Friday round-up
on Nov 22, 2013 at 8:01 am
Briefly:
- Yesterday the Senate changed its rules to allow debate on executive and judicial branch nominees to be terminated by a simple majority, rather than the sixty votes needed under the old rules. Although the rule change does not currently apply to the Supreme Court, Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa suggested that, if Republicans gain control of the Senate, they would extend the new rule to Supreme Court nominees as well. Aaron Blake reports for The Washington Post.
- A group of Democratic senators have asked the Department of Justice to clarify any potentially misleading information that it provided to the Court during its review of Clapper v. Amnesty International, in which the Court held that a group of lawyers, journalists, and human rights activists lacked a legal right to challenge the government’s secret wiretapping program. Kate Tummarello reports for The Hill.
- At Mayer Brown’s Class Defense blog, Kevin Ranlett discusses Justice Alito’s opinion respecting the denial of certiorari in Martin v. Blessing, a challenge to a federal judge’s policy of requiring lawyers in class actions to reflect the make-up of the class that they represent. (Tom Goldstein discussed that opinion, and opinions respecting the denial of certiorari more generally, in a post for this blog earlier in the week.)
