Thursday round-up

By Nabiha Syed
on Mar 8, 2012 at 9:24 am

Coverage of the Court continues to parse the Justices’ decision on Monday to order reargument in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum to address whether, and under what circumstances, the Alien Tort Statute allows foreigners to sue in U.S. courts for acts committed abroad. Courthouse News Service reports that some legal observers are puzzled at the “highly unusual move,” while at Law.com’s Corporate Counsel blog, Sue Reisinger discusses two amicus briefs that “clearly helped sway the Justices into postponing a decision while exploring a new issue not raised by the parties.”

Briefly:

•  Herman Schwartz argues against life tenure for the Justices in a guest editorial at Politico.
• Pete Yost of the Associated Press reports on yesterday’s testimony by FBI Director Robert Mueller before a House subcommittee on the aftermath of United States v. Jones.
• At Forbes, Rick Ungar argues that “Justice Scalia may represent the best hope for the survival of the key elements of the Affordable Care Act” because of the Justice’s opinion in Gonzales v. Raich.
• And the Hartford Courant reports that a group of Wesleyan students plans to protest an appearance by Justice Scalia scheduled for later today.