Monday Round-up

The Miami Herald previews Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, a case to be argued on Wednesday that raises the question whether the Florida Supreme Court violated the rights of property owners by upholding a state project that affects private beachfront property.  David Savage at the Chicago Tribune and the local Destin Log also cover the story.

At USA Today, Joan Biskupic discusses the “trio” of “honest services fraud” cases the Court will hear this Term, two of which – Black v. United States and Weyhrauch v. United States will be heard next week.  David Savage at the L.A. Times has an article on the same subject that emphasizes the effect a ruling overturning the statute could have on the ongoing criminal case of former Governor Rod Blagojevich.

A number of cases decided last Term are still generating headlines. This weekend, the New Haven Register had a story on the promotion of 14 firefighters based on the tests upheld in Ricci v. DeStefano, while Michael Zimmer at Concurring Opinions discussed the impact of Ricci on equal protection doctrine.  The Boston Globe also reported on the Massachusetts Appeals Court’s application of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, which forced criminal prosecutors to put drug technicians on the stand for cross-examination rather than relying on written reports, to gun crime prosecutions.

On Thanksgiving, Above the Law posted an interview with Amanda Blackhorse, the lead petitioner in Blackhorse v. Pro-Football, the new petition that takes up the same challenge as Harjo v. Pro-Football, a petition challenging the Washington football team’s use of the name “Redskins” that the Court dismissed earlier this month.

At Balkinization, Eugene Fidell of Yale Law School takes issue with newspaper editorials – especially those published on the day of oral argument – that urge the Court to rule in a very particular way, cautioning that these may give editorial boards undue influence over the Court’s eventual decisions.

On Friday, Mark Sherman at the AP discussed the fact that the Court has not issued any opinions before Thanksgiving for the first time since Chief Justice Roberts joined the Court.

At the Daily Journal, reproduced on How Appealing, Lawrence Hurley has published his interview with Justice Breyer about his views on the new Supreme Court in the United Kingdom after he attended the opening ceremony in October.

Joan Biskupic’s biography of Justice Scalia was reviewed over the weekend by Jim Newtown at the L.A. Times.