Breaking News

September 2010

By on Sep 8, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Raising further the prospect that the courts may never rule on the legality of the Central Intelligence Agency's alleged program of "rendition" of terrorism suspects to other countries for questioning and perhaps for torture, the en banc Ninth Circuit Court on Wednesday dismissed the latest challenge.   Dividing 6-5, the Court relied on a broad "state secrets" theory to put a stop -- before any evidence was offered -- to a case against a small air flight planning firm that allegedly worked with the CIA to arrange those trips. Together with the Fourth Circuit Court's 2007 decision in the case of Khaled el-Masri (which the Supreme Court refused to hear that year, in case 06-1613), the Ninth Circuit's ruling in Mohamed, et al., v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. (Circuit docket 08-15694) goes far toward insulating the "rendition" program from judicial review -- unless the Supreme Court took on that case and reversed the result.

By on Sep 8, 2010 at 9:44 am
Adam Liptak’s report for the New York Times on polarization in the hiring of Supreme Court clerks (covered in yesterday’s round-up) attracted significant attention in the blogosphere. The WSJ Law Blog summarizes Liptak’s article, while the Harvard Crimson’s Flyby blog charts the number of Harvard Law alums who serve as clerks at the Court each year. At Balkinization, Jason Mazzone responds to Liptak, arguing that his “claim about increased ideological hiring is exaggerated” because it does not account for an increase in the proportion of court of appeals judges nominated by Republican presidents – from thirty-seven percent in 1980 to fifty-seven percent today. At the Volokh Conspiracy, Orin Kerr also responds.  He argues that “the ideology of law clerks roughly matches that of the Justices because the Justices are trying to solve the principal-agent problem” – that is, when a Justice and a clerk are ideologically in sync, “the Justice[ has] more confidence that [his or her] law clerks will be faithful agents without the Justice[] having to engage in costly monitoring of law clerk performance.”

By on Sep 7, 2010 at 12:55 pm
The Supreme Court on Tuesday released the argument calendar for the December session, which actually begins on Monday, Nov. 29.  It will continue through Wednesday, Dec. 8.  Arguments will be held in the mornings only, starting each day at 10 a.m. and running to noon with one hour of argument per case.  The issues raised in each case are indicated in the listing below.  Also shown are the cases in which new Justice Elena Kagan will not be participating.

By on Sep 7, 2010 at 10:03 am
This round-up includes highlights of coverage from Wednesday, September 1 through today.  Going forward, we will continue to post daily round-ups on the redesigned SCOTUSblog. Over the past several days, a number of news sources have reported on the fall-out from last Term’s decisions in the trio of cases involving the federal “honest services” law.  The Washington Post reports that a request by former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling to be released on bail while appealing his fraud conviction has been denied; Bloomberg also has coverage.  Meanwhile, the Associated Press, Bloomberg, and JURIST all report that former Illinois Governor George Ryan, who was convicted on corruption charges in 2006 has filed a motion seeking to have his sentence vacated in light of the Skilling decision.  Similarly, former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman and former HealthSouth chief Richard Scrushy have relied on Skilling to seek the dismissal of charges against them, the Houston Chronicle reports.

By on Sep 7, 2010 at 7:30 am
Labor Day weekend is now but a memory, which means that the beginning of October Term 2010 (whose name derives from its beginning, as dictated by statute, on the first Monday of October) is right around the corner.  Supreme Court watchers are rubbing their hands together with anticipation.  So what will happen in the days leading up to October 4?  A few details: First, the Justices will be returning from their summers far and wide.  For example, the Chief Justice spent time this summer in Maine and in Australia, while Justice Kennedy followed his long-time tradition of teaching law students in Salzburg, Austria.  It is common for the Justices to teach in foreign countries, give speeches, and take some vacation time; after all, their schedules are a good deal less flexible from October until the end of June.  Of course, Justice Kagan has been hard at work at the Court since her swearing in on August 7, learning the ropes and catching up on the tasks that the other Justices had the whole summer to complete.

By on Sep 7, 2010 at 7:00 am

Academics respond to Citizens United v. FEC with suggestions for future reforms consistent with the constitutional protection for corporate campaign spending. ...