Monday round-up

By James Bickford
on Oct 18, 2010 at 9:39 am

After two weeks of oral arguments, the Court has returned to chambers until November.  In the Washington Post, Robert Barnes looks back at the cases heard thus far.  Barnes notes that although Constitutional cases get the most attention, the Justices’ “work more often is deciphering the muddy language of legislative compromise or even the ambiguous words of their predecessors on the bench.”  He highlights Bruesewitz v. Wyeth, Skinner v. Switzer, and Kasten v. Saint-Gobain.  Matthew Santoni of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has a piece on the Bruesewitz family and the Wall Street Journal has an editorial on the case, while Brandon Garrett of ACSblog comments on Skinner.

Harriet Robbins Ost reports on Snyder v. Phelps for UPI, which has another analysis of the case here.  The Daily American (Somerset County, PA) argues that the Snyder family should prevail, as does New York’s Oneonta Star.  Gregory Bien of California’s Merced Sun-Star takes the opposite point of view; Florida’s Sun-Sentinel and St. Petersburg Times agree.  MLive.com provides the local reaction in Flint, MI.

In the Los Angeles Times, David Savage reports on a recent survey which found that “if American public opinion is the measure, the Roberts court has made the right call in most of its major decisions since” Justice Samuel Alito was confirmed.  Notable exceptions were Boumediene and Citizens United, which both contravened public opinion.  At Sentencing Law and Policy Blog, Douglas Berman provides a link to the underlying study and notes that the public also disagrees with Kennedy v. Louisiana, which held that the death penalty could not be imposed as a punishment for child rape.

Last Wednesday, Justice Alito delivered the annual Wriston Lecture to the Manhattan Institute.  Previous lecturers have included Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas; the video of Justice Alito’s lecture is here. (Thanks to Howard Bashman and How Appealing for the link.)  Mark Sherman of the Associated Press (via the Forth Worth Star-Telegram) reports on Justice Alito’s comment that he doubts he will attend the State of the Union address in January.

And finally, ACSblog features a panel discussion on gun regulation after Heller and McDonald.