Wednesday round-up
on Mar 9, 2016 at 7:22 am
The battle over a possible successor to Justice Antonin Scalia continues to dominate the news. Coverage comes from NPR’s Nina Totenberg, who reports that the president “has begun interviewing candidates” for the vacancy; and Catherine Ho of The Washington Post, who reports that “[s]eventeen major environmental groups are calling on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to hold prompt confirmation hearings and a vote” on the eventual nominee.
Commentary comes from Howard Wasserman, who discusses the timing for a successor at PrawfsBlawg; from Kent Scheidegger, who criticizes the record of Judge Jane Kelly in capital cases at Crime and Consequences; and in an op-ed for USA Today, where Eric Wang argues that, although we “may not know for sure exactly what Scalia would have thought about the merits of the arguments now being made about who should appoint his successor,” “we do know what he would have thought about the robust debate.”
Coverage of the summary reversal in V.L. v. E.L., in which the Justices ruled that states must recognize an adoption by a same-sex parent that occurred in another state, comes from NPR’s Nina Totenberg. Commentary comes from Scott Lemieux, who in The Guardian cites the case as an “example of a fundamental transformation in the rights granted to LGBT people in the United States, with the supreme court shifting from a major barrier to progress to a major instrument progress for gay and lesbian rights”; and from Garrett Epps of The Atlantic, who characterizes the order as “a Writ of Duh.”
Coverage of Wearry v. Cain, the summary reversal of a state court decision denying habeas relief to a death-row inmate, comes from Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed. At Maryland Appellate Blog, Steve Klepper looks at the ruling’s possible effect on State v. Syed, the case at the heart of the Serial podcast. And Court Listener maps out (and links to) the Brady cases cited in Monday’s decision.
At Human Rights at Home Blog, Cynthia Soohoo looks back at last week’s oral argument in the challenge to Texas’s abortion regulations. And in The National Law Journal (subscription or registration required), Tony Mauro reports on what Justice Anthony Kennedy may have said in that argument about Justice Sonia Sotomayor – as well as a broader look at “on-the-bench side comments” more generally.
Briefly:
- In a video for Bloomberg BNA, Kimberly Robinson gets up early in an effort to gain admission to the Court through the public line.
- At PrawfsBlawg, Seth Davis discusses standing and United States v. Texas, the challenge to the Obama administration’s deferred-action removal policy.
- Crimmigration hosted a panel (video) that included Jose Padilla, the petitioner in the landmark case Padilla v. Kennedy.
