Access online today’s opinions in argued cases and Order List of the U.S. Supreme Court: The Court today announced two rulings in argued cases. The Court will issue one or more additional rulings in argued cases on Thursday of this week.
1. Justice Stephen G. Breyer announced the judgment of the Court and delivered the opinion of the Court in part in Polar Tankers, Inc. v. City of Valdez, No. 08-310. You can access the ruling at this link and the oral argument transcript at this link.
2. And Justice Breyer delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court in Nijhawan v. Holder, No. 08-495. You can access the ruling at this link and the oral argument transcript at this link.
You can access today’s Order List at this link. The Court granted review in four cases and requested the views of the Solicitor General in one case.
At “SCOTUSblog,” Lyle Denniston has a post titled “Court to rule on student loan debts.”
In early news coverage, The Associated Press reports that “Court goes further spelling out deportation rules“; “Court steps into dispute between Shell, stations“; “Court to determine if bankruptcy hearing needed“; “Court turns down Texas counties over border fence“; and “High court won’t review ‘Cuban 5’ espionage case.”
“Torture, the painful truth: It may be a blow to our self-image, but torture has been part of the American way for decades.” Ben Ehrenreich has this op-ed today in The Los Angeles Times.
“Palau president remains calm as storm brews on island; Johnson Toribiong has no regrets in his decision to accept some Guantanamo detainees; The former defense lawyer says, ‘They should be presumed innocent because no one has proven them guilty'”: The Los Angeles Times contains this article today.
“Justices May Strike Down Part Of Voting Rights Act”: This audio segment (RealPlayer required) appeared on last Friday’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered.”
“N.J. justices uphold law in child sex abuse cases; Emotional effects key to timing of lawsuits”: Last Friday’s edition of The Newark Star-Ledger contained an article that begins, “The state’s highest court yesterday upheld a statute of limitations law that determines when victims of childhood sexual abuse can bring charges against their alleged abusers. Advocates for sex abuse victims lauded the decision, saying the state Supreme Court was lending its authority to a law they say was loosely interpreted by lower court judges.”
You can access last Thursday’s ruling of the Supreme Court of New Jersey at this link.
“Stereotypes confound jury selection; Bias assumptions seldom right; juror’s experiences called best indicator”: This article appears today in The Baltimore Sun.
“CIA Fired Firms Aiding Questioning; One Helped to Introduce Waterboarding”: Today’s edition of The Washington Post contains an article that begins, “Weeks after President Obama took office, the CIA extended its contract with a firm run by two psychologists who helped introduce waterboarding and other harsh methods to the agency’s interrogation techniques, according to a news report. Two months later, CIA Director Leon Panetta fired Mitchell, Jessen & Associates and all other contractors that aided the CIA in its interrogations of alleged terrorists, the New Yorker reported this weekend.”
The New Yorker article in question, by Jane Mayer, appears in the June 22, 2009 issue of the magazine and is headlined “The Secret History: Can Leon Panetta move the C.I.A. forward without confronting its past?”
“Obama Open to Reining in Medical Suits”: The New York Times contains this article today.
“Is Sonia Sotomayor Mean?” This audio segment (RealPlayer required) featuring Nina Totenberg appeared on today’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition.”
Today in The Los Angeles Times, James Oliphant, David G. Savage, and Andrew Zajac have an article headlined “Sotomayor embracing affirmative action, then and now; The high court nominee’s ruling on New Haven firefighters recalls a 1980s bias case involving a Puerto Rican advocacy group of which she was a board member.”
And The Washington Post contains an article headlined “Riding Herd on the Message: White House Guides Fervent Sotomayor Supporters.”
“Rockefeller appeal possible this week; Lawyer will review transcript”: The Boston Globe today contains an article that begins, “The lawyer for the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller said yesterday he plans to appeal the jury’s guilty verdict as early as this week.”
“Tennessee Bar Fight: Busting the monopoly on judicial selection.” The Wall Street Journal contains this editorial today.
“Kent is expected to report to prison today”: This article appears today in The Galveston County Daily News.
Last Friday in The Houston Chronicle, Mary Flood reported that “Judge Kent to enter Massachusetts prison Monday.”
Last Friday’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered” contained an audio segment entitled “Federal Judge In Texas Faces Impeachment” (RealPlayer required).
And last Friday’s edition of The New York Times contained an editorial entitled “A Clear Case for Impeachment.”
Tony Mauro is reporting: Today at “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times,” he has posts titled “Justice Ginsburg Welcomes Sotomayor Nomination” and “Ginsburg Clears Up Mystery About ‘Fleeting Expletives’ Case.”
Via C-SPAN, you can access Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s remarks at the Second Circuit Judicial Conference by clicking here. And after Justice Ginsburg delivers her remarks, you can watch Chief Judge Frank H. Easterbrook‘s speech at this year’s Seventh Circuit Judicial Conference.
And the winner is? Congratulations to my son’s baseball team, which earlier today won the championship game for the 2009 Montgomery County (Pa.) Junior League, consisting of players from seventh and eighth grades.
The team finished the regular season having earned the most points (two points for a win and one point for a tie) and the second best winning percentage in its league. The team was also a perfect 3-0 in the playoffs, which concluded today with the championship game victory. And the team achieved all these great results notwithstanding having me as its third base coach all season.
“The Same-Sex Future”: Law professor David Cole will have this book review essay in the July 2, 2009 issue of The New York Review of Books.
“Freed From Guantanamo, Uighur Muslims Bask in Bermuda”: This article will appear Monday in The New York Times.
“Issue of Property Rights Is Likely to Arise in Sotomayor’s Confirmation Hearings”: Adam Liptak will have this article Monday in The New York Times.
And The Associated Press reports that “McConnell says blocking Sotomayor is an option.”
“Ed Carnes, an 11th Circuit judge, issued a strong dissent in a rare vote to overturn a death sentence.” So writes Bill Rankin of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution today in an article headlined “Death penalty reinstated in beating death; Construction worker robbed, killed boss in 1985.”
You can access yesterday’s ruling of a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit at this link.
“Firefighters Case: What Really Happened; The more you examine the New Haven affirmative-action case, the more indefensible it looks.” You can access at this link the brand new installment of Stuart Taylor Jr.’s weekly column for National Journal. Last week’s installment of Taylor’s column was headlined “Race: Sotomayor And Obama Versus Voters; It’s clear that Americans want racially preferential affirmative-action programs abolished.”
And at Time magazine’s web site, law professor Jeffrey Rosen has an essay entitled “Where Sonia Sotomayor Really Stands on Race.”
“Judge Allows Civil Lawsuit Over Claims of Torture”: Sunday in The New York Times, John Schwartz will have an article that begins, “The decision issued late Friday by a judge in San Francisco allowing a civil lawsuit to go forward against a former Bush administration official, John C. Yoo, might seem like little more than the removal of a procedural roadblock. But lawyers for the man suing Mr. Yoo, Jose Padilla, say it provides substantive interpretation of constitutional issues for all detainees and could have a broad impact.”
Today in The San Francisco Chronicle, Bob Egelko has an article headlined “Judge: Ex-Bush lawyer can be sued over torture.”
And The Associated Press reports that “Judge rules terrorist can sue over torture memos.”
You can access yesterday’s ruling of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California at this link (via “Constitutional Law Prof Blog“).
“Feds want secrecy over alleged torture flights”: Today in The San Francisco Chronicle, Bob Egelko has an article that begins, “The Obama administration increased its defense Friday of secrecy surrounding an alleged CIA program of torture flights, asking a federal appeals court to set aside its ruling allowing foreign captives to sue a Bay Area company that reportedly helped plan the flights.”
The Associated Press reports that “Feds ask court to reconsider CIA renditions suit.”
And at “SCOTUSblog,” Lyle Denniston has a post titled “New claim of ‘state secrets’ doctrine.” You can access the federal government’s petition for rehearing en banc at this link.
“Sotomayor impresses in interviews, senators say”: The Associated Press has this report.
“Reputed Miss. Klansman appeals to US Supreme Court”: The Associated Press has this report.
“Sotomayor’s Ruling in Child Porn Case Defies Liberal, Conservative Labels”: law.com’s Tony Mauro has this report.
Finally home! Due to bad weather in the Philadelphia area yesterday afternoon, Delta Air Lines canceled both of its afternoon flights from Cincinnati, including the one I was scheduled to take.
As a result, I did not make it back to Philadelphia until early this afternoon, via Detroit. At least this allows me to attend tonght’s Phillies–Red Sox game with my son. Additional posts will appear here sooner or later.
Programming note: After speaking later this morning at the 2009 Kentucky Bar Association Convention on the subject of “U.S. Supreme Court: Review of the 2008-2009 Term,” I’ll be returning home. Additional posts will appear here later today.
“Palau deal may not resolve issue of Chinese Muslim detainees; The tiny Pacific island nation has tentatively agreed to take all 17 Uighur detainees at Guantanamo Bay; But they ultimately may wind up elsewhere”: This article appears today in The Los Angeles Times.
Warren Richey of The Christian Science Monitor has an article headlined “Guantanamo’s untouchables: What to do with Uighurs; The US moves toward sending the Chinese Muslims to Palau, a remote Pacific island; But some experts say that would be a mistake.”
And The Wall Street Journal contains an article headlined “Palau to the Rescue: It’s only costing $11.7 million per detainee.”
“Videos Reveal Sotomayor’s Positions on Affirmative Action and Other Issues”: Charlie Savage has this article today in The New York Times. In addition, law professor Noah Feldman has an op-ed entitled “When Arrogance Takes the Bench.”
Today’s edition of The Los Angeles Times contains an editorial entitled “Supreme Court TV: How does Judge Sotomayor feel about cameras in the courtroom?”
And in The Boston Globe, Dan Payne has an op-ed entitled “Sotomayor’s life experience matters.”
“Investigators Reach Out To Yale’s Class Of 1999 For Help In Solving Slaying”: This article appears today in The Hartford Courant.
“Lawmakers urged to block prostitution bill”: The Providence (R.I.) Journal today contains an article that begins, “Civil libertarians, social workers and advocates for women’s rights are calling for state lawmakers to vote down a bill pending in the General Assembly to criminalize prostitution in Rhode Island.”
“The Fight Over Bringing Old Accusations to Court: Sex-Abuse Scandals Lead States to Revise Statute of Limitations; Opponents See Risk in Relying on Stale Evidence.” This article appears today in The Wall Street Journal.
“Kansas v. Ventris: The Supreme Court Misconstrues the Right to Counsel.” Sherry F. Colb has this essay online at FindLaw.
“Supreme Court steps aside on Chrysler-Fiat deal but questions remain; The legal issues raised in the case against the deal are likely to arise again with General Motors”: Warren Richey of The Christian Science Monitor has this report.
“House Judiciary moves ahead with Kent impeachment”: This article appears today in The Galveston County Daily News.
And Texas Lawyer reports that “House Judiciary Committee Votes to Impeach Federal Judge.”
Available online from law.com: Marcia Coyle reports that “GM Bankruptcy May Come Calling at Supreme Court Next.”
And Mike McKee of The Recorder has an article headlined “All Parties Agree: This Ruling Stinks! Depublish!”
