Thursday round-up

With the Court in recess until next week, coverage remains focused on the Justices consideration of the Affordable Care Act.

At Balkinization, Rick Pildes responds to Paul Carringtons Monday op-ed in the New York Times (featured in yesterdays round-up), which urged Congress to consider a court-packing plan if the Court strikes down the health care law. And at the Volokh Conspiracy, Randy Barnett rebuts the premise of an Associated Press story (also featured in yesterdays round-up) which suggested that the Justices may have misunderstood the availability of stripped-down insurance that would satisfy the individual mandate. Debra Cassens Weiss of the ABA Journal reports on the use of Lochner as an epithet during the public debate over the constitutionality of health care. And a recent poll shows that half of Americans expect the Justices to rule in the health care cases based primarily on their partisan political views; Robert Barnes and Scott Clement of the Washington Post report on the poll, while Jonathan Adler of the Volokh Conspiracy explains why its hard to see how the finding headlined by the Post is all that significant.

Briefly:

• Florida Today reports that a convicted Florida serial killer asked the Court to stay his execution, which is scheduled for this evening.
• In an op-ed for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Ryan J. Owens argues that the modern court is just as activist as previous courts.
• David Phelps of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that businessman Tom Petters has asked the Court to review his conviction.
• The editorial boards of the Longmont (Colo.) TimesCall and the Hudson Valley (N.Y.) Times Herald-Record criticize the Courts recent decision in Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders. [Disclosure: The law firm of Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys contribute to this blog in various capacities, represents the petitioner in Florence.]
• UPI and the Associated Press (via the Sacramento Bee) report on the Courts recent denial of cert. in a case involving a schoolteachers display of banners referencing God in his classroom.
• Annalise Mantz of the USC Daily Trojan reports on Justice Scalias recent remarks at USCs Gould School of Law
• Yesterday all four current and former female Justices attended a ceremony marking the thirtieth anniversary of Justice Sandra Day OConnors first Term on the Court. C-SPAN, the Associated Press, and Mike Sacks of the Huffington Post all have coverage.
• At this blog, Ross Guberman of Legal Writing Pro looks at the governments brief in the health care cases.