Chief rebuffs document relief plea
on Dec 18, 2006 at 6:41 pm
UPDATE: Tuesday, 11:30 AM – The in-chambers opinion of the Chief Justice can now be found here.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., refused on Monday to delay the planned auction of nearly 450 historic documents from the Civil War. He found that the state of South Carolina, which claims it owns those papers, had not met the standard for “extraordinary relief” — that is, a stay of a Fourth Circuit Court ruling that will permit the sale to proceed. He did not say specifically what was lacking in the stay application (Stroup, et al., v. Willcox, et al., docket 06A592).
Roberts also was critical of the litigating strategy of the state. He said that the request for a stay “is certainly undermined when the central argument pressed was only mentioned [by the state] in passing in the court below.” In seeking help from the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice noted, the state relied “almost exclusively on the Court of Appeals’ failure to certify to the Supreme Court of South Carolina contested questions of state property law.” That suggestion, he said, was noted when the case was in the Circuit Court only as an option if the Circuit Court “wants guidance” from the state court.
The two-paragraph opinion by Roberts is not a good omen for the state when it files its planned petition for review of the Fourth Circuit decision.
An earlier post on this dispute can be found here.
