At its January 20, 2012 Conference, the Court will consider such issues as whether a court’s erroneous replacement of a criminal defendant’s appointed counsel can be a structural error, whether a communication from a debt collector to a debtor’s attorney is actionable under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, whether a federal habeas court can bar re-prosecution of an inmate based on an unexhausted claim of prosecutorial misconduct, and preemption under Section 2 of the Federal Arbitration Act. This edition of “Petitions to watch” features petitions raising issues that Tom has determined to have a reasonable chance of being granted, although we post them here without consideration of whether they present appropriate vehicles in which to decide those issues. A full list of our “Petitions to watch” for the January 20 Conference is here. A complete list also follows the jump.
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