The Supreme Court today ruled 6-2 in New Jersey v. Delaware that neither New Jersey nor Delaware have exclusive rights to construct certain structures in their bordering river. Article VII of the 1905 Compact, we hold,did not secure to New Jersey exclusive jurisdiction over allriparian improvements commencing on its shores.2 The parties’ own conduct, since [...]

Opinio Juris has rather extensive coverage of today’s Medellin decision. I’ve spent the last hour plowing through most of it and I can say that it is both insightful and extensive.

After a cursory glance of the opinion in Medellin v. Texas (here), it looks like the Court largely sidestepped one of the major questions in the case. The Court appears to have focused primarily on the international law portion of the debate at the demise of solving the federalist issue. President Bush had declared in [...]

The Supreme Court today released its opinion in Medellin v. Texas. The Court ruled 6-3, in an opinion written by the Chief Justice, that the ICC’s decision in Avena was not valid federal law. The Court was sure to reenforce, however, that “Indeed, we agree with Medellín that, as a general matter, ‘an agreement to [...]

The Supreme Court heard three cases today, two in the morning and one in the afternoon. Hearing three cases in a day was a normal occurance back in the day (80s) but has now become a rather uncommon occurrence. This is the first time this term that the Court has heard three cases in one [...]

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting op-ed this weekend on state judicial elections. Lloyd Karmeier, the winner of a $9.3 million campaign for the Illinois Supreme Court in 2004, was supported by $350,000 in direct contributions from employees, lawyers and others directly involved with the insurer State Farm and/or its then pending appeal, and [...]

Medellin (docket, questions presented, oral arguments, petitioner’s brief) is without a doubt one of the most anticipated opinions of the year. Medellin was argued on October 10, 2007, making it one of the oldest cases still being decided. As of today, it has been nearly 160 days since Medellin‘s oral arguments and last year, the [...]

The Supreme Court today released an opinion in Snyder v. Louisiana. Justice Alito filed a majority opinion with six of his colleagues and Justice Thomas penned a dissent that was joined by Justice Scalia. The Court held in Snyder that a prosecutor who strikes all of the black jurors from a panel using his preemptory [...]

An old friend of mine gave me a call yesterday and timidly asked if he could write for the blog. Of course I told him that he was always welcome but it reminded me to make it very clear that this website has an open invitation to anyone who is interested in the Court and [...]

The Court just posted the transcript for Heller on its website here. You can find the audio on C-SPAN’s website here. More analysis to come.