Tuesday round-up

By Adam Schlossman
on Aug 24, 2010 at 10:25 am

At Balkinization, Jason Mazzone analyzes an assertion made by now-retired Justice Stevens in his dissenting opinion in McDonald v. Chicago – that provisions of the Bill of Rights do not need to apply the same way everywhere.  Although Justices Alito and Scalia criticized this view in their plurality and concurring opinions, respectively, as “aggrandizing judicial power,” Mazzone counters that such criticisms “do not recognize Stevens’ particular focus on delineating the proper role of federal courts,” and “miss much of the richness of Stevens’ federalism argument.”

In his Sidebar column for the New York Times, Adam Liptak profiles Todd Crespi, a courtroom artist who lacks Supreme Court press credentials but is nonetheless noted for his sketches of scenes from the Court.

Yesterday the ACLU of Virginia yesterday filed a petition for certiorari challenging a ban on alcohol advertising in Virginia’s college newspapers. The AP (via the Washington Post’s Breaking News Blog), the Charlottesville Daily Progress, and Rockbridge Weekly all provide coverage.

At First One @ One First, Mike Sacks examines how higher-education affirmative action issues might play out in the Roberts Court over the next several years.

On the prospects of Proposition 8 before the Supreme Court, Brandon Bartels of Concurring Opinions “has little doubt” that the Court will overturn California’s ban on same-sex marriage and “declare a constitutional right to gay marriage,” while Appellate Daily concludes that Prop 8’s supporters “have far more to lose” in the Supreme Court than its opponents.