Friday round-up

KALI BORKOSKI OCT 8, 2010 10:51 AM

Wednesday’s argument in Snyder v. Phelps continues to make headlines.  C-Span has posted video coverage of an interview with Margie Phelps, who argued the case on behalf of the respondents, and Timothy Nieman, who filed an amicus brief supporting the Snyder family. At Cato@Liberty, Ilya Shapiro discusses the case, predicting that the Phelps family will prevail in a vote of eight to one and concluding that “in this instance, really weird and repugnant speech makes for a lot of sound and fury signifying very little.” By contrast, Howard Wasserman at PrawfsBlawg concludes after having read the transcript of the argument that he has “no idea how this is going to come out.”  Writing for the First Amendment Center, Tony Mauro has highlights and analysis from the argument, as do Jim Lichtman at The Huffington Post and Andrew Cohen for the BBC.  And John Roberts of CNN’s American Morning interviewed Albert Snyder, the petitioner in the case, yesterday.

Kagan drew praise from David Hudson at the First Amendment Center, who believes that she asked “the key question” during arguments.

In The National Law Journal, Tony Mauro has an interview with Justice Breyer regarding his book and his work. Jeffrey Brown of the PBS News Hour also had an interview with the Justice last night. (Thanks to How Appealing for the links).

Briefly:

• At The Volokh Conspiracy, Jonathan Adler disputes the characterization of the Roberts Court as “pro-business.”
• Ken Jost of Jost on Justice discusses the new biography of Justice Brennan and, in particular, whether Justices Brennan and Marshall “arguably stayed on the court too long.”
• At its Text and History blog, the Constitutional Accountability Center discusses the brief that it filed in AT&T Mobility, LLC v. Concepcion.
• On The Hill’s Congress Blog Senator Benjamin L. Cardin discusses why diversity is important to the Court, the American judiciary as a whole, and Americans in general.
• At the The Volokh Conspiracy, David Bernstein acknowledges the “impressive lineup of speakers this morning” for a Georgetown University Law Center conference on Justice Stevens but also laments the fact that the conference is “devoid of critical perspectives.” 
• The Times-Picayune’s Jonathan Tilove reports on Wednesday’s argument in Connick v. Thompson.
• According to the latest Gallup Poll, fifty-one percent of Americans approve of the job that the Court is doing.   At  the Top of the Ticket Blog of the Los Angeles Times, Andrew Malcolm discusses the poll results.
• ACSBlog has an interview with Jeff Clements, general counsel to Free Speech for the People, discussing the Court’s decision in Citizens United and the possibility of amending the Constitution to overturn the decision.

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