Monday Round-up

With oral arguments today in Graham v. Florida, Sullivan v. Florida, and Bilski v. Kappos, juvenile justice and patent issues dominated SCOTUS news over the weekend.

On Sunday, The New York Times had commentary from two lawyers who filed amicus briefs in the Graham and Sullivan cases:  Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project and Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation.

In an op-ed piece in today’s Boston Globe, Dr. Paul Farmer points out that the U.S. and Somalia are the only countries in the world that haven’t ratified Article 37 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which bans participants from sentencing children to life in prison.

USA Today and the AP via The Washington Post have stories previewing today’s arguments. And The Miami Herald, NPR and CNN have in-depth coverage of the cases.

On Saturday, The New York Times editorial board came out against patent protections on processes devised by technology companies, hedge funds and other businesses. The editorial board urged the Supreme Court to rule in favor of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Bilski, explaining that “[i]f the court sides with these patent applicants it would open the door for all sorts of ‘processes,’” and thereby “lock up all sorts of techniques — including abstract ways of thinking about future events — that should not properly belong to anyone.”

The AP via the Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal and The Christian Science Monitor also preview the Bilski case.

Walter Dellinger might have missed the season finale of Mad Men on Sunday.  Dellinger, a legendary Supreme Court litigator, is a big fan of the show. Before he hopped on a flight to China on Saturday he asked Jess Bravin of The Wall Street Journal how to find the show in Shanghai.