“Assessing the Supreme Court”: Indian Country Today offers an article that begins, “A U.S. Supreme Court considered anti-Indian by the balance of opinion in Indian country didn’t improve its standing with these critics in 2006, but worth noting is that it didn’t render decisions against Indian interests so much as it allowed lower court decisions to stand. And it took on one case, to be argued in January, concerning federal impact aid funding to schools that serve Indian students.”

“High court’s feud erupts over case involving Fieger”: The Detroit Free Press on Friday published an article that begins, “A bitter and long-standing feud within the Michigan Supreme Court erupted into open warfare Thursday as Justice Elizabeth Weaver issued a stinging denunciation of the court’s Republican majority and what she said was an attempt to gag dissenters. In a flurry of opinions, Weaver and the other justices exchanged accusations over a variety of grievances stemming from a case involving firebrand Southfield attorney Geoffrey Fieger. Longtime observers of the court said the eruption was like nothing any of them could recall.”

Also on Friday, The Free Press contained an editorial entitled “Fairness questioned at state Supreme Court.” And columnist Brian Dickerson had an op-ed entitled “Oyez, oyez: God help this dysfunctional court!” One week earlier, Dickerson had a related op-ed entitled “Flustered court rushes to gag a rogue justice.”

Booth Newspapers on Friday published an article headlined “Supreme Court revives Fieger-inspired tussle.”

And The Associated Press provided reports headlined “Top state court denies Fieger request to postpone reprimand; Majority of justices say the action will not harm his ability to practice law as he makes an appeal” and “Justice Weaver again criticizes other Republicans on Michigan Supreme Court.”

Last Thursday’s ruling of the Supreme Court of Michigan denying a stay in the Fieger matter, which includes the previously suppressed dissent by Justice Elizabeth A. Weaver, can be accessed here. The December 6, 2006 order that, in the words of The Associated Press headline caused “Justice Weaver [to] again criticize other Republicans on Michigan Supreme Court” can be accessed here, while Justice Weaver’s dissent from that order can be accessed here.

The Supreme Court of Michigan’s ruling on the merits in the Fieger disciplinary case, issued on July 31, 2006, can be accessed here, while the briefs filed in that case can be accessed via this link.

The Supreme Court of the United States has docketed the petition for writ of certiorari in Fieger v. Michigan Grievance Administrator at No. 06-596.

“Stinging new book may cost judge job, some say”: This article will appear Tuesday in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“The meaning of Brown vs. the Board: The 1954 opinion did not establish colorblindness as a legal principle; There is no ambiguity to be decided in the high court’s current cases.” Law Professor Goodwin Liu has this op-ed today in The Los Angeles Times.

“FBI Chided for OKC Bomb Investigation”: The AP provides a report that begins, “A two-year congressional inquiry into the Oklahoma City bombing concludes that the FBI didn’t fully investigate whether other suspects may have helped Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols with the deadly 1995 attack, allowing questions to linger a decade later.”

“High Court Becomes More Media Friendly”: Mark Sherman of The Associated Press provides this report.

“Blawg Review Awards 2006”: Available here, from “Blawg Review.”