Archive for November, 2007
When Can We Expect The First Substantive Opinion?
0 Comments Published by Kedar November 28th, 2007 in Court Procedure, Supreme Court, Constitutional LawI can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m getting antsy waiting for the first substantive opinion (from an argued case) of the year. Its almost December now and the Court hasn’t released anything save for a 4-4 split ‘decision’ in Tom F. (here) and a clarification of a lower court misunderstanding arising from the 2005 […]
Supreme Court To Release Gitmo Oral Arguments Audio Early
0 Comments Published by Kedar November 27th, 2007 in Guantanamo Bay, Civil Liberties, Foreign Detainees, Court Procedure, Supreme Court, Current EventsThe Supreme Court today released a press release announcing that they will be providing the audio recording of oral arguments in Boumediene and Al-Odah as early as possible.
Its nice to see that the Court is embracing the internet and recognizing the advantage that speedily released arguments provide. The transcript will appear online at its normal […]
Supreme Court Agrees To Hear DC Gun Case
2 Comments Published by Kedar November 20th, 2007 in Court Procedure, Supreme Court, Constitutional LawThe Supreme Court today released an orders list in which it agreed to hear the DC gun control case, District of Columbia v. Heller. It narrowed the questions presented to the following:
Whether the following provisions - D.C. Code ยงยง 7-2502.02(a)(4), 22-4504(a), and 7-2507.02 - violate the Second Amendment rights of individuals who are not […]
Who Is The Funniest Justice?
3 Comments Published by Kedar November 10th, 2007 in Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Court Procedure, Stephen Breyer, Oral Arguments, David Souter, John Roberts, Supreme Court, Anthony Kennedy, John Paul Stevens, Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito, Justices and JudgesAfter finding the most talkative Justice, I was interested in finding the funniest Justice. According to my calculations, there were 51 total references to (Laughter.) in the court’s first two months of arguements. Here is the breakdown:
Case
JR
JPS
AS
AK
DS
CT
RBG
SB
SA
COUNSEL
TOTAL
Washington
1
2
3
Tom F.
0
Gall
1
2
3
Kimbrough
1
1
2
Torres
3
1
4
Santos
1
1
Watson
1
1
1
3
Stoneridge
1
1
Medellin
1
1
1
3
Klein
0
Ali
1
1
Williams
1
1
1
3
Logan
0
Danforth
1
2
3
6
CSX
2
1
3
Davis
2
1
1
1
1
6
John R.
1
1
1
1
4
Fed. Ex.
4
1
5
Hall
1
1
1
3
TOTAL
8
6
17
2
4
0
0
5
1
8
51
No surprises here. Scalia talks almost twice as much as everyone else. […]
Disgusting
2 Comments Published by Kedar November 9th, 2007 in Kedar, State Courts, Court Procedure, Madness (Sparta?), Texas, Justices and JudgesI’ve been thinking a lot about the Michael Richards death penalty case. Richard’s attorney’s had computer difficulties and despite notifying the proper authorities, the judge in charge, Judge Sharon ‘Killer’ Keller slammed the door on them and forced the execution to proceed.
There are things that we can do. For years now, there has been a […]
Which Justice Is The Most Talkative?
2 Comments Published by Kedar November 8th, 2007 in Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter, Clarence Thomas, Court Procedure, Oral Arguments, Stephen Breyer, John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, Justices and Judges, Supreme Court, John Paul Stevens, Antonin Scalia, Constitutional LawTwo months into the term, the Supreme Court has held oral arguments in 19 different cases. After reading a few of the transcripts, I thought it would be interesting to see which Justices spoke most often during oral arguments.
I found transcripts from the usual place and I copied the text into TextMate. From there, I […]
Don’t Speak
0 Comments Published by Kedar November 6th, 2007 in Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court, Justices and JudgesThe WSJ Law Blog predicted that Justice Thomas would speak this morning during oral arguments. Unfortunately, they were wrong. I expected him to speak last year during one of the school board cases or during Morse.
As my avid readers will know, Justice Thomas hasn’t spoken during oral arguments in quite some time. The last time […]
Supreme Court Justices Debate The Role Of The Court
0 Comments Published by Kedar November 5th, 2007 in Court Procedure, Supreme Court, Justices and Judges, Constitutional LawThe Supreme Court heard oral arguments (transcript) last week in Danforth v. Minnesota.
The debate in Danforth revolves around whether or not state courts need to respect boundaries set by the Supreme Court. In the 1989 case, Teague v. Lane, the Court held that their opinions cannot be retroactively applied by federal courts to grant defendants […]
Supreme Court Justices Are Influential Political Figures
1 Comment Published by Kedar November 2nd, 2007 in Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court, John Paul Stevens, Justices and JudgesUK’s The Telegraph created lists of the 100 most influential conservatives and the most influential liberals leading into the 2008 elections. John Roberts made number #8 on the conservative list, Antonin Scalia came in at #62, and Clarence Thomas came in at #85. John Paul Stevens, despite claiming to be a conservative, came in at […]
