Tuesday round-up

By Kiera Flynn
on Jul 12, 2011 at 3:16 pm

Commentators continue to discuss the effects that the Court’s June decision in Wal-Mart v. Dukes will have on class-action lawsuits.  At the Huffington Post, Dave Jamieson describes the holding as a vehicle “to give large corporations an upper hand against their employees in court,” citing a California judge’s reliance on the case last week to decertify a class in a suit against Dollar Tree.  In an analysis for Reuters, Moira Herbst argues Wal-Mart has had little or no effect in some cases, but only because judges have concluded that it did not apply to the case before them.

Yesterday, a new cert. petition was filed in a case involving whether the Constitution protects the rights of same-sex couples as parents.  Lyle Denniston reports on the facts of the case, Adar v. Smith (11-46), here.  The Dallas Voice, Talk Radio News Service, LGBTQ Nation, and the Associated Press (via the Wall Street Journal) all have additional coverage.

Briefly:

• The Wall Street Journal Law Blog discusses the suggestion by Justice John Paul Stevens that he may have retired too early.
• At the Weekly Standard, Adam J. White explains why, in his view, Justice Samuel Alito “has emerged as the Court’s Burkean justice” after his opinions in three recent free speech cases:  Snyder v. Phelps, Brown v. EMA, and United States v. Stevens.
• The Legal Pulse blog of the Washington Legal Foundation interviews former Solicitor General Gregory Garre on the Solicitor General’s Office, the October 2010 Term, and the Court’s shrinking docket.