“Under the U.S. Supreme Court: ‘Dark’ money clouds the political waters.” Michael Kirkland of UPI has this report.

“Governor’s legacy: More than most governors, Carcieri has shaped courts.” Katie Mulvaney has this article today in The Providence (R.I.) Journal.

“Florida judges may be on political hot seat”: The Palm Beach Post today contains an article that begins, “Using e-mails, websites and YouTube videos, conservative groups waged a stealth campaign against Florida Supreme Court Justices Jorge Labarga and James Perry. And some legal watchers are worried.”

“Another go at ‘a travesty of justice'”: Today in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Len Boselovic has an article that begins, “Hugh Caperton is a man who just won’t take ‘no’ for an answer. Rebuffed three times by the West Virginia Supreme Court in his effort to collect the $50 million a Boone County, W.Va., court awarded him in 2002, Mr. Caperton is back to square one.”

“U.S. Supreme Court hears California death penalty appeal; The case of Scott Pinholster, convicted in 1984 of stabbing two men to death, raises a key legal question: Can new evidence be used in federal court to upset a state conviction?” David G. Savage has this article today in The Los Angeles Times.

You can access the transcript and oral argument audio of last week’s U.S. Supreme Court oral argument in Cullen v. Pinholster, No. 09-1088, via this link.