How Appealing



Monday, January 21, 2008

“Democrats have choices for Texas Supreme Court; Party shows signs of life with first contested primaries since 1994”: Chuck Lindell will have this article Tuesday in The Austin American-Statesman.

Posted at 11:40 PM by Howard Bashman



“State: Exxon violated its vow; Punitive damages are warranted in Valdez oil spill, brief says.” This article appears today in The Anchorage Daily News.

Posted at 11:28 PM by Howard Bashman



“Padilla sentence: Does terror training merit life? On Tuesday, a federal judge will announce Al Qaeda recruit’s long-awaited prison sentence.” Warren Richey will have this article Tuesday in The Christian Science Monitor.

Posted at 8:04 PM by Howard Bashman



“Justice for gun owners”: Today in The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Alan Gottlieb and Dave Workman have an op-ed that begins, “Martin Luther King Jr. put it best: ‘A right delayed is a right denied.’ The lesson appears to have been lost on the Department of Justice and Solicitor General Paul D. Clement in the amicus curiae brief submitted recently for the government in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller, which challenges the city’s 31-year-old handgun ban, a horrible gun law that has had its day in court and lost.”

Posted at 5:14 PM by Howard Bashman



“Grand jurors jab at lawyer; Attorney for Medina insists the two have acted illegally”: The Houston Chronicle today contains an article that begins, “The long weekend failed to quell the rhetoric as a lawyer for state Supreme Court Justice David Medina and two of the grand jurors who voted to indict the jurist continued to jab at each other.”

Posted at 11:28 AM by Howard Bashman



“Probe of judge goes beyond sex allegations”: Yesterday’s edition of The Galveston County Daily News contained an article that begins, “The FBI’s investigation of a Galveston County federal judge is looking into more than just sexual misconduct allegations. The Daily News was told last week that federal agents had been interviewing Galveston restaurateurs about who U.S. District Judge Samuel B. Kent had dined and drank with throughout the years, and who has picked up the tab. Dick DeGuerin, Kent’s attorney, on Friday confirmed that the federal probe extended beyond claims of sexual misconduct.”

Posted at 10:32 AM by Howard Bashman



“Attorney Struggled Over Case For Years”: The Washington Post today contains an article that begins, “Lawyer Leslie P. Smith brooded over what he knew for a decade: information that might spare the life of an inmate on Virginia’s death row. He had thought about disclosing it long ago. But back in 1998, he had been told not to jeopardize the interests of his own client. The case he could not forget was that of Daryl Atkins, who was convicted in a carjacking murder in York County, Va., and whose appeals spurred the U.S. Supreme Court to a landmark ruling that banned executions of mentally retarded inmates. Ironically, Atkins remained on death row in spite of the historic decision, his own mental limitations still under debate.”

Posted at 8:32 AM by Howard Bashman



“I’m Sorry, I Can’t Answer That”: Law Professor Lori A. Ringhand has posted this paper (abstract with links for download) online at SSRN. The paper’s abstract begins, “Professors Robert Post and Reva Siegel have suggested that nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court should answer questions posed at their Senate confirmation hearings regarding how they would have voted in cases the Supreme Court has already decided.” (Via “Legal Theory Blog.”)

Posted at 7:45 AM by Howard Bashman



“Court Overlooks a Blind Spot in Picking Judges”: Today in The New York Sun, Joseph Goldstein has an article that begins, “The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the constitutionality of New York State’s official method for selecting trial judges was blind to a significant fact: In New York City, more than 40% of those judges are picked by an altogether different and unofficial process that has largely escaped scrutiny.”

Posted at 7:20 AM by Howard Bashman