Monday round-up

By James Bickford
on Jan 3, 2011 at 12:57 pm

Happy New Year to all.  With a quiet week at the Court, news coverage focused on the Chief Justice’s annual report on the federal Judiciary, in which he described both “a persistent problem . . . in the process of filling judicial vacancies” and “an urgent need for the political branches to find a long-term solution to this recurring problem.”  The Chief Justice also announced that the Court would request a smaller appropriation. Coverage of the report appears in the Associated Press (via Miami Herald), Bloomberg News, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Blog of Legal Times, Sentencing Law and Policy Blog, and on this blog.  The report itself is available here.

The year’s end brought several reflections on the Court’s newest Justices.  In the New York Times, Adam Liptak discusses (among other things) several recent dissents from denials of certiorari, three of which were written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor.  In the USA Today, Joan Biskupic similarly observes that that “Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has set herself apart from colleagues with her fervent statements protesting the majority’s refusal to take some appeals, particularly involving prisoners.”  And Nina Totenberg of NPR reviews Justice Elena Kagan’s first months on the Court, concluding that Justice Kagan “seems to be settling into her new job with remarkable ease.”  In the Los Angeles Times, David Savage discusses the approaches of Justices Sotomayor and Kagan to oral argument, suggesting that “[i]f Sotomayor’s role is to punch and jab as the liberal foil to Scalia, Kagan’s approach is more that of the bridge builder.” Ruthann Robson of Constitutional Law Prof Blog discusses these articles.

Meanwhile, new video is now available of interviews with the Justices: Linda Greenhouse speaks with retired Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and David Souter here, while C-SPAN interviews Justice Kagan.

Of course, the new year also brings new cases.  The Syracuse Post-Standard previews Madison County v. Oneida Indian Nation, while Mike Sacks of First One @ One First discusses Bond v. United States; both are scheduled for argument in February.

Finally, the editorial board of the New York Times offers its take on the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court building and the state of the Roberts Court.