Showing 1–50 of 83 items published in September 2007, most recent first.
(NOTE TO READERS: The lower court decision discussed below, found by locating the opinion in 06-1760 at this link, contains explicit language that some readers will find not to their taste. The blog, in a gesture of modesty and delicacy, will avoid repeating those words, substituting a euphemism.)
No non-capital orders are expected to be issued today from the Court. The October Term 2007 is scheduled to begin Monday, Oct. 1. Bottom side briefs are due today in John R. Sand & Gravel Company v. United States (06-1164).
The hearing list, which lists counsel who will represent the parties at oral argument, can be found here.
In a highly unusual order, two judges of the D.C. Circuit Court appeared to have narrowed a major gun control ruling, and in doing so gave their view on a central argument the District of Columbia government has made in its Supreme Court appeal seeking to enforce its flat ban on handguns in Washington, D.C. The District does not ban rifles or shotguns.
Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the government may permit aliens who are otherwise eligible for deportation to instead depart the country voluntarily, often within a period of 60 days.
The following summary was written by Shannen Naegel, a tax associate at Akin Gump’s office in Washington, DC. The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider whether intent to make a return of capital is required for funds diverted and distributed to a shareholder of a corporation without earnings and profits to qualify as non-taxable return of capital in the context of a criminal trial for tax evasion.
No non-capital orders are expected to be issued today from the Court. The October Term 2007 is scheduled to begin Monday, Oct. 1.
Six years ago, in Buckman v. Plaintiffs’ Legal Committee, the Supreme Court held that state-law claims alleging that the manufacturer of orthopedic bone screws made fraudulent representations to the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) were impliedly preempted by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
Even before the Justices have decided whether to hear a case, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is willing to step in and state its interest—more willing, in fact, than any other organization.
Can the counsel for a federal criminal defendant waive that defendant’s constitutional right to have an Article III judge, or must the defendant himself explicitly agree? This is the question presented in Gonzalez v. United States, one of the seventeen new cases in which cert. was granted Tuesday.
The last two Round-Ups have only included articles that directly pertain to Tuesday’s grant announcements. Consequently, this one pulls together other Supreme Court news and commentary from the first half of the week. Talk about Jeffrey Toobin’s book only continues.
Update: Linked below are more articles published on two of the cases granted today. Tony Mauro has an “Online Extra” for the Legal Times that includes information on the consolidated Indiana Voter ID cases (Crawford v. Marion City Election Board and Indiana Democratic Party v. Rokita) and Baze v. Rees, which questions the constitutionality of execution by lethal injection.
No non-capital orders are expected to be issued today from the Court. The October Term 2007 is scheduled to begin Monday, Oct. 1.
David Savage and Henry Weinstein’s piece in the LA Times today focuses on the High Court’s decision to hear a challenge to the most common chemical combination used in lethal injections.
Seeking to head off another round in the lower courts before the dispute goes on to the Supreme Court, lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainees argued that the D.C. Circuit Court has no need to re-examine the procedures it has laid down for civilian review of the prisoners’ challenges to their long-term military captivity.
The Court is scheduled to release orders at 10 a.m. Eastern of cases granted at yesterday’s conference. We will provide coverage as soon as the list becomes available.
FINAL UPDATE 5:30 PM: All petitions and briefs in opposition have now been added. The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to add 17 new cases to its new Term’s decision docket, including a pair of appeals on the constitutionality of requiring voters to show a photo ID before they may vote (Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, 07-21, and Indiana Democratic Party v. Rokita, 07-25).
(ADDENDUM: It is sometimes suggested that the Court last examined the constitutionality of a method of execution in 1890, in the case of In re Kemmler, 11 years later than Wilkinson v. Utah. In the 1890 case, the Court found no constitutional violation in New York’s planned use of the electric chair to execute William Kemmler, a fruit peddler.in Buffalo. He was the first individual electrocuted in the U.S. The Court’s opinion did not deal with the issue under the Eighth Amendment, as in Wilkinson
Voting will be under way in the 2008 primary elections when the Supreme Court considers and decides a pair of cases granted review on Monday, but the general election will still be in the offing, and the political world will maintain a longer-term interest in the outcome.
The first edition of the StatPack for OT07 is now available here, and it is updated with information about all the cases set for argument so far this Term, including today’s 17 grants that emerged from the Long Conference.
Some 216 years after the Fourth Amendment was written into the Constitution, a new issue over its meaning is now before the Supreme Court. In criminal law, few Amendments have as much nuance in their acquired meaning, with refinement upon refinement in arrest, search and seizure powers coming often, seemingly with each new Term of the Court.
Argument Preview By Amy Howe Does the term “proceeds” in 18 U.S.C. 1956(a)(1), which prohibits money laundering, refer to the gross receipts of illegal activity or only the profits of that activity?
Argument Preview By Lauren Beck Watson v. United States, No. 06-571, presents the question whether receipt of an unloaded firearm as payment for drugs constitutes “use” of a firearm during and in relation to a drug offense.
A series of panels are scheduled in Washington this week to preview the Court’s upcoming term. This morning, Georgetown University Law Center held a press briefing that featured professors Neal Katyal, Donald Langevoort, Randy Barnett, David Vladeck and Richard Lazarus.
The Court today will hold the traditional September “long” conference, at which the Justices will consider the hundreds of cert petitions filed over the summer.
The local government of Washington, D.C., on Monday urged the D.C. Circuit Court not to “interfere” with the Supreme Court’s coming action on the city’s gun control law, arguing that an existing order temporarily allowing enforcement of that law should be left intact.
A special military appeals court ruled on Monday that judges who preside over “military commissions” have the power to decide on their own who is an “unlawful enemy combatant” and thus can be tried on charges of war crimes.
Argument Preview By Scott Street In New York State Board of Elections v. Lopez Torres, the Supreme Court will determine whether a state violates the First Amendment rights of voters and candidates when it requires judicial candidates to seek their party’s nomination through a delegate-based convention system dominated by party leaders.
UPDATE: The petition in Geren v. Omar has now been docketed as 07-394. The Bush Administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to return to an issue with constitutional overtones that it has not confronted in nearly six decades: the authority of U.S. courts to hear legal challenges by individuals held abroad in U.S. military custody.
This is the third post previewing petitions for certiorari to be considered at the Justices’ Long Conference on Monday, September 24. Each was also listed in the Petitions to Watch post here.
Argument Preview By Dan Geldon In Washington State Grange v. Washington Republican Party and Washington v. Washington Republican Party – two consolidated cases involving the same set of facts and issues – the Supreme Court is set to consider the extent to which states can regulate primary elections without infringing on the associational rights of political parties.
Argument Preview By Chastity E. Bedonie Background Congress enacted the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”) “to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education” (“FAPE”).
Argument Preview In Gall v. United States, the Supreme Court again returns to the question of federal judges’ authority to decide the punishment for convicted criminals under the Sentencing Guidelines crafted by the United States Sentencing Commission.
Argument Preview By Lyle Denniston In Kimbrough v. United States, the Supreme Court will consider the authority of federal judges to impose a criminal sentence for a cocaine crime below the 100-to-1 ratio of “crack” to powder cocaine.
The Bush Administration’s effort to revive war crimes charges against two Guantanamo Bay detainees remained intact after the new military appeals court refused to dismiss the appeal.
Brian Galle (Florida State University College of Law) and Ethan Yale (Georgetown University Law Center) have posted an essay on SSRN entitled “Can Discriminatory State Taxation of Municipal Bonds Be Justified? Thoughts on the Davis Topside Briefs,” see here.
Continuing the popular feature from last year, SCOTUSblog will present “petitions to watch” in advance of the Justices’ private Conferences during the upcoming Term.
Our latest effort to feature interesting cert. petitions pending at the Supreme Court is Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Albany, et al. v. Dinallo (No. 06-1550), which the Court will consider at its September 24 conference.
Sunday’s New York Times magazine features a cover story by Jeffrey Rosen on Justice Stevens entitled, “The Dissenter.” It includes a long personal biography, some of the Justice’s thoughts on his colleagues, and his reflections on controversial decisions, like Roe v. Wade.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., will participate in the Supreme Court’s consideration of the major securities law case that is scheduled for argument on Oct. 9 — Stoneridge Investment v. Scientific-Atlanta (06-43), the Court disclosed Thursday.
Jeffrey Toobin, author of recently released book The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, asked that we post the following correction. One of the frustrations of writing a book, as opposed to a magazine article, is the inability to make corrections in a timely way.
The D.C. Circuit Court on Thursday ordered lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainees to react to the Justice Department’s request that the full court reconsider the July 20 decision spelling out how the first civilian court review of detention rulings will be performed.
Today marks the second and final installment of our interview with Jeffrey Toobin, author of The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. To read Part 1 of the interview, click here.
Richard Hasen, of Election Law Blog, contributes an op-ed for the Washington Post today, urging the Supreme Court to grant cert in a case challenging a new Indiana law that requires voters to show photo ID at the polls.
Today marks the release of Jeffrey Toobin’s much anticipated book, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. Toobin — a New Yorker staff writer and CNN legal analyst — agreed to answer questions about the book, and Part I of the interview is below. Check back tomorrow for Part 2.
The U.S. Judicial Conference, policymaking arm of the federal courts, voted on Tuesday to make transcripts of U.S. District Court and federal bankruptcy courts proceedings available online — after a 90-day delay.
Following the completion of the 2006 Term, liberal advocacy groups raised alarm about conservative rulings from the Supreme Court (see here and here for two examples).
The wave of book reviews and commentary on Jeffrey Toobin’s new book, The Nine, continues. NPR’s Nina Totenberg had this positive review on Friday, while David Garrow, reviewer for the LA Times, had a different assessment of the work. Here, Time magazine published an interview with Toobin.
On Tuesday, the blog will post the first installment of its Q&A with Jeffrey Toobin, author of The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. No top side briefs are due this week.
The President today announced that Peter Keisler, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, will be Acting Attorney General until the Senate confirms Judge Mukasey. According to the President, this is in order to allow Paul Clement to concentrate on his duties as Solicitor General.