Tuesday round-up

NABIHA SYED FEB 7, 2012 9:39 AM

As the Court’s winter recess continues, coverage looks ahead to cases that will soon come before the Court.  As Marissa observed yesterday, much of the focus is on the latest developments in the challenge to the Affordable Care Act. Betsy Goldman of Bloomberg Law (video) discusses how Justice Kennedy might vote in the case, while David Lazarus  discusses the real-world impact of the case in his column for the Los Angeles Times. James Vicini of Reuters (via the Chicago Tribune) summarizes the briefs filed on Monday by the states and the National Federation of Independent Business on the individual mandate question, while Seth Stern of Bloomberg (via the Houston Chronicle) suggests that the health care litigation will  “test the justices’ refusal to allow live broadcasts of their proceedings.”

Courthouse News Service also reports on briefs filed in United States v. Alvarez, in which the Justices will consider the constitutionality of the Stolen Valor Act, a federal law that imposes criminal penalties on individuals who falsely claim to have received military honors.  On this blog, Stephen Wermiel discusses the case and the issues involved in it as part of the blog’s “SCOTUS for law students” series.

Other coverage of the Court looks at the impact of recent decisions. At USA Today, Kevin Johnson reports that the FBI has already cut back on its use of GPS surveillance after last month’s decision in United States v. Jones. And Lawrence Hurley of Greenwire reports on the effects that Wal-Mart v. Dukes, last year’s class action certification case, is having on environmental litigation.

And finally, the Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FECcontinues to draw coverage. Yesterday Marissa linked to a column in the Washington Postin which E.J. Dionne argued that ““[i]n the long run, we have to hope that a future Supreme Court will overturn this monstrosity.” At CATO@Liberty, Roger Pilon and John Samples respond to the column, which Matthew Franck of the National Review lambasts as a “foul calumny on honest public servants.” Rick Hasen of the Election Law Blog links to a webcast in which he discussed judicial elections after Citizens United with Erwin Chemerinsky and James Sample.

Briefly:

• At the WSJ Law Blog, Joe Palazzolo uses the obscene gesture made by singer M.I.A. at Sunday’s Super Bowl as a jumping-off point to discuss FCC v. Fox, the challenge to the FCC’s indecency regime that was argued last month.
• Citing a recent case in which a Missouri teenager confessed to killing his young neighbor, Bill Otis of Crime and Consequences suggests that the Court should reconsider its decision in Roper v. Simmons, in which it held that the death penalty for juveniles is unconstitutional.

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