Every post published in February 2006, most recent first.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Tuesday that the federal Hobbs Act does not outlaw acts or threats of violence, thus undercutting a verdict and a nationwide injunction that abortion clinics had won against anti-abortion demonstrators.
The Supreme Court devoted a lively two-hour session Tuesday to money in politics and money in family feuds, giving strong hints along the way that Vermont may not succeed in arguing that its politicians are being corrupted, and that a woman best known as a topless dancer may soon be considerably wealthier.
The Supreme Court on Monday issued its regular orders list. No new cases were granted, and there was no action on the pending appeal by Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen challenging his detention as an “enemy combatant” (Padilla v. Hanft, 05-533). Few of the actions on the list were noteworthy.
Here is an article from the New Yorker by Jeffrey Toobin on the Texas redistricting cases. Here is a CNN article about a speech Justice Scalia gave Saturday at the National Wild Turkey Federation’s annual convention.
At 6:30pm on Wednesday March 1st, The American Constitution Society is hosting a panel discussion titled: “The Advocates Speak: Texas Redistricting Cases.” The cases are League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry, 05-204; Travis County v. Perry, 05-254; Jackson v. Perry, 05-276; and GI Forum of Texas v. Perry, 05- 439.
(This is another in a continuing series of reports on the impact that Supreme Court decisions have on later cases. The ruling discussed here is a sequel to the Court’s Jan. 18 ruling in the case of Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England [04-1144], limiting court orders in abortion cases.)
The Court will hear reargument in No. 04-473, Garcetti v. Ceballos, on Tuesday, March 21st, at 1:00. (Can anyone identify the last time the Court heard reargument in the same term that a case was first argued? I believe the answer is Slack v. McDaniel, in October Term 1999, see 528 U.S. 949 (1999).)
The Solicitor General on Thursday filed the federal government’s brief on the merits in the case challenging the war crimes “military commissions” set up for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 05-184).
After an individual has been convicted of murder, that person has no constitutional right to try to head off a death sentence by trying to offer new evidence suggesting that the conviction itself was invalid, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Wednesday.
On February 25th, C-SPAN’s program, “American and the Courts” will air its tape of an event yesterday in which Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia talked about the role of international and foreign law in American judicial decision-making at the American Enterprise Institute.