Wednesday round-up

By Conor McEvily
on Sep 21, 2011 at 8:39 am

The Associated Press (via the New York Times) reports that last night the Court granted a third (and last-minute) stay of execution to Texas inmate Cleve Foster.  The Court’s reprieve was the second in less than a week; as Marissa reported last Friday, the Court recently stayed the execution of another Texas death row inmate, Duane Buck.  Also providing coverage are David Savage of the Los Angeles Times, James Vicini of Reuters (via the Chicago Tribune), Bill Mears of CNN, Politico, Nathan Koppel of the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog, the Huffington Post, and the blog Sentencing Law and Policy.  The blog Crime and Consequences provides a link to the Court’s stay order.

SCOTUSblog’s symposium on arbitration and the Court continues with two new posts.  Regular blog contributor John Elwood of Vinson & Elkins observes that although the Court in recent years has not yet resolved the status of “manifest disregard” as a ground for vacating arbitral awards made under the FAA, it may well do so soon.  Steven Bennett of Jones Day analyzes the Court’s 2010 decision in Rent-A-Center v. Jackson, in which the Court held that a general attack on the unconscionability of an arbitration agreement delegates the power to determine arbitrability to an arbitrator.

Briefly:

• The Associated Press (via NPR) reports on a new HBO documentary that features Justice Sotomayor as one of the country’s most successful Latinos.
• William K. Suter, the clerk of the Court, will speak this Friday at the Texas Tech School of Law. The website for Lubbock radio station KFYO has coverage and information.
• In his column for the San Francisco Examiner, Hugh Hewitt reflects on a remark made by Justice Breyer emphasizing the collegiality among the Justices.  Hewitt notes that while it is “reassuring on one level that the justices operate in such a collegial fashion . . . [i[t is also somewhat unsettling to think of the remove they are at from the lives of ordinary citizens.”
• Lisa Keen for Keen News Service analyzes the recent SCOTUSblog symposium on gay marriage, suggesting that the ultimate question may be “whether the public’s comfort level has advanced far enough toward accepting marriage between same-sex couples to embolden the Supreme Court to do its job.”
• The Associated Press (via Bloomberg Businessweek) reports that Robert Bentley, the governor of Alabama, will ask the Court to review a recent Eleventh Circuit decision resolving a dispute over Georgia’s ability to use water from federal reservoirs.