crimes sentence is scheduled to end.
The Justices are scheduled to hold a private conference at 10 a.m., orders from which are expected to be released the following Monday. To view our list of petitions to watch at today’s conference, click here.
The Supreme Court on Friday lifted a federal judge’s order that would have required Ohio election officials to set up new procedures to verify voter registration across the state in the weeks before the Nov. 4 balloting. The unsigned (“Per Curiam”) order is here.
This edition of “Petitions to Watch” features cases up for consideration at the Justices’ private conference on October 31. As always, the list contains the petitions on the Court’s paid docket that Tom has deemed to have a reasonable chance of being granted.
No oral arguments are scheduled and no non-capital orders are expected to be issued today at the Court.
Following up on Lyle’s series of posts on the Uighur detainee case being litigated this week in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, I have a new post up on Balkinization discussing the Department of Justice’s principal argument that compliance with the district court’s order “could pose a threat to the public at large.”
NOTE: Updated 9:40 p.m. with link to one more brief Ohio’s top election official has asked the Supreme Court to put on hold a federal judge’s order requiring steps to verify the voter registration rolls across the state, arguing that the order had “destabilized” the election situation just three weeks before voters go to the polls.
The Justice Department, in a new plea Thursday for the courts to keep 17 Guantanamo Bay prisoners out of the country, said that those detainees pose a risk “distinct to this Nation” — the fact that the U.S. is the country that has been holding them captive for six years.
At 10 a.m, the Court will hear argument in Waddington v. Sarausad (07-772), on whether, during habeas review, federal courts must accept state court determinations that jury instructions correctly explain state law regarding accomplice liability.
Analysis With Justice Stephen G. Breyer waging, seemingly alone, a rearguard effort to limit juries’ fact-finding role in determining criminal sentences, the Supreme Court on Tuesday displayed a strong inclination to stay on course in the eight-year effort to add to the jury’s power.
The transcript of today’s argument in Waddington v. Sarausad (07-772) is now available here. The transcript of today’s argument in Hedgpeth v. Pulido (07-544) is now available here.
At 10 a.m., the Court will release orders from the Justices’ private conference last Friday. We will link to the orders list as soon as it is available.
Today’s orders list is now available here. The Court granted certiorari in one case — Carlsbad Technology, Inc. v. HIF Bio, Inc. (07-1437) — filings for which are available after the jump. The per curiam opinion in Moore v. United States (07-10689) is available here.
UPDATED 12:42 p.m. Refusing to decide whether the death penalty is barred for an individual with a strong claim of innocence, the Supreme Court on Tuesday turned aside the appeal of Georgia death-row inmate Troy Anthony Davis.
The transcript of today’s argument in Bartlett v. Strickland (07-689) is now available here. The transcript of today’s argument in Pearson v. Callahan (07-751) is now available here. The transcript of today’s argument in Oregon v. Ice (07-901) is now available here.
Analysis If a legal formula on drawing new election districts to try to help minority voters has worked for more than 20 years, as the federal government insists, the Supreme Court might not have any interest in replacing it unless there were a clear and better alternative.
Lawyers for 17 detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay argued in a new court filing Tuesday afternoon that the government gave up its chance to show that the men would be dangerous if brought into the U.S., and cannot now try to use new and unsupported claims to keep them from coming.