Friday round-up

RACHEL SACHS NOV 30, 2012 9:04 AM

Thursday’s coverage of the Court focused on the ten same-sex marriage petitions that the Justices are scheduled to consider at their Conference today.   The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, USA Today, ABC News, CBS News, and The Hill have general coverage of the issues.  Amy covered the petitions and the different issues they present for this blog in plain English.

For this blog, Lyle concluded his four-part series on the same-sex marriage petitions by outlining the different ways in which the Court might grant certiorari, on the five main legal issues presented by the ten petitions.  At Slate, Emily Bazelon discusses what the Court should do, arguing that it should “take the step-by-step path” and decide to hear one or more of the DOMA challenges, rather than the Proposition 8 petition.  The editorial board of the Los Angeles Times, however, argues that the Court should grant certiorari on the Proposition 8 case and “consider it in the broadest constitutional terms,” urging it to “rule clearly that Proposition 8 and other bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional.”  And for this blog, Tom considers the petitions through a historical lens, noting that these cases “would have been decided by the Justices’ predecessors one way and would be decided by the Justices’ successors another way.”

Briefly:

• JURIST recaps Wednesday’s oral arguments in Henderson v. United States, in which the Court is considering the applicability of plain error review where governing law that is unsettled at the trial stage is settled in the defendant’s favor by the time the case is appealed.
• Doug Berman at the Sentencing Law and Policy blog reports on a decision Thursday by the Fourth Circuit in which it applied the Court’s opinion last Term in Southern Union Co. v. United States, holding that Apprendi v. New Jersey applies to the imposition of criminal files, to hold that Apprendi does not apply to restitution awards.
• Both Lawrence Hurley at E&E Publishing and Holly Doremus at Legal Planet preview Monday’s oral arguments in Decker v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center, in which the Court will consider whether the Clean Water Act requires permits to be obtained for stormwater runoff from logging roads. [Disclosure: Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys work for or contribute to this blog in various capacities, serves as counsel to the respondent in this case.]
• On Tuesday, Justice Scalia appeared on Charlie Rose to discuss a wide range of legal issues.  A video of the interview is available here (h/t Rick Hasen).
• At The Atlantic, Andrew Cohen notes some of the changes in the law that have taken place in Chief Justice Robert’s tenure on the Court.

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