In the latest effort to salvage authority for federal judges to control the legal fate of Guantanamo Bay detainees, lawyers for 31 of those prisoners have told the D.C. Circuit Court that they will seek to return to the Supreme Court if lower courts move to scuttle that new effort.  In two filings on Monday, [...]... Read More »»»

Carrying out a direct order of the Supreme Court, a federal judge in Georgia made a lengthy new study of a 21-year-old murder case but then ruled Tuesday that a Savannah, Ga., man had not proved that he is innocent of killing a police officer in a fast-food restaurant parking lot.   In a 172-page opinion [...]... Read More »»»

The “Notable petitions” feature lists petitions that are likely to appear on our “Petitions to watch” list when they are scheduled 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.  We generally do [...]... Read More »»»

At Balkinization, Jason Mazzone analyzes an assertion made by now-retired Justice Stevens in his dissenting opinion in McDonald v. Chicago – that provisions of the Bill of Rights do not need to apply the same way everywhere.  Although Justices Alito and Scalia criticized this view in their plurality and concurring opinions, respectively, as “aggrandizing judicial [...]... Read More »»»

The Supreme Court on Monday released the schedule of oral arguments to be heard in the two-week session that begins on Monday, Nov. 1.  During this sitting, the Court will have only one afternoon session — on Tuesday, Nov. 2.   Morning arguments begin at 10 a.m.  An afternoon argument starts at 1 p.m.  A day-by-day [...]... Read More »»»

At the Washington Post, Philip Kennicott discusses a resolution, recently introduced by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), “calling on the Supreme Court to reopen the iconic [front] doors,” which were closed in early May for security reasons.  Kennicott suggests this resolution could “be the beginning of a new conversation” about “the public’s role in making security [...]... Read More »»»

The Court is in recess for the summer; it is expected to return on October 4 for the first oral argument of October Term 2010. The schedule of merits briefs due this week follows the jump. Monday, August 23: Petitioner’s reply in Harrington v. Richter (09-587) Tuesday, August 24: Petitioner’s brief in Virginia Office of [...]... Read More »»»

Last week, we updated our sister site, SCOTUSwiki, to include a number of new filings in OT10 merits cases.  New petitioners’ briefs have been added to the case pages for CSX Transportation, Inc. v. Alabama Department of Revenue and Skinner v. Switzer, and we have added newly filed respondents’ briefs to the case pages for [...]... Read More »»»

A group of Arizona taxpayers, in a new filing in the Supreme Court, has suggested that the Justices consider avoiding a ruling in a major case on tuition tax credits for parents of parochial school students, at least until the impact of a new Arizona state law has been assessed, first by lower courts. The [...]... Read More »»»

The “Notable Petitions” feature lists petitions that are likely to appear on our “Petitions to Watch” list when they are scheduled 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.  We generally do [...]... Read More »»»

Sitting by designation on the First Circuit, retired Justice David Souter wrote for a panel that recently upheld the constitutionality of revisions to a Massachusetts curriculum guide on the Armenian genocide, Constitutional Law Prof Blog reports.  The court concluded that “the revisions to the Guide after its submission to legislative officials, even if made in [...]... Read More »»»

The “Notable Petitions” feature lists petitions that are likely to appear on our “Petitions to Watch” list when they are scheduled 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.  We generally do [...]... Read More »»»

At the American Constitution Society, Rick Hasen analyzes the significance of the Ninth Circuit’s decision to issue a stay of Judge Walker’s decision in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, concluding that “both opponents and proponents of gay marriage should read very little into” the order. He suggests that the stay may in fact help proponents of same-sex [...]... Read More »»»

The government’s headline-making prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui — the only person charged with any crime for the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 — will not be tested in the Supreme Court, at least for some time.  The time to file an appeal ran out on July 30, and his court-appointed lawyers have since advised [...]... Read More »»»

In the decorous competition among lower court judges to supply clerks to serve Supreme Court Justices, D.C. Circuit Judge Merrick B. Garland has emerged as a champion for the Justices’ coming Term.  In the new listing of clerks, it turns out that six of the 39 former lower court clerks who will be working at [...]... Read More »»»