On this date in “How Appealing” history: One year ago today, as I then noted in this post, The Washington Post contained articles headlined “Few Have Felt Beat of Roberts’s Political Heart” and “Nominee Excelled as an Advocate Before Court; Roberts Is Noted For His Preparation And Persuasiveness.”
And three years ago today, on July 24, 2003, I had a post titled “Leave it to NPR to generate humor in the battle to confirm Alabama Attorney General William H. Pryor, Jr. to the Eleventh Circuit.” My post began, “A librarian who works for a very large federal appellate court based in the western United States emails: ‘Comedian Richard Pryor nominated to Eleventh Circuit? According to the written summary for this NPR Morning Edition report he is.'” The introduction to the audio report in question, featuring Nina Totenberg, repeats the same error, and you can listen to it by clicking here (RealPlayer required).
“Lawmakers seek to bar hot issues from courts; Conservatives’ bills aim to block federal judges from hearing cases on controversial topics”: This article appeared last Thursday in The Indianapolis Star.
“Ethics Crusaders Crush ‘SuperLawyers’; As N.J. panel outlaws marketing tied to two popular attorney-rating schemes, firms scurry to revamp ads and Web sites”: law.com provides this report. You can access the recent opinion of New Jersey’s Committee on Attorney Advertising at this link.
“ABA Task Force Report on Presidential Signing Statements”: Marty Lederman has this post at the “Balkinization” blog.
Three-judge Tenth Circuit panel rejects challenge to the legality of the 1996 creation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah: You can access today’s ruling at this link.
“How the Supreme Court Struck Back: Why the Justices said no to the Bush administration’s detainee policy.” Law Professor David Cole will have this commentary in the August 10, 2006 issue of The New York Review of Books.
“ABA, the courts and the presidency”: Lyle Denniston has this analysis online at “SCOTUSblog.”
And at National Review Online’s “Bench Memos” blog, Ed Whelan has a post titled “ABA Report on Presidential Signing Statements: A Critique.”
“Courts Dismissed: It’s a myth that judicial interventions inevitably provoke a stronger public backlash than those made by legislatures.” Scott Lemieux has this essay online at The American Prospect.
At 3 p.m. eastern time today, the U.S. Senate is scheduled to begin debate on the nomination of Jerome A. Holmes to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Tenth Circuit: An up-or-down vote on the nomination is scheduled to occur in the Senate tomorrow.
Earlier this month, The Tulsa World published this article reporting on the Senate Judiciary Committee‘s approval of the nomination by a voice vote. The Senate debate can be viewed live, online via C-SPAN2 in both RealPlayer and Windows Media Player formats.
“What if the judge reads the lawprof’s blog? And the lawprof has analyzed the issue in the judge’s case?” Law Professor Ann Althouse offers these comments about my latest essay for law.com.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, this week’s essay is based on a portion of the remarks that I delivered last Thursday at the Eighth Circuit‘s Judicial Conference. I agree with Ann and the U.S. District Judge who approached me after my talk to say that he was surprised that some of his colleagues appeared to view with concern the possibility of being exposed to web-based commentary about cases under advisement for decision. Yet the question-and-answer session following my remarks demonstrated that the concern apparently does exist among a not insubstantial number of judges, which is why I decided to make my thoughts on the subject available to a wider audience.
“This diversity suit pits two banks * * * against each other in a quarrel over liability for a forged or altered check.” So begins an opinion that Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner issued today on behalf of a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
In announcing the court’s ruling, the opinion explains: “So the case comes down to whether, in cases of doubt, forgery should be assumed or alteration should be assumed. If the former, Foster wins, and if the latter, Wachovia. It seems to us that the tie should go to the drawer bank, Wachovia.”
“This appeal presents the novel question whether the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act), which prohibits an employer from ordering a mass layoff without giving 60 days’ notice, applies to a mass layoff of employees who worked for a private employer as airport security screeners until the United States government federalized airport security services and took over operations at their airport.” So begins an opinion that a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued today. The panel holds that privately-employed airport security screeners were not entitled to notice under the WARN Act.
“Stanford professor stumps for electoral alternative”: The San Francisco Chronicle today contains a front page article that begins, “A Stanford University computer science professor has come up with an idea to circumvent the more than 200-year-old Electoral College system and institute a national popular vote to elect the president of the United States.”
“Senate revives abortion debate on rights of teens”: This article appeared Saturday in The Las Vegas Review-Journal.
And The Associated Press reports that “Senate Wades Back Into Abortion Debate.”
You can access the text of the proposed legislation known as the “Child Custody Protection Act” by clicking here.
“Lawyers Decry Bush’s Legal Interpretations”: Gina Holland of The Associated Press provides a report that begins, “President Bush’s penchant for writing exceptions to laws he has just signed violates the Constitution, an American Bar Association task force says in a report highly critical of the practice.”
The report of the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Presidential Signing Statements and the Separation of Powers Doctrine can be accessed online at this link. Also available online from the ABA are an “Online Media Kit on Presidential Signing Statements“; a list of Task Force Members; and a Press Release on Task Force Creation.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit — still not one happy family? A unanimous three-judge Sixth Circuit panel today set aside a death sentence imposed in an Ohio state court. In a concurring opinion, however, Circuit Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey states:
I write separately in order to express my dismay at Judge Boggs’s unjustified attack directly on both the capital defense bar and indirectly on the members of this court. For the chief judge of a federal appellate court to state that it is “virtually inevitable” that “any mildly-sentient defense attorney” would consider playing the equivalent of Russian roulette with the life of a client is truly disturbing. Such a comment is an affront to the dedication of the women and men who struggle tirelessly to uphold their ethical duty to investigate fully and present professionally all viable defenses available to their clients. It also silently accuses the judges on this court of complicity in the alleged fraud by countenancing the tactics outlined.
You can access the complete ruling at this link.
On today’s broadcast of NPR‘s “Morning Edition“: This morning’s broadcast contained audio segments entitled “Congress Looks at Creating Judicial Watchdog” (featuring Nina Totenberg) and “Black Student Enrollment at UCLA Plunges” RealPlayer is required to launch these audio segments.
“Silence in the Court!: Why are liberals urging that the Supreme Court do next to nothing?” Online at Slate today, Dahlia Lithwick has this review of Law Professor Jeffrey Rosen‘s new book, “The Most Democratic Branch: How the Courts Serve America.”
“Viewing Law Blogs as a Vast Amicus Brief”: Today’s brand new installment of my “On Appeal” column for law.com can be accessed at this link.
“Marriage backers hail month of rulings”: The Washington Times contains this article today.
The Chicago Tribune today contains an editorial entitled “Federalism and marriage.”
And online today at washingtonpost.com, Andrew Cohen has an essay entitled “Same Coast, Different Worlds on Same Sex Marriage.”
“Global Warming on Trial: The Supreme Court is right to weigh in on the globe’s hottest issue.” This editorial appears today in The Los Angeles Times.
“Legal Group Faults Bush for Ignoring Parts of Bills”: The New York Times today contains an article that begins, “The American Bar Association said Sunday that President Bush was flouting the Constitution and undermining the rule of law by claiming the power to disregard selected provisions of bills that he signed.”
The Washington Post reports today that “Bush’s Tactic of Refusing Laws Is Probed; Bar Association Panel Criticizes President’s Many Challenges to Legislation.”
In The Boston Globe, Charlie Savage reports that “Panel chides Bush on bypassing laws; ABA group cites limits to power.”
And The Chicago Tribune reports that “ABA panel urges checks on Bush power; 807 signing statements set perilous path, it says.”
“Citing Precedents, Holocaust Survivors File Brief To Reduce Lawyer’s $4.1M Fee”: This article appears today in The New York Sun.
“Know It All: Wikipedia takes on the experts.” Stacy Schiff has this article in the July 31, 2006 issue of The New Yorker.
And today in The Los Angeles Times, Bernard Haisch has an op-ed entitled “Why Wiki Can Drive You Wacky: When free-form information gets it wrong, watch out.”
In today’s edition of The Christian Science Monitor: Warren Richey has an article headlined “Must US allow Guantanamo detainees to attend own trial?”
A related article is headlined “Tactics of war on terror to occupy Congress; Lawmakers will move this week on how to proceed with warrantless surveillance and treatment of detainees.”
And Brendan O’Neill has an op-ed entitled “Throwing our judicial junk in Britain’s backyard (or courts).”
“Blawg Review #67”: This week’s brand new installment is available here at the “Antitrust Review” blog.
Atlanta Braves 5, Philadelphia Phillies 1: My son and I attended last night’s game, but after eight well-pitched innings, only fans of the Braves went home happy. The failure of Brett Myers to execute a sacrifice bunt, and a Bobby Abreu baserunning error in overlooking the arm of Jeff Francoeur, may have prevented the Phillies from being in the lead heading into the ninth inning.
The Phillies should also make a note that walking the batter ahead of Francoeur is not such a smart idea if Tom Gordon is pitching, given that Francoeur has now homered off Gordon in two straight games. The new closer for the Braves, Bob Wickman, looked sharp in his first appearance for Atlanta, sending the Phillies down in order in the bottom of the ninth inning.
You can access the box score at this link, while wraps are available here and here.
