Friday round-up

Last night, after a closely divided Court denied a stay of execution, Mexican national Humberto Leal Garcia was executed in Texas.  Lyle Denniston’s analysis of the case is here.  At Opinio Juris (h/t to Kenneth Anderson at Volokh), Peggy McGuinness discusses the potential foreign policy implications of yesterday’s decision and – writing before the Court issued its decision denying the stay – warns that “[i]f neither the Supreme Court nor [Texas Governor Rick] Perry grants a stay, the U.S. will once more be responsible for executing a foreign national in violation of international law.  And we can expect even tougher times ahead for American consular and human rights officials trying to convince other states around the world to obey well-established and broadly recognized international law.”  Nina Totenberg at NPR, Adam Liptak at the New York Times, Jess Bravin at the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the National Journal, the Blog of the Legal Times, the ABA Journal, Time Magazine, the Atlantic Wire, CBS, CNN, the Guardian, Christian Science Monitor, Fox News, Politico, the Huffington Post, Sentencing Law and Policy Blog, the Associated Press (via the Washington Post and Boston Globe), the Texas Tribune, and the Dallas Morning News all have coverage.

Analysis of the Court’s decision in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association continues.  Writing for the Opinionator blog of the New York Times, Timothy Egan examines what he describes as a “strange double standard”:  “the notion of a nation that will always be a little skittish about sex, while viewing violence as American as apple pie.”  Additional coverage of the case is provided by the Irish Times.

Briefly:

• At PrawfsBlawg, Allan Erbsen considers what he characterizes as the “heterogeneity problem” in Wal-Mart v. Dukes and concludes that as a result of the decision, “the certification inquiry in proposed class actions seeking damages may begin to focus more directly on the consequences of heterogeneity within the class.”
• Discussing a recent decision by the Sixth Circuit which struck down a Michigan ballot measure that – among other things – banned racial preferences in public higher education, the Wall Street Journal observes that the “University of Michigan’s racial admissions preferences are back from the dead, but probably not for long.” Michigan’s Oakland Tribune has additional coverage.
• Metro Weekly interviews Paul Smith, who successfully argued – among other cases – Brown v. EMA and Lawrence v. Texas.
• At the Legal Talk Network, the Lawyer2Lawyer show reviews OT2010.