“Clarity for Combatants? Awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision on a Guantanamo detainee.” This article will appear in the June 26, 2006 issue of U.S. News & World Report.

The Reno Gazette-Journal is reporting: Today’s newspaper contains articles headlined “Mack defies usual profile of suspect in a murder, former FBI expert says“; “Father’s Day fugitive“; “Suspect’s mother describes relatives in shock, disbelief“; and “Darren Mack’s mother: ‘I’ve been in shock.’”

“Unflattering series on judges unlikely to alter system, but could change players”: Columnist John L. Smith has this op-ed today in The Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“Scalia’s constitution”: The Boston Globe today contains this editorial.

“Police See No Change in Policy on Searches”: This audio segment (RealPlayer required) featuring Nina Totenberg appeared on yesterday’s broadcast of NPR‘s “All Things Considered.”

Philadelphia Phillies 8, Tampa Bay Devil Rays 5: I had the pleasure of attending today’s Phillies game in the presence of two Sams. As usual, my son and I were there as part of our Sunday season ticket package. Also in attendance was the person who is likely the highest-ranking Phillies fan in the federal government, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr.

Justice Alito was present to throw out the ceremonial first pitch, along with two other people who don’t serve on the highest court in the land. Of course, the only one of those three ceremonial first pitchers whom the umpires were interested in being photographed with after they took the field was Justice Alito. You can view photographs of Justice Alito at today’s Phillies game here, here, and here. Major League Baseball provides additional coverage in an article headlined “Alito lives out a lifelong ‘dream’; Supreme Court Associate Justice throws out first pitch.” I guess this proves that work as a Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court need not be all-encompassing even in late June of your first Term.

The Phillies, meanwhile, undoubtedly will wish to invite Justice Alito back to throw out many more ceremonial first pitches, as today the team snapped a six-game losing streak thanks to a Ryan Howard home run, his twenty-third of the season. You can access the box score at this link and wraps here and here. I hope that Justice Alito (unlike my son and I) at least was able to view the game live from somewhere in Citizens Bank Park that offers air conditioning, as the outside temperature officially made it up to 91 degrees in this afternoon’s bright sunlight.

My son and I will be back at Citizens Bank Park this Wednesday night to see the Phillies take on the Yankees, after an appellate brief I have due that day is dispatched for filing.

“Chief justice doesn’t just get mad, he sues”: Today’s issue of The Chicago Tribune contains an article that begins, “A politician might have written a righteous letter to the editor. A different judge may have ignored the matter altogether. But when Illinois Supreme Court Justice Bob Thomas objected to a series of critical newspaper columns, the pugnacious jurist and former Chicago Bear sued the people who published them.”

“Knock, Knock: The Supreme Court finds a disturbing way to issue a reasonable opinion.” This editorial appears today in The Washington Post.

And The Chicago Tribune today contains an editorial entitled “Excusing an illegal search.”

“Fighting to Remain Engulfed in Junk; As Task Forces Move In, Hoarders Strike Back in Court”: The Washington Post contains this front page article today.

“Insanity defense is rarely deployed, fails in most cases; Esteban Carpio’s plea in the murder of a Providence police detective is made in fewer than 1 percent of U.S. criminal cases and succeeds in only 25 percent of them”: This article appears today in The Providence Journal.

“Detainees not given access to witnesses; But in one case, 3 quickly found”: The Boston Globe today contains an article that begins, “The US government routinely failed to give detainees at Guantanamo Bay access to witnesses who might have helped them prove their assertions of innocence, saying it could not locate the vast majority of the witnesses the terror suspects requested at special military hearings.”

The Week in Review section of today’s edition of The New York Times contains an article headlined “Seeking an Exit Strategy for Guantanamo.”

The Washington Post contains an editorial entitled “Imprisoned in Chaos: The Bush administration has wrecked the system for capturing and holding foreign enemies; How to fix it?”

And in The Los Angeles Times, Carol J. Williams has an op-ed entitled “Kicked out of Gitmo: A Times reporter’s struggle to get the truth about America’s island prison just got tougher.”