Monday round-up

By James Bickford
on May 23, 2011 at 8:26 am

The Court is expected to issue orders and at least one opinion this morning.  The weekend’s coverage touched on controversial recent decisions.  The editorial pages of the Seattle Times and the Toledo Blade expressed disapproval of last week’s ruling in Kentucky v. King, in which the Court held that the exigent circumstances exception to a warrantless search applies as long as police do not themselves violate or threaten to violate the Fourth Amendment.  The Blade described the decision as “ominous,” while the Times argued that it “leaves the Constitution’s protection against warrantless searches as a symbolic right, easily sidestepped in practice by police.”

Andrew Pincus, who represented the petitioner in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, and Arthur Miller of NYU School of Law have letters to the editor in the New York Times, whose editorial board recently criticized the Court’s ruling that the Federal Arbitration Act preempts state laws that would require the availability of class proceedings.  (Thanks to Howard Bashman and How Appealing.)  In the Washington Post, Robert Barnes reports on the sequels to Citizens United, which are raising “[i]ssues such as how the government may regulate disclosure of spending, and whether bans on direct corporate contributions to candidates” are permissible.

The Justices’ appearances and writing advice were also in the news.  In the New York Times, Adam Liptak reports on the recently published interviews between Bryan Garner and many Justices on the subject of legal writing; Liptak notes Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s love of Nabokov and the enduring influence of Justice Robert H. Jackson.  In Jackson, Mississippi, Justice Antonin Scalia spoke at the dedication of the new home of the Mississippi Supreme Court.  The Associated Press (via Stamford Advocate) reports that he emphasized the primacy of state courts, saying that “[t]he court that sits in this building is the most important to Mississippi citizens.”  As the Augusta Chronicle reports, Justice Clarence Thomas struck a similar note in dedicating a state courthouse in Augusta, Georgia; he noted that “[w]hen our fellow citizens interact with our legal system, they primarily do so in local and state courthouses, much like the one we dedicate today.”The Chronicle also reports that the Justice’s speech was warmly received despite some earlier local controversy.

Finally, David Savage of the Los Angeles Times reports on the pending petition in Martinez v. Regents of the University of California, a challenge to a California law that gives in-state tuition to illegal immigrants.