Round-Up

Justice Breyer acknowledged his “difficult year” in the opening assembly of the American Bar Association’s annual meeting, but he also discussed his pride in a legal system in which contentious issues are worked out “in the courts, not in the streets.” Read more of his message on judicial independence and the role of law in Tony Mauro’s piece for the Legal Times.

Given liberal disappointment with Supreme Court decisions last term, Jamin Raskin at Slate reviews lower courts that “have been acting with vigor to protect the rights of the people.”

Kenneth Jost of the CQ Press weighs in on the DC gun control case and concludes that it’s possible that the District may be able to show “that it has a compelling interest in the safety and security of its citizens sufficient to uphold reasonable regulation of private possession of firearms.” Orin Kerr at The Volokh Conspiracy comments on Jost’s column, here, agreeing and disagreeing with different parts of Jost’s predictions.

Michael C. Dorf discusses the Court’s decision in Bell Atlantic Corp v. Twombly, a decision Dorf says “wreaks havoc in the lower federal courts.”

Discussion about the effect of the Court’s rightward shift on the 2008 presidential elections continues. Carrie Budoff for the Politico offers this article to the mix.