Attorneys for a young Canadian national, Omar Khadr, who has been held by the U.S. military since he was 15 years old, on Monday asked the Supreme Court to block his war crimes trial, scheduled to start Aug. 10 before a military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.   The new filing sought alternative actions by Chief Justice [...]... Read More »»»

Raising serious questions about the constitutionality of a key part of President Obama”s new health care reform plan, and finding no Supreme Court decisions specifically on the issue, a federal judge on Monday ruled that the state of Virginia’s court challenge to the plan  may go forward.  U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson of Richmond, VA, rejected [...]... Read More »»»

The Supreme Court-mandated system for reviewing the legality of detention at Guantanamo Bay is working, and the prisoners should not be allowed to control their ultimate fate by refusing offers for resettlement to other countries, the Justice Department argued in federal court on Monday.  The filing in D.C. Circuit Court was in response to that [...]... Read More »»»

Through Sunday, August 15, we are continuing to accept applications for both blog internships. Through Saturday, August 7, we are also accepting applications for the job opening for a special assistant to Tom Goldstein/Howe & Russell office manager/SCOTUSblog staff member.   See instructions and requirements for applying here (for the internships) and here (for the [...]... Read More »»»

With the Senate expected to vote on Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court this week, media coverage this weekend focused on the upcoming vote. As the Washington Post, Bench Memos, The Caucus blog of the New York Times, and the Volokh Conspiracy all report, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska became the first Democrat to [...]... Read More »»»

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. A floor vote on Elena Kagan’s confirmation is expected this week, and we will keep you updated as we learn more. The schedule of merits briefs due this week follows [...]... Read More »»»

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.   In a one-page order released late Thursday, the Circuit Court dismissed outright the case [...]... Read More »»»

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.   In a speech at American University [...]... Read More »»»

The Justice Department on Thursday joined the state of Arizona in urging a federal appeals court to put review of the state’s new alien control law on a fast track.  The Department, however, asked for a different briefing schedule than the state had proposed.  The U.S. response is here. The state earlier Thursday had filed [...]... Read More »»»

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. At ACSblog, Jeffrey D. Clements discusses the filibuster of the Act, lamenting that “a minority of Senators representing a fraction of the American people killed even the modest response of [...]... Read More »»»

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.  Brief coverage of Snowe’s announcement is available at the Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire blog, the Ninth Justice, the Boston Globe, and CQ Politics.  The editorial board of the [...]... Read More »»»

The constitutional fight over Arizona’s new alien control law appeared Wednesday to be headed toward higher courts after a federal judge in that state blocked four significant parts of the law from going into effect as scheduled early Thursday.  Enforcement of a number of other sections was allowed — partly because the U.S. government did [...]... Read More »»»

A book released last week, In Brown’s Wake, examines the legacies of Brown v. Board of Education in perhaps unexpected places: in struggles for the integration of non-racial identity groups, in social science, and abroad.  The author, Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow, kindly agreed to an interview on the book for SCOTUSblog.The transcript of the first [...]... Read More »»»

The blog is still accepting intern applications through Saturday, August 7.   See instructions and requirements for applying in this post.To answer a frequently asked question, the internships are not restricted to law students.  If you are not currently enrolled in any academic program, please send your most recent academic transcript.... Read More »»»

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. The bill, passed by the House last month, is now unlikely to clear the Senate in time to [...]... Read More »»»