After Seattle/Louisville: The Ball Is In Our Court
The following commentary is by Goodwin Liu, a law professor at UC Berkeley specializing in constitutional law, education policy, and the Supreme Court.
July 2007 Archive
Showing 1–50 of 93 items published in July 2007, most recent first.
Chief Justice leaves Maine hospital
Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., left a medical center in Rockport, Maine, at 1l:15 Tuesday morning, and returned to his summer home. An Associated Press online video showed the smiling Roberts walking at a rapid pace out of the Penobscot Bay Medical Center, waving once to onlookers, then getting into a sport utility vehicle.
Round-Up
The Washington Post has a particularly detailed article on Chief Justice John Roberts’ seizure yesterday, including information on his prior episode and interviews with neurologists.
Academic Round-Up
This week, I am back to posting primarily legal scholarship about the Supreme Court and the cases decided this past Term. As I think I have noted before, I sometimes post papers with which I disagree because I think they will be of interest to our readership.
This Week on the Blog
Tomorrow the Court is expected to issue its first orders of the summer. Among the matters that may be included are actions on rehearing petitions, perhaps including those in Hamdan v. Gates (No. 06-1169), a war crimes commission case, and Rita v. U.S. (No. 06-5754), a Sentencing Guidelines case.
Summer orders list released
UPDATE: The Orders Lists can be found here. The Supreme Court on Monday issued the first of its summer Orders Lists, consisting mainly of denials of rehearing. The only argued case denied rehearing was Schriro v. Landrigan (05-1575).
Court issues October argument calendar
The Supreme Court on Monday released the argument calendar for its opening sitting beginning on Oct. 1, the first day of the new Term. Several key cases among those granted review will be heard in this session — two Sentencing Guidelines cases, a major case on third-party liability for securities fraud, a significant test of presidential power in implementing treaties, and two election law cases.
Round-Up
A recent poll, conducted by the Washington Post and ABC News, finds that an increasing number of Americans believe that the Supreme Court has become “too conservative.” Read the Post article on the survey here and the ABC News story on it here.
Fourth Circuit acts in Al-Marri case
The Fourth Circuit Court on Monday ordered lawyers for Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri to respond by Aug. 15 to the Bush Administration’s request for en banc review of the Circuit Court ruling rejecting the President’s authority to order the capture and detention within the U.S. of a civilian foreign national.
Circuit Court bars detainee transfer
The D.C. Circuit Court on Monday afternoon temporarily blocked the federal government from transferring a Guantanamo Bay detainee to his home country, Algeria.
Chief Justice has seizure, falls; Court says he has recovered
UPDATE: At 6:40 p.m., the Supreme Court issued the following statement: “Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., took a fall about 2 p.m. today near his summer home in Maine after suffering what doctors describe as a benign idiopathic seizure. He experienced minor scrapes in the fall.
New wrangling over war crimes appeals court
Documents disclosed by the Pentagon on Friday brought further into the open a controversy over the authority of the judges on the new military appeals court that is preparing to review its first case in a war crimes prosecution.
Circuit Court recalls detainee cases mandates
The D.C. Circuit Court has put a stop to any further efforts to dismiss Guantanamo Bay detainees’ habeas cases in federal District Courts in Washington, recalling the mandates that would implement its Feb. 20 decision nullifying all detainee habeas rights.
A new “do-over” detainee case reaches Court
A detainee at the center of a sharp new controversy over Pentagon decisions seeking to justify holding Guatnanamo Bay prisoners has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court, asking for an “original” habeas writ.
Round-Up
Brent Kendall of the Daily Journal offers this article on Justice Thomas’ jurisprudence and his noteworthy opinions this term, highlighting the importance of history for Justice Thomas’ decisions.
Delay sought in first DTA case
Lawyers for a Guantanamo Bay detainee whose designation as an “enemy combatant” is the first to be reviewed by the D.C. Circuit Court asked that court on Thursday to delay the case and set a new briefing and argument schedule.
Round-Up
New York Times op-ed contributor Jean Edward Smith suggests to embattled liberals that perhaps the solution to the Supreme Court’s new political agenda is to resort to political measures and stack the Court.
Round-Up
Pamela A. MacLean reports here that, while speaking at the closing session of the Circuit’s conference in Honolulu, Justice Stevens called the 9th Circuit’s 90 percent reversal rate by the Supreme Court “misleading.” Here at Concurring Opinions, Daniel J. Solove continues the discussion on the
“Petitions to Watch” in OT06
We thought it would be useful to look back at the blog’s Petitions to Watch feature and corresponding “Conference Call” column for Legal Times. All of the petitions we featured – along with the several hundred cert. documents filed in many of the cases – can be found at this webpage.
Circuit puts Hamdan case on hold
The D.C. Circuit Court has put off any action on an appeal by detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan, until after the Supreme Court decides other Guantanamo prisoners’ cases next Term.
Dismissal of granted ERISA case urged
Attorneys for a nationwide management consulting firm involved in a case the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear at its next Term have urged the Justices to dismiss the case as moot.
Academic Round-Up
As promised, I have found some additional articles that should be of interest to some of our readers. This week the scholarship is a little heavy on the quantitative side, with a particular emphasis on some interesting work being done by political scientists.
Access to war crimes appeal documents
The Pentagon has just added a new online page to provide documents and materials from the new military appeals court that was created to hear appeals in war crimes cases before military commissions — the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review. Here is the link.
Round-Up
Paul E. Peterson offers these suggestions to Wall Street Journal readers about achieving the goal of integration in the wake of the Parents’ Involved decision (subscription req’d).
Hamdan case now ready
Lawyers for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, facing war crimes charges before a military commission, on Tuesday filed the concluding papers in his new appeal seeking to have the case reviewed along with next Term’s review of two other detainee cases.
The Republican (Not So) Short List
Following up on my two posts (here and here) about potential Democratic nominees, here is my list of the thirty leading candidates for a Republican President (and here it is as a sortable Excel file).
Round-Up
The most recent edition of the New Yorker features this commentary by Nicholas Lemann, in which he maintains that “the President has achieved one wholesale change that will likely endure for a generation: the construction of a distinctly right-wing Supreme Court.” Lemann then goes on to detail the history of desegregation in America, concluding with this term’s Parents Involved decision.
Government urges denial of Hamdan plea
The Justice Department on Friday urged the Supreme Court not to add any further cases or issues to its review of the legal rights of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Wider inquiry into detainee confinement ordered
FURTHER UPDATE Friday p.m. The Supreme Court has extended the time for filing opening briefs in the two detainee cases pending there, with detainees’ briefs due on Aug. 24 and the government brief due Oct. 9.
Round-Up
Justice Stevens spoke at the 9th Circuit Judicial Conference in Hawai’i yesterday. A Honolulu Advertiser article, found here, discusses the Justice’s relationship with the state and Hawai’i related Supreme Court cases during Justice Stevens’ tenure.
Military appeals court judges challenged
Defense lawyers for a young Canadian being detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have challenged the authority of a military appeals court to hear and decide military prosecutors’ plea to revive war crimes charges in the case.
UPDATE: City gets delay to file gun appeal
UPDATE Thursday a.m. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., on Wednesday gave the District of Columbia government an extension of time until Sept. 5 to file its appeal challenging an individual rights interpretation of the Second Amendment by the D.C. Circuit Court.
Academic Round-Up
The Virginia Law Review‘s online companion, In Brief, has two articles that will be of some interest to our readers (Hat Tip: Concurring Opinions): 1.
Round-Up
At FindLaw, here, Edward Lazarus assesses what the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections might mean for the make-up of the Supreme Court, arguing that “the Court is at a tipping point between a significant move rightward and a radical move rightward,” and, while a Democratic president probably wouldn’t have much of an effect on the Court’s current trajectory, a Republican most certainly would.
Boumediene order’s impact spreads
The Supreme Court’s surprise agreement on June 29 to rule again on the legal rights of detainees held by the U.S. military is having a widening impact, on Wednesday reaching a case involving a military prison run by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The case of Fadi Al Maqaleh v. Gates, et al.
Round-Up
Dahlia Lithwick at Slate decides here that she much prefers Justice Scalia’s “defiant public honesty” to silence, because if “some of the justices really are operating according to some broad ideological agenda,” then she would “rather hear the battle plans than not.” There are two pieces in the upcoming issue of The Nation that involve the school integration cases.
Opening brief in first DTA review
Lawyers for a Pakistani citizen who has a permanent U.S. resident visa but is now a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, has urged the D.C. Circuit Court either to order his unconditional release, or else probe deeply into the operation of the military program for keeping detainees in the military prison camp on Cuba.
UPDATE: FEC to write a “WRTL rule”
UPDATE Thursday p.m.
Changes to Rules adopted; now available
UPDATE 12:30 p.m. The Court has now posted the Rules as revised on its website, available at this link. The Order approving the new Rules can be found here, under Miscellaneous Orders for July 17. The Supreme Court on Tuesday adopted a revised version of its Rules, to take effect on Oct. 1.
D.C. begins its gun law appeal
The District of Columbia’s local government began pressing its case on gun ownership rights in the Supreme Court on Monday, arguing that the case is “uniquely important and complex” and raises “extraordinarily important issues.” Those assessments of the case were advanced as part of the city’s request for added time to file the petition for review.
What Comes After Ledbetter? An Update
The following is an expanded version of a piece written earlier for this blog. The author is Donald R. Livingston, a partner with Akin Gump. Prior to joining the firm, he was general counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Round-Up
At Slate, Cullen Seltzer writes this defense of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that its “extra-high rate of review and reversal by the Supreme Court” deserves a more complex explanation than just that it is “populated by a bunch of loose cannon, lefty judges.” Commentary on and criticism of the school integration decision continues.
Officials want Lynn school case kept closed
Massachusetts and local school officials on Tuesday urged a federal judge in Boston not to reopen a public school integration case involving Lynn, MA, arguing that the Supreme Court’s school decision on June 28 involved quite different race-based student assignment policies.
More on the Revised Rules
UPDATED 7/18/07 10:45 a.m. Although I indicated below (based on the “Revisions to Rules” issued yesterday) that the word limit for merits reply briefs is (as in the proposed revision) 6000 words, the complete version of the rules available on the Court’s website indicates that the word limit for merits reply briefs is in fact 7500 words.
Announcement on Second Amendment case
Top officials of the local government in Washington, D.C., have scheduled an announcement at 11 a.m. Monday on their decision about whether to appeal to the Supreme Court in a major test case on the meaning of the Constitution’s Second Amendment.
Second Amendment case headed to Court
UPDATE Tuesday a.m. Attorneys for the D.C. citizens who challenged the local handgun control law said Tuesday they will join in urging the Supreme Court to hear the city’s appeal. They will oppose an extension of time to file the city’s petition, however.
Rita, citing Libby order, seeks rehearing
A public defender in North Carolina, relying on President Bush’s clemency ruling in the CIA leak case, urged the Supreme Court on Monday to reconsider its June 21 ruling upholding the 33-month prison sentence of Victor A. Rita, Jr. (Rita v. U.S., docket 06-5754).
Round-Up
From the Congressional Quarterly, columnist Kenneth Jost has this commentary on the Supreme Court’s shift to the right. He discusses major decisions, particularly those that overturned precedent, and President Bush’s presidential legacy in connection to the Court’s shift.
More Interesting Tidbits About the Court (What do Rush Limbaugh and FDR’s Court Packing Plan Have in Common?)
While rifling through the papers of various Justices at the Library of Congress, I discovered two other interesting tidbits about the Court in addition to information about the Supreme Court Building I posted on Friday, see here.
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