“Court to Hear Challenge From Muslims Held After 9/11”: Linda Greenhouse has this article today in The New York Times.
Today in The Washington Post, Robert Barnes reports that “Court to Rule In Suit Against Ashcroft, Others.”
In The Los Angeles Times, David G. Savage reports that “Supreme Court to rule on whether Ashcroft can be sued; A Pakistani man who was arrested after the Sept. 11 attacks says he was illegally detained and beaten; The justices will examine whether high-ranking officials are immune from such lawsuits.”
In USA Today, Joan Biskupic reports that “Court to decide whether top officials can be sued; Ex-detainee seeks to sue Ashcroft, FBI chief.”
law.com’s Tony Mauro reports that “High Court Will Hear Case Against Ashcroft Over Post-9/11 Detention.”
And in The Christian Science Monitor, Warren Richey has an article headlined “New legal fight over U.S. antiterror tactics; The Supreme Court agrees to examine if high-level officials can be sued for harsh policies.”
“Court rules aliens who overstay can remain to appeal”: This article appears today in The Washington Times.
“Pa. High Court Revives Abuse of Process Claim”: Today in The Legal Intelligencer, Philadelphia’s daily newspaper for lawyers, Amaris Elliott-Engel has an article (subscription required) that begins, “The Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision that found an insurance company and its law firm’s guardianship petition regarding a child whose parents would not accept a $7 million settlement offer was not an abuse of process.”
As I noted in this recent earlier post, I represented the plaintiffs in successfully seeking review and a reversal from the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
“Grand Juries Become Latest Abortion Battlefield”: This article appears today in The New York Times.
“East Coast panel to oversee misconduct probe of California Judge Alex Kozinski; The U.S. 3rd Circuit names a special panel to investigate possible misconduct of federal jurist Alex Kozinski”: Scott Glover has this article today in The Los Angeles Times.
And also from that newspaper, Lara A. Bazelon has an online-only op-ed entitled “Kozinski disciplines himself; The misconduct standards the porn-collecting judge advocated might now be used against him.”
“Newspaper Criticized for Report On Judge’s Web Site”: Josh Gerstein will have this article Tuesday in The New York Sun.
“It Isn’t Tilting in The Same Old Ways”: Yesterday in The Washington Post, Dahlia Lithwick had an op-ed that begins, “With just two weeks left in the Supreme Court’s term, everything we thought we knew about the Roberts court seems wrong.”
“First of California’s same-sex marriage licenses are issued”: The Los Angeles Times provides this news update.
The San Francisco Chronicle provides a news update headlined “Same-sex weddings start with union of elderly San Francisco couple.”
The Sacramento Bee provides a news update headlined “Gay marriages under way in Yolo County, San Francisco.”
And The San Jose Mercury News has an update headlined “Same-sex weddings begin in California.”
“East Coast panel to oversee misconduct probe of California Judge Alex Kozinski”: Scott Glover of The Los Angeles Times has this news update.
The Associated Press reports that “Judge’s wife calls Web porn story ‘outright lies’.”
This evening’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered” contained an audio segment entitled “Judges and Conflicts of Interest” (RealPlayer required).
And Jaikumar Vijayan of Computerworld has an article headlined “Federal judge lands in hot water over explicit images on Web site; Judge in L.A. recuses himself from obscenity trial, asks court officials to investigate him” in which I am quoted.
Elsewhere, at Wired’s “Threat Level” blog, Ryan Singel has a post titled “Wiretap Ruling Dies Slow Death As Congress Moves Towards Telecom Amnesty” that begins, “Somewhere on the hard drive of a judge from the 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court there likely lives a file that’s way more interesting than the tasteless, porn videos found on the personal website of the circuit’s chief judge Alex Kozinski. Somewhere there’s an opinion from three judges that rules whether or not citizens can sue AT&T for violations of federal wiretapping law, or whether the government’s invocation of national security trumps the right to seek redress.”
At Townhall.com, Justin Hart has an essay entitled “Judging Pornography.”
And at WorldNetDaily, Joseph Farah has an essay entitled “Prosecute the perv judge.”
Philadelphia-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to conduct inquiry into Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski‘s online posting of pornographic images, mp3 files, and other materials: So advises a reporter for the Daily Journal of California. This assignment was made by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.
The Third Circuit’s Chief Judge is Anthony J. Scirica, and he would be deciding in the first instance what if anything to do with the judicial misconduct proceeding that Judge Kozinski apparently initiated with regard to himself last week.
The Third Circuit is viewed as one of the federal appellate courts that are most protective of First Amendment rights, as evidenced by television broadcasters’ having selected the Third Circuit as the forum to challenge the FCC’s fines for Janet Jackson’s indecent exposure during the Super Bowl halftime show several years back. Moreover, Chief Judge Scirica is correctly perceived as a personification of fairness, and he is particularly highly regarded throughout the entire federal judicial system for the amazing job he performed for many years heading up the revision process for the rules of procedure and evidence applicable to federal bankruptcy, district, and intermediate appellate courts.
Update: The Associated Press reports that “Judges named to head Kozinski inquiry.” According to the article, “U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts, acting under rules for federal judges, named five judges from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Philadelphia, to do the investigation.” The article does not name the five judges, and I in the original portion of this post I have assumed that the Third Circuit’s Chief Judge is among those five judges.
Second update: The AP report, as revised, identifies the following five judges as assigned to the investigatory panel, “Named were the chief judge for the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, Anthony J. Scirica; two other 3rd Circuit Court judges, Marjorie O. Rendell and Walter K. Stapleton; and two chief U.S. District Court judges, Harvey Bartle III of Pennsylvania and Garrett Brown Jr. of New Jersey.” Judge Rendell is the wife of Pennsylvania’s governor, and Judge Stapleton, based in Wilmington, Delaware, is a senior status Third Circuit judge. Chief Judge Bartle serves on the Philadelphia-based U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
“Camus, Bob Dylan, and Naked Women Painted Like Cows”: Rachel Sklar and Ann Althouse are the participants in this episode of Bloggingheads.tv, posted online today. The diavlog was recorded on June 12, 2008.
The final two segments of the diavlog are titled “If a public figure likes porn, is that news?” and “Would McCain appoint hard-right Supreme Court justices?”
“Jurist’s career of firsts hits a milestone; Lynch being sworn in as head of appeals court”: The Boston Globe today contains this article about Sandra L. Lynch, who at 2 p.m. eastern time today was sworn in as the first female Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. She also remains the only female judge to serve on the First Circuit.
And The Boston Herald reports today that “Judge Sandra L. Lynch breaks court’s glass ceiling.”
The First Circuit issued this related press release last month.
“Top court won’t review Exxon Indonesia lawsuit”: Reuters provides this report.
Wife says husband is “not into porn”; Husband is glad wife is willing to believe that: ABA Journal provides a post titled “Wife of 9th Circuit Chief Judge Says Her Husband Is ‘Not Into Porn.’”
As I noted in this post from Saturday, ABA Journal magazine has posted online a lengthy article by Terry Carter headlined “Risque Images, Music Tied to 9th Circuit Chief’s Site Raises Ethics Questions.”
In connection with that lengthy article, the ABA Journal has posted online a remarkable letter (back-up copy posted here) dated October 12, 2007 from L. Ralph Mecham, former director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, which accuses Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski of having committed a criminal offense in 2001 against the federal judiciary’s computer system that constituted a felony under federal law.
“Supreme Court to rule on whether Ashcroft can be sued; A Pakistani man who was arrested in Long Island after the Sept. 11 attacks charges that he was illegally detained; Justices will examine whether high-ranking officials are immune from such lawsuits”: David G. Savage of The Los Angeles Times has this news update.
And James Vicini of Reuters reports that “U.S. top court to decide Sept. 11 abuse case.”
“Lawyering and the Craft of Judicial Opinion Writing: The Second Conversation with Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. on the Law of the Constitution.” On the evening of July 30, 2008 in Malibu, California, the Pepperdine University School of Law will host this event (you can also access a PDF file of the program’s brochure by clicking here).
Participating in the event will be Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr.; Tenth Circuit Judge Michael W. McConnell; Walter E. Dellinger III; and Kenneth W. Starr. Law Professor Douglas W. Kmiec will serve as the program’s host and moderator.
Based on this description of the program, it looks to be quite interesting. Online registration can be accomplished via a link featured on this web page.
“Blawg Review #164”: Access it here at the blog “cearta.ie,” an Irish law blog.
“Second thoughts on Kozinski”: Mark Obbie today has this follow-up post at his “LawBeat” blog.
Today is day two of the McClatchy Newspapers series “Guantanamo: Beyond the Law.” Today’s lead article is headlined “U.S. abuse of detainees was routine at Afghanistan bases.” And today’s other articles are headlined “Documents undercut Pentagon’s denial of routine abuse” and “Soldiers blame lack of training, support for Bagram abuse.”
Yesterday, I had this post linking to the articles from day one of the series.
The Associated Press is reporting: Now available online are articles headlined “Washington state mulls assisted suicide measure” and “Internet suicide case goes to federal court.”
“Court to rule on right to sue Cabinet officers”: Lyle Denniston has this post at “SCOTUSblog.”
Today’s U.S. Supreme Court Order List and opinions in argued cases: The Court today issued opinions in two argued cases.
1. Today’s first opinion issued in Florida Dept. of Revenue v. Piccadilly Cafeterias, Inc., No. 07-312. You can access the opinion at this link and the oral argument transcript at this link.
2. And today’s second and final opinion issued in Dada v. Mukasey, No. 06-1181. You can access the opinion at this link and the oral argument transcript at this link.
The Court will next issue opinions in argued cases on Thursday, at 10 a.m. eastern time.
You can access today’s Order List at this link. The Court granted review in three cases and requested the views of the Solicitor General in one case.
The Associated Press is reporting: Now available online are articles headlined “Justices rule in favor of state tax collectors“; “Top court eases rules for foreigners to try to stay in US“; “Court to rule in lawsuit vs. FBI head, ex-AG“: and “Court rejects appeal on Ill. horse slaughter ban.”
At 10 a.m. eastern time, “SCOTUSblog” will be live-blogging today’s U.S. Supreme Court opinions and orders: You can access the post by clicking here.
“Alex Kozinski’s Wife Speaks Out”: This post appears today at “Patterico’s Pontifications.”
And Law Professor Lawrence Lessig offers some additional thoughts in this post at “Lessig Blog.”
“Guantanamo: Beyond the Law.” McClatchy Newspapers has today launched a series of articles lasting five days that the publisher describes as follows, “An eight-month McClatchy investigation of the detention system created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has found that the U.S. imprisoned innocent men, subjected them to abuse, stripped them of their legal rights and allowed Islamic militants to turn the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba into a school for jihad.” You can access the home page for the series at this link.
Today’s lead article for the debut of the series is headlined “America’s prison for terrorists often held the wrong men.” And today’s other articles are headlined “Pentagon declined to answer questions about detainees” and “Studies differ on threat from Guantanamo detainees.”
“Habeas Ruling Lays Bare the Divide Among Justices”: Robert Barnes and Del Quentin Wilber have this article today in The Washington Post.
Today’s newspaper also contains an article headlined “Detainees May Be Denied Evidence for Defense” that begins, “When Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other alleged co-conspirators in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks seek to represent themselves in military commissions trials in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, they may be barred from reviewing highly classified evidence and might not have access to the intelligence agents who interrogated them, according to the Pentagon’s Office of Military Commissions.”
“Nothing is private”: The Seattle Times today contains an editorial that begins, “The roiling water in which Judge Alex Kozinski finds himself should be a lesson for every Internet user: Nothing is private.” According to the editorial, “Regardless of what the ethics panel concludes, Kozinski might well find his career cut short or future opportunities diminished because of revelations about his online image cache.”
And today in The Billings Gazette, columnist Ed Kemmick has an op-ed entitled “Judge’s acts both odd and interesting” that begins, “Alex Kozinski will be remembered as the man who took the prudence out of jurisprudence and put the barnyard back in barnyard humor.”
“Judge sees equal rights for gays, lesbians”: Today in The San Francisco Chronicle, Bob Egelko has an article that begins, “California Chief Justice Ronald George is prepared for the voters’ verdict on his ruling legalizing same-sex marriages – but whatever comes this autumn, he says it won’t be long before most Californians accept equal rights for gays and lesbians as a matter of course. In an interview about the court’s May 15 decision overturning the state’s marriage law, George drew comparisons to another historic 4-3 ruling 60 years earlier that struck down California’s ban on interracial marriage.”
That newspaper today also contains an article headlined “How gays’ attitudes toward marriage evolved.”
“Anthony Kennedy’s international view; The Supreme Court justice’s experience informed his high court opinion on the legal rights of Guantanamo detainees”: David G. Savage has this article today in The Los Angeles Times.
The Washington Post today contains articles headlined “Critics Study Possible Limits to Habeas Corpus Ruling; Affirming Right to Challenge Detention Is Considered by Some a Taking of Federal Power” and “McCain Denounces Detainee Ruling; View Aligns Him With President.”
And today in The Miami Herald, Carol Rosenberg has an article headlined “Some war on terror detainees can’t go home; Whatever orders civilian judges might issue under the latest U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the United States is struggling with how to send away some of the detainees at Guantanamo who the Defense Department has already decided to let go.”
“NRA’s political clout is waning; With 2nd Amendment rights expanded and Democrats reluctant to tackle the issue, gun control isn’t the GOP weapon it used to be; The rifle group, in essence, is a victim of its own success”: This article appears today in The Los Angeles Times.
“What We Owe Our Young”: Today in The Washington Post, Sandra Day O’Connor and James R. Jones have an op-ed that begins, “Idealistic young voters have turned out in record numbers this year — and not a moment too soon.”
“Court Deems Campaign Finance Rules Too Weak”: The Washington Post contains this article today.
My earlier coverage of yesterday’s D.C. Circuit ruling appears at this link.
“Lawmakers Near Deal On Surveillance Bill; Wiretap Orders Begin Expiring Soon”: This article appears today in The Washington Post.
“Out of Bounds: The Bush administration’s executive-privilege claims almost make Watergate look like a fond memory.” David Iglesias has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.
