The Supreme Court released its orders list from its long-conference yesterday and among the 12 cases granted is a potentially landmark ruling on the Second Amendment.
The Court granted review in McDonald v. City of Chicago, a case decided by the Seventh Circuit in early-June. SCOTUSblog has a collection of cert. stage briefs that you [...]

Well, I made a mistake yesterday. Relying on the WSJ Law Blog’s onsite observer, I reported that General Kagan had worn a blue pants suit. I was wrong.
In fact, the Washington Post and Above the Law are now reporting that General Kagan chose a black suit with a light blue blouse with which to disgrace [...]

For all the trivia nerds out there, I forgot to mention two important, but oft-unmentioned facts about yesterday’s argument.
General Kagan opted not to wear the traditional grey morning coat that male Solicitors General wear. Instead, according to the WSJ Law Blog, she wore a blue pants suit. Of course, the writing was on the wall.
Additionally, [...]

If you’re looking for expert, and I use that word very literally, you can find an excellent write-up by Rick Hansen of Election Law blog here. If you don’t believe me, even Eugene Volokh gushes about Hansen a bit here.
Hansen posits up some interesting analysis and I absolutely agree with his parting shot that this [...]

When Chief Justice Roberts first sat on the Court on October 3, 2005 in IBP, Inc. v. Alvarez, he spoke twenty-four times and his first question appeared on page 15 of the transcript. Following that question, he went back and forth with Carter Phillips, a man with whom the Chief Justice was already acquainted, for [...]

To sum up my views on the oral arguments today: we saw it coming. Justice Sotomayor lined up in exactly the position she was expected take and the same goes for each of the other eight Justices. In the end, it looks like her position will be a minority one.
Solicitor General Kagan did a fantastic [...]

Justice Sotomayor formally took her seat on the Supreme Court after her investiture ceremony this afternoon. Among other things, Attorney General Eric Holder delivered to her a commission – the same object at the center of controversy in Marbury v. Madison. She is wearing a Bentley and Simon J-71 robe that was given to her [...]

As Elena Kagan’s debut before the Supreme Court grows closer, I’ve been thinking about how her past experiences will influence her performance as Solicitor General. The fact that I’m reading Between Law & Politics, Richard Pacelle’s fascinating look into the world of the Solicitor General, didn’t hurt either.
Before I go any further, I should clarify [...]

In anticipation of Sonia Sotomayor’s first oral argument next week, C-SPAN has revealed a 10-minute excerpt of interviews with several Supreme Court Justices. C-SPAN had previously announced that October 4-12 would be “Supreme Court Week” featuring interviews with each of the Justices, but it has announced just excerpts from those interviews that deal with issues [...]

The Associated Press is reporting that Justice Stevens has confirmed that he has hired only one clerk for OT10. Typically, Stevens hires all of his clerks at one time during the summer a year before their term begins.
As always, its hard to read too much into this. Is it possible that this was a good [...]