Today at the Court

No opinions or non-capital orders are expected.  This morning the Court will hear oral arguments in the following cases:

~10 a.m. — In Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha v. Regal-Beloit Corporation (08-1553), consolidated with Union Pacific Railroad Company v. Regal-Beloit Corporation (08-1554), the Court will consider how the Carmack Amendment to the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 applies to terms of shipment agreements between cargo carriers and their customers.  Last week Kevin Russell of Howe & Russell discussed the issues in the case for SCOTUSblog.

~11 a.m. — At issue in  Magwood v. Patterson (09-198) is whether, when a person is re-sentenced after having obtained federal habeas relief from an earlier sentence, a claim in a federal habeas petition challenging that new sentencing judgment is a “second or successive” claim under 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b) if the petitioner could have challenged his previous sentence on the same constitutional grounds.  Harvard Law School student Jay Rapaport previewed the case earlier for SCOTUSblog. [Disclosure:  Howe & Russell and Akin Gump represent the petitioner in this case in connection with their work with the Stanford Law School Supreme Court Clinic, but Jay Rapaport was not involved in the case.]