Wednesday round-up
on Mar 14, 2012 at 9:56 am
Attention once again focuses on the challenges to the Affordable Care Act, scheduled for argument in less than two weeks. At Reuters, Joan Biskupic reports on the challengers’ back story, including the process by which they chose attorneys to represent them, while at the Blog of the Legal Times Tony Mauro provides a complete list of the advocates who will argue the cases. And in an op-ed for the San Jose Mercury News, Adam Winkler disputes the challengers’ claim that the Act is “unprecedented”; rather, he contends, “[w]hat would really be unprecedented is for the Supreme Court to hogtie Congress to the use of 18th century regulation to solve 21st century economic problems.”
Briefly:
- Lyle Denniston at this blog previews the upcoming arguments in Reichle v. Howards in which the Court will consider when a citizen may sue a federal officer for allegedly retaliating against that individual for speaking out.
- Richard Lardner of the Associated Press reports that the federal government is urging Congress to change the Freedom of Information Act “to keep secret new categories of information that it says have been put at risk” by last Term’s decision in Milner v. Department of Navy.
- Arthur Delaney at the Huffington Post reports that Senators Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have sponsored a Senate bill that would largely undo the Court’s decision in Gross v. FBL Financial Services.
- The Newark Star-Ledger’s Bob Braun takes a broader look at the current Term and concludes that “[h]istory will be made this spring.”
- Kristin Henning at ACSblog previews Miller v. Alabama and Jackson v. Hobbs, in which the Justices will consider whether juveniles convicted of murder can be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
