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Category Archives: United States

U.S. urges more health care argument

The Obama Administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to expand by a half-hour — to a total of six hours — the time allowed for oral arguments in late March on the constitutionality of the new federal health care law.   In a ten-page motion, U.S. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., said the added [...]

Friday round-up

With the Court still in its mid-term recess, today’s clippings focus on the activities of Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor.
The AP’s Mark Sherman (via the Traverse City (Mich.) Record-Eagle) reports that Justice Ginsburg has returned from her visit to Egypt and Tunisia, a trip that was sponsored by the State Department. Speaking to [...]

Petitions to watch: Conference of February 17, 2012

At its February 17, 2012 Conference, the Court will consider such issues as the burden of persuasion for warrantless searches of residences, the use of a defendant’s pre-arrest silence, grandparent visitation, whether human genes are patentable, and exhaustion under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This edition of “Petitions to watch” features petitions raising issues [...]

April arguments, day by day

The Supreme Court will conclude its oral arguments for the current Term with the major case on a state’s power to pass laws to control undocumented immigrants living in the state — Arizona v. United States (docket 11-182) — on April 25.   The Court on Friday released the April calendar, listing cases to be heard [...]

By the numbers: Update on OT11 and an updated Stat Pack

This is another post in an ongoing series analyzing statistical trends at the Court. For a more complete look at the statistics that we collect on the Court, you can find all of our up-to-date charts and graphs here.
Pace of Opinions. The Court has released opinions at a blistering pace through the first half of [...]

Petition of the day

The petition of the day is:

Johnson v. United States
Docket: 11-833Issue(s): Whether 18 U.S.C. § 1958(a), which makes it a crime to travel in or use a facility in interstate or foreign commerce “with intent that a murder be committed” for money or something of pecuniary value, or to conspire to do so, requires that the interstate [...]

Those Know Nothing Know It All Lawyers

(Orin Kerr)
Here’s my favorite comment on the FOXnews.com story about the holding of Jones, in which I pointed out that the Supreme Court opted not to rule on whether a warrant was required:
every common citizens KNOWS what the SCOTUS ruled. leave it to the know nothing know it all lawyers to think they’re better [...]

Freedom to Discriminate in Choice of Roommates

(Eugene Volokh)
Fair Housing Council v. Roommate.com (9th Cir. Feb. 2, 2011) holds that federal and state housing discrimination law do not extend to discrimination in choice of roommates (or in advertising for roommates). Part of the court’s rationale is its judgment that reading the law as applying to roommate selection would raise serious constitutional [...]

“Former Utah Police Chief Charged with Criminal Defamation”

(Eugene Volokh)
The Deseret News reports:
Former Naples Police Chief Steven C. Guibord is charged with criminal defamation, a class B misdemeanor, in Uintah County. Prosecutors allege that he used the name of the city’s current police chief [Mark Watkins] to post derogatory comments on the online memorial pages for the two fallen Border Patrol agents….
Guibord — [...]

Guatemala’s Lost Civil War Photographs at the NYT Lens Blog

(Kenneth Anderson)
I’ve been light on blogging for the past while, due to a relentless travel schedule and still-more relentless editors on several projects.  However, I did not want to let the day go by without congratulating my Beloved Wife, Jean-Marie Simon, for the online exhibition and commentary in the New York Times Lens photography blog [...]