The discussion of Monday’s arguments in Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida has continued through the end of the week. At Concurring Opinions, Alex Kreit comments on the arguments, highlighting in particular Chief Justice Roberts’s interest in the role that a juvenile offender’s age could play in Eighth Amendment proportionality review. Kreit speculates that the Chief Justice’s proposal “might provide an avenue for a majority of the Court to come together†on the issue of juvenile life without parole, but cautions that the Justices could still diverge even after agreeing on the basic premise of proportionality. US News & World Report continues its coverage of Graham and Sullivan as well. Gerry Shih, writing for the Bay Area blog of the New York Times, explores the cases’ potential implications for a new San Francisco ordinance banning officials from reporting undocumented juvenile offenders to federal immigration authorities.
Ricci v. DeStefano, the reverse discrimination lawsuit which made headlines at the Court last term, returned to federal district court in New Haven for a determination of – inter alia – who should be promoted and what damages the firefighters who were denied promotions should receive. The New Haven Independent has coverage of the new proceedings. The Court’s June ruling in Caperton v. Massey is back in the news as well: yesterday, the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled in coal company Massey’s favor, following a SCOTUS opinion holding that one of that court’s judges should have recused himself from the case because Massey’s CEO had made large donations to his re-election campaign. Reuters has coverage of the development, as does the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. And at the New York Times, Patrick McGeehan looks back at Kelo v. New London, in which the Court ruled in 2005 that the city could seize private property and turn it over to local developers.
Members of the editorial boards at the Baltimore Sun and the L.A. Times weigh in on Justice Kennedy’s request to vet a high school newspaper’s coverage of his speech at the school At the Sun, Glen McNatt expresses his disappointment with both Justice Kennedy – for making the request – and with the school newspaper for its acquiescence. The L.A. Times‘ Michael McGough concedes that the Justice’s intent was simply to “reconsider the felicity of some of his phraseology,†but notes that standard journalistic practice prohibits interviewees from altering the content of their quotes.
Justice Sotomayor has been making headlines of her own. This month, Latina Magazine named the Justice “Woman of the Decade,†providing a cover story which details Sotomayor’s experiences and accomplishments. An excerpt from the article, which comes out November 17, is available at Latina Magazine’s website.
ACSblog has an interview with USA Today’s Joan Biskupic on her new biography of Justice Scalia. In the interview, Biskupic opens up about her experience writing the book, Scalia’s own responses to her research, and her earlier work profiling retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. (SCOTUSblog’s Tom Goldstein spoke with Biskupic about the book as well; a podcast of their conversation is available here.)
Jurist has coverage of a cert. petition filed Tuesday by lawyers for a group of Uighur detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay, addressing the rights of federal courts require advance notice of detainee transfer (which, in turn, would permit them to rule on any pending legal challenges to the transfer). If certiorari is granted, the case will join Kiyemba v. Obama (“Kiyemba Iâ€), which also tests the rights of federal courts to rule on the release of detainees in military custody. On Wednesday, Lyle Denniston wrote about the new cert. petition for SCOTUSblog.
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