Showing 1–50 of 56 items published in September 2015, most recent first.
Court-related news today focuses on criminal cases and the death penalty in particular. Bloomberg BNA’s Kimberly Robinson interviews John Elwood (video) about the Court’s criminal docket for the upcoming Term, from the death penalty to juvenile sentencing.
Ruling that the Supreme Court has not settled the issue, and setting the stage for the Court to do so, a federal appeals court declared on Wednesday that the main college sports organization’s total ban on any pay for students who play football or basketball at major schools is illegal under federal antitrust law.
UPDATED 5:22 p.m. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin on Wednesday afternoon postponed the execution of Richard Glossip, to provide time to determine the adequacy of the new drug execution protocol the state has adopted. A new execution date was set for November 6.
Legal scholars have a lot to say about Montgomery v. Louisiana, a case that could be mistaken for a particularly devious hypothetical on a federal courts exam.
Court-related news and commentary focus on the tenure of Chief Justice John Roberts, who took his seat on the Court ten years ago today.
“The Court is a place of great responsibility. It is a temple of truth.
Briefly: In the Los Angeles Times, David Savage reports that Chief Justice John Roberts “finds himself in the crosshairs of right-leaning pundits and GOP presidential hopefuls who brand him a disappointment and openly question his conservative credentials because of the one case of the six in which
The first Monday in October will bring the Justices a refreshing gem of a case in Hawkins v. Community Bank of Raymore. Herein nothing of same-sex marriage, capital punishment, affirmative action, or the like.
The Supreme Court on Monday afternoon told lawyers involved in a new case on the constitutionality of a congressional election district in Virginia to file new briefs on whether the case can go forward in the Court.
In its “Long Conference” of September 28, 2015, the Court will consider petitions seeking review of issues such as whether the standard for liability under a gifting theory should be changed; whether the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) applies outside U.S. borders; and
Arguing that millions of elderly and disabled individuals who need health care and other help in their homes will not be able to afford it, the home care industry urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to overturn new government rules that will raise the pay and limit the hours of domestic workers.
Pope Francis’s visit to the United States once again dominates Court-related news.
A Guantanamo Bay war crimes case that has seemed destined for the Supreme Court throughout the seven years since a terrorism propagandist was convicted will be expanded as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit examines the prosecution all over again.
In its “Long Conference” of September 28, 2015, the Court will consider petitions seeking review of issues such as whether briefly retaining a citizen’s ID to check its validity and for warrants transforms an otherwise lawful encounter into an unlawful seizure under the Fourth Amendment; whether
Briefly: In The National Law Journal (subscription or registration required), Tony Mauro reports on the Justices’ plans to participate in events surrounding Pope Francis’s visit to Washington.
On Monday, the Justices met for the “Long Conference” – their first Conference since the end of June, at which they considered roughly two thousand petitions for review.
Briefly: In his column for Bloomberg View, Noah Feldman discusses recent criticism of Chief Justice John Roberts by Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz; Feldman contends that “Cruz’s repudiation of Roberts, a fellow product of the conservative legal establishment, is just the latest
In its “Long Conference” of September 28, 2015, the Court will consider petitions seeking review of issues such as whether state law may nullify the federal “patient safety work product” privilege; whether an officer who fired his service rifle at a vehicle involved in a high-speed chase acted
Much has been written about Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court and a pivotal Justice on hot-button issues – including by O’Connor herself in not one but two memoirs.
Briefly: Lawrence Hurley of Reuters reports that, although some saw last Term’s “unusual showdown” over Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol as a “sign the court might soon take up the bigger question of the constitutionality of the death penalty itself,” “more recent signals from the court suggest
In The National Law Journal (subscription or registration required), Tony Mauro reports that the Court “has emerged as a political flashpoint, with candidates from both parties attacking justices and pledging to use ‘litmus tests’ to ensure ideological discipline in their future nominees.” In a
Last June, the Supreme Court’s Term ended not with the same-sex marriage opinions (announced three days earlier), but rather with Justice Stephen Breyer’s surprising and comprehensive opinion (joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg) in Glossip v. Gross, which announced that both Justices now
High-tech giant Apple, Inc., told the Supreme Court this week that it will ask the Justices to overturn a federal appeals court ruling that it had engaged in illegal “marketplace vigilantism” in mounting a challenge to Amazon’s domination of the e-book trade.
Enhancing the likelihood that the Supreme Court will soon take up the legality of the Affordable Care Act’s birth control mandate, a federal appeals court on Thursday differed with six others and temporarily barred the government from enforcing the mandate.
Briefly: The Constitutional Accountability Center wraps up its series on the Roberts Court with a post from Brianne Gorod, who notes that “John Roberts is a very conservative Justice, one who votes to move the law sharply to the right far more often than not” and looks ahead to “identify a few
This summer’s spate of events kicked off abroad, with Justice Antonin Scalia receiving the inaugural Margaret Thatcher Rule of Law Award from the Margaret Thatcher Centre in London on July 3. Both Scalia and Justice Anthony Kennedy spent part of their July teaching classes in Europe.
September is a traditionally busy month for the Justices’ speaking engagements, as they return from vacation and gear up for a new Term. On September 2, Justice Elena Kagan participated in a panel of Supreme Court Justices at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem alongside former president and Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court Dorit Beinisch and Supreme Court of Canada Justice Rosalie Abella.
Briefly: In the wake of Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis’s refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, Linda Greenhouse contends in her column for The New York Times that, although the Roberts Court “has tilted quite far in the direction of free exercise,” “if history is any guide, a
“We are trying to take more cases,” Justice Stephen Breyer announced last night, and he gave reason to believe that the Justices will soon do just that, thereby reversing the recent trend of a shrinking docket.
Briefly: In Slate, Dahlia Lithwick looks at “feeder judges” – the judges on the federal courts of appeals who frequently send their law clerks to clerk at the Supreme Court.
Justice Stephen Breyer continues to be in the news as he promotes his new book on U.S. courts and foreign law. At the Blog of Legal Times (subscription or registration required), Tony Mauro covers Breyer’s appearance on Stephen Colbert’s new late-night show, reporting that the two sparred over cameras at the Court.
Cass Sunstein, Constitutional Personae: Heroes, Soldiers, Minimalists and Mutes, Oxford University Press (New York: 2015), 192 pp. (cloth), $24.95 Supreme Court commentators have found many different ways to analyze and describe the Court and the Justices, from labeling ideology and methodology to counting laugh lines at oral argument and evaluating opinion-writing reliance on the rhetoric in briefs.
The Supreme Court’s decision to grant or deny a petition for a writ of certiorari, like a jury’s decision to convict or acquit a criminal defendant, takes place in a black box. No one but the Justices and their clerks know the reasons that explain particular grants and denials.
Justice Stephen Breyer is in the news as he promotes his new book on U.S. courts and foreign law. Tony Mauro interviewed Breyer for The National Law Journal (subscription or registration required) and summarizes that interview in another article for the NLJ (same).
The Supreme Court on Monday added fifteen minutes to the argument schedule for its hearing October 13 on Montgomery v. Louisiana, a case that could decide which juveniles convicted of murder can take advantage of a 2012 decision limiting sentences of life without parole for minors.
Andrew M. Grossman practices appellate litigation in the Washington, D.C., office of Baker & Hostetler LLP, and Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute, where Mr. Grossman is an adjunct scholar.
Melissa Hart is Professor of Law and Director of the Byron R. White Center for the Study of Constitutional Law at Colorado Law, University of Colorado Boulder.
As Lyle reported yesterday for this blog, a federal district judge in Washington, D.C., “has cleared the way for a lawsuit by the House of Representatives claiming that the Obama administration is spending billions of dollars on the new health care program without Congress’s permission to do so.”
John Paul Schnapper-Casteras is Special Counsel for Appellate and Supreme Court Advocacy at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Washington, DC.
Briefly: In the Supreme Court Brief (subscription required), Tony Mauro reports that, over their summer recess, the Justices “fanned out across the globe,” with their public appearances “yield[ing] new insights into their personalities and the workings of the court.” At the Civil Procedure and
Breaking new constitutional ground with a ruling that will be tested in higher courts, a federal trial judge in Washington, D.C., has cleared the way for a lawsuit by the House of Representatives claiming that the Obama administration is spending billions of dollars on the new health care program without Congress’s permission to do so.
Richard Sander is Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. Why did the Supreme Court decide to take Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin back for a second look? One intriguing possibility can be inferred from Joan Biskupic’s 2014 biography of Sonia Sotomayor.
Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, who had spent several days in jail after she continued to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples even after the Supreme Court declined to stay a federal judge’s ruling ordering her to do so, was released yesterday.
The Court on Wednesday released the argument calendar for the sitting that begins Monday, November 2 — the second session of the new Term. There are no afternoon arguments, and no arguments on Wednesday, November 11, because of the Veterans Day legal holiday.
Last week a federal district judge in Kentucky sent county clerk Kim Davis, to jail after she continued to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples even after the Court declined to stay a federal judge’s ruling ordering her to do so.
The blog is delighted to host an online symposium on Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, the challenge to the university’s use of affirmative action in its undergraduate admissions process.
A federal judge in Kentucky on Tuesday ordered the release from jail of Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, saying that it is now clear that same-sex couples in the county will not be barred from obtaining licenses to marry.
Five federal judges, breaking ranks with a rising number of their colleagues on the federal courts of appeals, predicted on Thursday that the federal health care law’s birth-control mandate ultimately will fall, when tested in the Supreme Court by non-profit religious groups.
Five deputy county clerks in Rowan County, Kentucky — the scene of the first major courthouse battle over a conflict between the Supreme Court’s view on same-sex marriage and religious objections to it — told a federal judge that they will start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples on Friday morning.
Yesterday a federal district judge sent Kim Davis, a Kentucky county clerk, to jail after she continued to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples even after the Supreme Court declined to stay the judge’s ruling ordering her to do so.