“Senate Panel to Vote on Alito Jan. 24”: The Associated Press provides a report that begins, “The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Judge Samuel Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court on Jan. 24, officials announced Monday night, and the full Senate will begin debate the following day.” The Senate Judiciary Committee‘s announcement is here.
The Washington Post on Tuesday will report that “Senate Panel’s Vote on Alito Delayed Until Next Week; Democrats Aim To Shorten GOP Victory.”
And The New York Times on Tuesday will report that “Accord on Scheduling Alito Vote Next Week.”
The U.S. Senate‘s vote on confirmation is now scheduled to occur on January 31, 2006.
“Teachers’ Pets? Are teachers who sleep with boys getting off?” William Saletan has this human nature essay online at Slate.
“Elderly Convict’s Clemency Plea Rejected”: David Kravets of The Associated Press provides a report that begins, “The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday from a 76-year-old convicted killer who argued that he was too old and feeble to be executed.”
In Tuesday’s edition of The Christian Science Monitor: Tomorrow’s newspaper will contain an article headlined “For Senate Democrats, a last stand on Alito.”
And Warren Richey will have an article headlined “Lobbying versus electioneering: A key campaign-finance law is back in the high court Tuesday, as interest groups challenge a rule on election-season ads.”
“Roberts Eases Into Chief Justice Job”: Gina Holland of The Associated Press provides this report. And a related item is headlined “A Timeline for Chief Justice John Roberts.”
“Supine politics and the Supreme Court”: Reed Hundt has this post at TPMCafe (via Kevin Drum).
Not to be confused with Judge Dread: ZDNet UK provides an article headlined “Judge dreads software patents” that begins, “An Appeals Court judge has questioned whether software patents should be granted, and has criticised the US for allowing ‘anything under the sun’ to be patented.”
Congressional Research Service reports: Now available online are recently-issued CRS reports entitled “Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 – 2005: Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, and the President” and “The Environmental Opinions of Judge Samuel Alito.”
“What’s the Future of Sentencing?” That’s the subject of this week’s “Debate Club” feature at legalaffairs.org. Law Professors Douglas Berman and Frank O. Bowman III are this week’s participants.
Available online from National Public Radio: Today’s broadcast of “Morning Edition” contained segments entitled “Debate Heats Up over Executive Powers” and “Court Throws Out Florida School Voucher Program.”
Yesterday’s broadcast of “All Things Considered” contained a segment entitled “A Princeton University Student, on Alito’s Trail.”
And yesterday’s broadcast of “Weekend Edition – Sunday” contained a segment entitled “The Courts and Politics.”
RealPlayer is required to launch these audio segments.
My “new voice” sounds suspiciously similar to my “old voice”: law.com is promoting the official launch tomorrow of my brand new, weekly appellate-related column. So, those of you visiting law.com sites or law.com blog affiliates may see this ad. Week one of my column appeared here; week two, bearing tomorrow’s date, is here; and week three’s column remains trapped in my brain but hopes to escape onto paper sometime soon for publication next Monday.
Generally speaking, the column will appear online at law.com on Friday night bearing the next Monday’s date. Please feel free to suggest, via email, appellate-related topics for me to write about. While I haven’t run out of ideas quite yet, moving from a monthly to a weekly column all but assures that I will find myself without anything to say four times as often.
“‘Three strikes’ changes sought; Los Angeles DA wants a ballot measure to clarify the rules for felonies that trigger life terms”: The Sacramento Bee today contains an article that begins, “Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley is proposing to soften the state’s ‘three-strikes’ law with a ballot initiative that would eliminate likely life terms unless the third conviction came on a ‘serious’ or ‘violent’ offense.”
“Judges deny Allen’s appeal — reprieve sought; Supreme Court last hope for killer set to die early Tuesday”: The San Francisco Chronicle today contains this article reporting on a ruling that a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued yesterday.
In today’s edition of The Los Angeles Times, Henry Weinstein reports that “Ailing Inmate Is Set to Die; Murderer Clarence Ray Allen, 76, the oldest man on California’s death row, is to be executed early Tuesday; Death penalty foes plan march.”
And The Sacramento Bee contains a front page article headlined “Age grows as issue on death row.”
“Off Camera: To save hearings on Supreme Court nominees, remove the cameras.” T.A. Frank has this essay online at The New Republic.
Online at Reason, Jeff A. Taylor has an essay entitled “The Death of the Abortion Debate? Post-Alito, the issue may recede on the national stage.”
In the January 23, 2006 issue of The Weekly Standard, William Tucker has an essay entitled “The Smear that Failed: Judge Alito, when did you stop molesting children?” And Joseph Bottum has an essay entitled “Alito and the Catholics: The decline of an institution and the rise of its ideas.”
At Salon.com, Joe Conason has an essay entitled “Alito’s ugly association: His membership in a racist, reactionary group at Princeton reveals the unsavory face of conservatism.”
And online at The Nation, Bruce Shapiro has an essay entitled “Alito Almanac: Confirmation and Crisis.”
“Sarbanes-Oxley vs. the Free Press: How the government used business regulations to strong-arm the media.” John Berlau has this article in the January 2006 issue of Reason.
“Alito’s Testimony Carries Reagan-Era Echoes; Reagan Influence Shines Through Vague Testimony”: Tony Mauro has this article today in Legal Times. And T.R. Goldman reports that “Senators Shove Alito From the Limelight; During the week, it seemed that the more members of the Judiciary Committee spoke, the less the nominee said.”
Meanwhile, in today’s issue of The National Law Journal, Marcia Coyle has an article headlined “Alito’s way: Far from ‘broken,’ hearings reveal clues to nominee.”
“Judicial pay raise proposal: No need to boost salaries.” James C. Harrington has this essay in this week’s issue of The National Law Journal.
“Blawg Review #40”: Available here, at “Small Business Trends.”
“Justice Parker advocates defying the law of the land”: This editorial appears today in The Decatur (Ala.) Daily.
“Abortion opponents mark Roe v. Wade decision; They gather in Livonia for the 33rd anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion”: The Detroit News contains this article today.
And The Boston Globe reports today that “Opponents of abortion flock to a forum; Over 200 gather in an annual rally.”
“After Katrina, courts flooded by lawsuits; Lawyers worry jury trials may not resume until 2007”: This article appears today in USA Today.
“Unanswered Questions”: In the January 23, 2006 issue of The New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin has a “Talk of the Town” essay that begins, “Richard A. Posner, the Chicago judge and conservative polymath, recently made a revealing confession in the pages of the Harvard Law Review. Of the 2004-05 Supreme Court term, he wrote, ‘Almost a quarter century as a federal appellate judge has convinced me it is rarely possible to say with a straight face of a Supreme Court constitutional decision that it was decided correctly or incorrectly.'”
“The High-Court Battle That Never Was; Senators’ Pact on Judicial Filibusters Drained Drama From Roberts, Alito Nominations”: The Wall Street Journal contains this article (free access) today.
The New York Times contains articles headlined “Alito Hearings Unsettle Some Prevailing Wisdom About the Politics of Abortion“; “Some Abortion Foes Forgo Politics for Quiet Talk“; and “For President, Final Say on a Bill Sometimes Comes After the Signing.”
The New York Sun reports that “Democrats Divided On Filibuster.” The newspaper also contains an editorial entitled “What the Democrats Fear” and an op-ed by William F. Buckley Jr. entitled “Detoxing Judge Alito.”
The San Jose Mercury News reports that “Feinstein prepares to vote no on Alito.”
The Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger reports that “Key Alito opponent rules out filibuster; Feinstein says she disagrees with nominee to top court but calls him ‘clearly qualified.’”
The Washington Times reports that “Key Democrat disavows block of Alito vote.” And Donald Lambro has an op-ed entitled “De-fanged.”
The Appleton (Wis.) Post-Crescent contains an article headlined “Oneida keep eye on Alito hearings; Court nominee could play role in tribe’s land claim.”
The Wilmington (Del.) News Journal reports that “Italian-Americans take pride in Alito; For many, heritage outweighs high-stakes constitutional debate.”
And The Daily Princetonian contains articles headlined “Committee likely to back Alito“; “Critic says Alito ‘unfit’ to serve“; and “CAP official denies role in hiring Alito.”
In commentary, The Amarillo Globe-News contains an editorial entitled “Alito no longer a bench-warmer; Nominee deserves confirmation.”
In The Philadelphia Inquirer, Robert Strauss has an op-ed entitled “What you forget upon turning 50.”
In The Philadelphia Daily News, columnist Stu Bykofsky has an op-ed entitled “What’s that smell? The Alito hearings.”
In The Times Herald-Record of Hudson Valley, New York, Douglas Cunningham has an op-ed entitled “Questioning of Alito was blatantly farcical.”
In The Cleveland Plain Dealer, columnist Connie Schultz has an op-ed entitled “Alito’s wife’s tears prove nothing but love.”
In The Bergen (N.J.) Record, Pam Lobley has an essay entitled “A beginner’s guide to the Alito hearings.”
John Brummett of the Arkansas News Bureau has an essay entitled “Your time has expired, Senator Candid.”
And online at FindLaw, Michael C. Dorf has an essay entitled “Should Judges Testify at a Colleague’s Senate Confirmation Hearing? The Separation-of-Powers Concern Raised by the Alito Hearings,” while Douglas W. Kmiec has an essay entitled “It’s Not Just Alito’s Quandary: Reconciling Executive and Legislative Power.”
