Monday round-up
on Nov 12, 2012 at 1:24 pm
As Lyle reported last week, the Court granted cert. in four new cases on Friday. Additional coverage of the Court’s grant in Shelby County v. Holder – the challenge to the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act – comes from Bloomberg, NPR, The New York Times, the Associated Press, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, ABC, Politico, Roll Call, McClatchy Newspapers, the Election Law Blog, and the Constitutional Law Prof Blog. The case has also already begun to generate commentary, with the editorial board of The New York Times urging the Court to uphold Section 5 on the ground that “[o]vert discrimination clearly persists and remains pernicious in places like Shelby County”; writing for the Huffington Post, Doug Kendall argues that if the nation’s “experience over the last 12 months proves anything, it’s that the Voting Rights Act is as vital today as it was in 1965 when originally passed.” And at The Atlantic, Garrett Epps suggests that the Court’s decision “will give us a clue to how the conservative majority has reacted to the Democratic victory and the changing face of politics.”
The weekend’s clippings also included coverage of Maryland v. King, in which the Court will consider whether it violates the Fourth Amendment rights of an individual who is arrested and charged with a serious crime, but not convicted, for police to take an involuntary DNA sample. Coverage comes from Bloomberg, the Associated Press, Reuters, the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, the Blog of the Legal Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and Wired’s Threat Level blog. Finally, Bloomberg and Reuters have coverage of Friday’s grant in American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant, in which the Court will consider whether the Federal Arbitration Act allows courts to invalidate arbitration agreements on the ground that they do not permit class arbitration of a federal-law claim.
Briefly:
- Robert Barnes of The Washington Postand UPI‘s Michael Kirkland examine how the legalization of same-sex marriage in three states – Maine, Maryland, and Washington – might affect the Court’s decision whether to hear the challenge to California’s Proposition 8.
- NPR and Greg Stohr of Bloomberg discuss the prospect that President Obama will have a chance to nominate another Justice to the Court before his second term ends and consider the possible candidates.
- On Sesame Street, Justice Sonia Sotomayor convinces Abby Cadabby to give up her lifelong dream and go to law school instead.
