Breaking News

Thursday round-up

Coverage continues of the amicus briefs filed earlier this week in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, in which the court will consider the use of race as a factor in the University of Texas’ undergraduate admissions process.  Bob Egelko of the San Francisco Chronicle has coverage of the brief submitted by California Attorney General Kamala Harris, while Zoe Tillman of the Blog of Legal Times reports on the District of Columbia’s decision to join a brief with fourteen states and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  Peter Schmidt has further coverage of the wave of amicus briefs for The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required). 

Briefly:

  • This blog’s symposium marking the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Alexander Bickel’s The Least Dangerous Branch continued with contributions from Floyd Abrams and Adam White.
  • The Associated Press (via The Washington Post) reports that Justice Kennedy criticized the Senate confirmation process for new federal judges as overly politicized in remarks at the Ninth Circuit’s conference in Maui.
  • Elizabeth Fiedler of Newsworks reports on efforts by Pennsylvania inmates sentenced to life without parole for offenses committed as juveniles to secure new sentencing hearings in light of Miller v. Alabama, in which the Court held that the mandatory imposition of such sentences violates the Eighth Amendment.
  • Over at The Originalism Blog, Mike Rappaport responds to a recent essay by Michael Paulsen defending the Chief Justice’s opinion in the healthcare case.

Recommended Citation: Cormac Early, Thursday round-up, SCOTUSblog (Aug. 16, 2012, 9:18 AM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2012/08/thursday-round-up-140/