Tuesday round-up

By Kiran Bhat
on Aug 14, 2012 at 9:56 am

Yesterday the Court granted cert. in Chafin v. Chafin, which presents the question whether an appeal in a case under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction becomes moot if the child involved has returned to her home country. Lyle Denniston of this blog has coverage, as do Jonathan Stempel and Terry Baynes of Reuters.

The federal government filed an amicus brief yesterday in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin.  The government urged the Court to uphold the University of Texas’s use of race in its admissions process. Lyle Denniston of this blog has coverage, as do Greg Stohr of Bloomberg, Robert Barnes of the Washington Post, David Savage of the Los Angeles Times (via the Chicago Tribune), and the Associated Press (via the Washington Post).   Carla Rivera of the L.A. Now blog of the Los Angeles Times and Ruthann Robson of Constitutional Law Prof Blog cover two other amicus briefs that were filed yesterday in support of the University of Texas by the University of California and the Constitutional Accountability Center, respectively.

Briefly:

•  California has announced that it is unlikely that it will be able to comply with the reductions to its prison population ordered by a three-judge panel and upheld by the Court in its 2011 ruling in Brown v. Plata.  UPI has coverage.
• Doug A. Berman of Sentencing Law and Policy links to two articles providing “interesting perspectives on how two counties are trying to figure out just what the Supreme Court’s Miller [v. Alabama] decision means for sentencing law and procedures” in Alabama. The Court in Miller held that the Eighth Amendment prohibits mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole for juvenile homicide offenders.
• This blog finished its symposium on the Supreme Court and the 2012 Election with a post by Geoffrey Stone, who discusses how the composition of the Court may change depending on the results of the election.
• Our symposium on Alexander Bickel and the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of The Least Dangerous Branch begins with a foreword by Ronald Collins, who organized the symposium.
• Andrew Cohen begins a two-part series in The Atlantic on the Supreme Court and the military by tracing the history of Justices who served and speculating about potential Court nominees with military backgrounds.
• At Forbes, Rich Samp urges the Court to review the constitutionality of the Responsible Corporate Officer doctrine, under which corporate agents may face criminal liability for the wrongdoing of their corporations, arguing that “[c]riminal prosecution of corporate executives not shown to have a guilty state of mind (or even to have acted negligently) has long been controversial.”
• Tim Talley of the Associated Press (via the San Francisco Chronicle) reports that Oklahoma is set to execute Michael E. Hooper this evening, pending the Court’s review of a final application for a stay.
• At PrawfsBlawg, Jay Wexler offers the results of his unscientific study of the funniest Justices, based on argument transcripts. Justice Scalia again topped the rankings this Term.
• Frank Pasquale at Concurring Opinions recommends a paper by Robin West – “Justice Roberts’ America” – which he describes as “articulat[ing] the individualism at the core of the Roberts Court.”
• Following up on the coverage in yesterday’s round-up, Molly McDonough of the ABA Journal reports on the amicus brief filed on behalf of former federal judges, prosecutors, and members of Congress, who are urging the Court to grant a petition for certiorari filed by a physician seeking attorney’s fees under the Hyde Amendment for prosecutorial misconduct. [Disclosure: Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys work for or contribute to this blog in various capacities, represents the amici in this case.]
• Steve Eder of the WSJ Law Blog reports that a special master in Portland, Maine will hear a dispute between Kansas and Nebraska over the water in the Republican River Basin and report recommendations to the Court after trial.