Monday round-up

By Andrew Breidenbach
on Nov 22, 2010 at 11:01 am

Justice Scalia made headlines with his comments last week at the Federalist Society’s annual dinner.  In an interview with Jan Crawford of CBS News, the Justice admitted that, if offered the opportunity, he would have considered becoming Chief Justice after the death of the late Chief Justice Rehnquist in 2005.  Justice Scalia explained, however, that he “wouldn’t have liked [the position],” because of the pressure he would have felt to build consensus on the Court.  The Justice also discussed his attendance (or lack thereof) at the State of the Union Address, which he described as a “juvenile spectacle.”  The Associated Press, Huffington Post, Washington Post, Blog of Legal Times, and Crime and Consequences Blog have coverage and commentary.

On Friday, the Senate approved a bill – crafted in response to the Court’s decision last Term in United States v. Stevens – that criminalizes the sale or distribution of so-called “crush” videos. JURIST reports that the “the revised legislation more narrowly defines what constitutes a crush video, excluding videos depicting ‘customary and normal veterinary or agricultural husbandry practices,’ as well as videos of hunting, fishing or trapping.” The Associated Press (via the Washington Post), the Blog of Legal Times and the First Amendment Law Prof Blog also provide coverage.  At PrawfsBlawg, Howard Wasserman expresses doubt that the statute will pass constitutional muster, but in a second post he offers a reluctant defense of the revised statute.

Briefly:

• Richard Mauer of the Anchorage Daily News (via the Miami Herald) argues that “[i]f Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s re-election survives her opponent’s challenges, she will in no small measure owe her historic write-in victory to” the Court’s decision in Citizens United.
• At the Huffington Post, Public Citizen’s David Arkush criticizes AT&T’s reliance on policy arguments regarding allegedly greedy trial lawyers in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, which was argued earlier this month.
• Ronald V. Miller at the Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog predicts a four-four split in Williamson v. Mazda Motor of America, Inc.
• Stephen Richer at Washington Legal Foundation urges the Court to grant cert. in Educational Media Co. at Virginia Tech, Inc. v. Swecker, a case challenging the constitutionality of a regulation preventing alcohol companies from advertising in Virginia college newspapers.
• At Slate, Akhil Amar blames the Court for the near-complete acquittal of Ahmed Ghailani, who was tried in federal court for his role in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.  The Court’s modern exclusionary rule jurisprudence, he argues, “provid[es] windfalls for the guilty and no real comfort for innocent victims of government misconduct.”