Showing 1–50 of 86 items published in July 2010, most recent first.
The D.C. Circuit Court’s deeply-set refusal to let federal judges oversee government decisions on which detainees may or may not leave Guantanamo Bay has now reached the longest-running effort to keep a detainee from being sent to another country over his protest.
Coverage continues of Senate Democrats’ failure to block a Republican filibuster of the DISCLOSE Act, a legislative response to Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
NOTE TO READERS: The following is an update on a post published earlier Friday. —————- The Ninth Circuit Court refused on Friday to put the constitutional test over Arizona’s authority to control illegal aliens living within its borders on the especially fast schedule that the state had asked, adopting instead a plan that follows its normal pace for handling cases of this kind.
In a rare commentary by a member of the Supreme Court on Senate hearings for a potential colleague, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday sought to correct the views of members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who recently suggested that foreign law has no place in America’s legal principles.
FURTHER UPDATE 5:55 p.m. The state of Arizona has now filed in the Ninth Circuit Court a motion for expedited briefing and hearing of its appeal of Judge Susan Bolton’s order Wednesday partially blocking the state’s new alien control law.
Yesterday Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine became the fourth Republican senator to announce that she would vote in favor of Elena Kagan’s confirmation to the Court.
Through Sunday, August 15, we are continuing to accept applications for both blog internships. Through Saturday, August 7, we are accepting applications for the job opening for a special assistant to Tom Goldstein/Howe & Russell office manager/SCOTUSblog staff member.
Yesterday Senate Democrats were unable to break a Republican filibuster on the DISCLOSE Act, a legislative response to the Court’s recent decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that would require more disclosure in campaign spending.
Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow discusses her new book, In Brown’s Wake, discussing the landmark case’s symbolism and its causal role in legal developments.
This post is a round-up of weekend news and commentary about the Court. A round-up of coverage from today will appear tomorrow morning. Adam Liptak has two new features on the Court in yesterday’s New York Times.
The Supreme Court on Monday released the first of its summer orders lists, made up of routine actions, including denials of stays or bail and denials of rehearing petitions. It is expected there will be two more such lists during the Court’s summer recess. The new Term begins Oct. 4.
Yesterday and today, a number of commentators responded to Adam Liptak’s weekend piece on the Roberts Court (which Erin covered in yesterday’s round-up.)
Setting the stage for a new challenge to the U.S. government’s use of a prison in Afghanistan to hold detainees who had been captured outside that country, the D.C. Circuit Court has told lawyers for three prisoners there that they may offer new evidence to a federal judge in a renewed test of their captivity.
The Court is in recess for the summer, and is expected to return on October 4 for the first oral argument of October Term 2010. The reply brief is due Wednesday, July 28 in Los Angeles County v. Humphries (09-350).
NOTE: The application deadline for this position has been extended to August 15. A full-time position is coming available beginning in August: Firm Manager of Howe & Russell / Special Assistant to Tom Goldstein / Staff Member of SCOTUSblog.com.
Seeking the same favorable constitutional treatment that corporations and labor unions now have when they try to influence federal elections, five individuals who have formed a group known as “SpeechNow” on Friday asked the Supreme Court to spell out the full implications of its controversial ruling in January in the Citizens United case.
Today, the blogosphere and news media continued to report on the anticipated outcome of the upcoming Senate floor vote on Elena Kagan’s confirmation. The New York Times’ Caucus blog reports that Indiana Senator Richard Lugar has just become the second Republican to publicly back Kagan, and the Boston Globe also has coverage of Senator Lugar’s announcement.
In a new plea that U.S. law should not reach overseas, British American Tobacco Co. on Friday asked the Supreme Court to order a second look by lower courts at the federal anti-racketeering law’s scope.
Yesterday, Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana became the second Republican to announce that he will vote in favor of Elena Kagan’s confirmation. In so doing, he joins Senator Lindsey Graham, who voted for Kagan when the Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed her nomination on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court has appointed former Supreme Court clerk Adam G. Ciongoli to argue the appeal of Iowa prisoner Jason Pepper in Pepper v. United States in the upcoming Term.
Without waiting until it writes new rules to carry out the Supreme Court’s controversial January ruling lifting campaign finance curbs, the Federal Election Commission on Thursday approved formation of two new groups that will raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to try to directly influence congressional elections this year.
Yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to endorse Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court. The final tally was thirteen “aye”s to six “nay”s, with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) joining the committee’s twelve Democrats to vote in Kagan’s favor.
Former Canadian and U.S. media magnate Conrad M. Black, who won at least a partial victory in the Supreme Court in his criminal case in June, was ordered released “forthwith” from a federal prison in Florida on Wednesday, with bail set at $2 million.
The nineteen members of the Senate Judiciary Committee — twelve Democrats and seven Republicans — will meet this morning at 10 a.m. ET to vote on whether or not to send the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Senate floor for a vote by the entire body.
The Supreme Court on Monday released the calendar for oral arguments for the opening session of the 2010 Term, starting on Monday, Oct. 4. The Court will hold afternoon arguments on two of the five argument days in that sitting.
By a vote of thirteen to six, the Senate Judiciary Committee today approved Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court. With the exception of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who voted for Kagan, the vote hewed closely to party lines.
The Court is in recess for the summer, and is expected to return on October 4 for the first oral argument of October Term 2010. On Thursday, July 22, the petitioner’s merits brief is due in Skinner v. Switzer (09-9000).
Although the Court did not grant any new cases or issue any opinions last week, we have updated our sister site, SCOTUSwiki, to include a number of new filings in OT10 cases.
As the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares to vote on Elena Kagan’s nomination tomorrow, Nina Totenberg reports for NPR on Republican efforts to maximize the number of votes against the nominee.
A local chapter of the Federal Bar Association is sponsoring a review panel of October Term 2009 on Wednesday, July 21 in San Francisco. The panel will discuss all of the big issues raised in cases during the Term, as well as “inside baseball” views of the Court and docket.
SCOTUSblog is currently accepting applications for unpaid student internships with the blog during October Term 2010. Details about these positions’ qualifications and responsibilities and how to apply follow the jump.
Three days after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the government to send an Algerian national to his home country, over his protest, the Defense Department announced the transfer Monday.
Four weeks after winning a broad interpretation by the Supreme Court of one of the government’s main legal weapons in the “war on terrorism,” the Obama Administration has asked the Court to give officials wide-ranging legal immunity for enforcing another such law.
The “Notable Petitions” feature lists petitions that likely will later appear on our “Petitions to Watch” list when they are ready for consideration by the Justices. “Notable Petitions” are those that Tom has identified as raising one or more questions that has a reasonable chance of being granted in an appropriate case.
As the Judiciary Committee gears up to vote on Elena Kagan’s nomination next week, court-watchers continue to closely track the projected votes of individual Senators.
The D.C. Circuit Court on Friday refused to block the government from transferring a second Algerian national from Guantanamo Bay to his home county, where he fears torture or death, and said it was acting swiftly to allow the prisoner’s lawyers to take the issue on to the Supreme Court.
Our take on Elena Kagan’s views as to whether judicial nominees should give detailed answers to Senators’ questions during confirmation hearings.
UPDATE Saturday 5:50 a.m. Late Friday night, the Court, without noted dissent, refused to delay the transfer of a second Algerian, Abdul Aziz Naji.
The “Notable Petitions” feature lists petitions that likely will later appear on our “Petitions to Watch” list when they are ready for consideration by the Justices. “Notable Petitions” are those that Tom has identified as raising one or more questions that has a reasonable chance of being granted in an appropriate case.
In advance of next week’s Senate Judiciary Committee vote on Elena Kagan’s confirmation, the vote lines are hardening. Despite initially criticizing Kagan for being non-responsive at her hearing, Senator Arlen Specter somewhat reluctantly pledged to support her yesterday in a USA Today op-ed, saying she did “just enough” to win his vote – largely because of her support for cameras in the courtroom.
UPDATE Friday a.m. The Justice Department on Thursday night filed its opposition to any judicial intervention in a Guantanamo Bay transfer of an Algerian detainee to his home country. The opposition remains under seal. A motion seeking to file under seal is here.
Several high-profile developments in the lower courts are raising the question: what, if anything, will the Supreme Court do? One such development came from the Second Circuit yesterday, in a case that has been before the Justices once already.
Today Senator Arlen Specter announced in a USA Today op-ed that he will vote for Elena Kagan’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.
Although no orders or opinions were issued last week by the Court, we have updated our sister site, SCOTUSwiki, to include a number of new filings in OT10 cases.
Although the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote in favor of Elena Kagan’s nomination, it is not expected to do so today. As the AP’s Julie Hirschfeld Davis reports, Republican senators on the committee will ask to delay the vote on the nomination for another week; the chairman of the committee, Senator Patrick Leahy, has said that he will grant their request.
The D.C. Circuit Court, in a broad hint to the Justice Department to adopt a new strategy in detainee cases, suggested strongly on Tuesday that federal judges are now demanding too much evidence from the government to justify holding prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and elsewhere.
As expected, the Senate Judiciary Committee has delayed for another week a vote on Elena Kagan’s confirmation, which was originally scheduled for today.
UPDATE 5:30 p.m. The Chief Justice has asked the federal government to respond to this plea by 3 p.m. this Friday, July 16. —————————- An Algerian national, seeking to avoid being sent from Guantanamo Bay to his home country, on Tuesday asked Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., to temporarily delay any transfer until after the detainee’s appeal is pursued.
Reacting to a Supreme Court order to take a new look at “indecency” on radio and TV, the Second Circuit Court suggested on Tuesday that constitutional law on free speech may need to be updated for the Digital Age, especially now that “new offensive and indecent words are invented every day.” Even
The Obama Administration, switching its attempt to control deepwater oil well drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, has moved in two federal courts to regain the authority to limit new exploration for several months.