Tuesday round-up
on Nov 13, 2012 at 9:20 am
With last Tuesday’s victories for same-sex marriage advocates in state ballot measures, coverage continues to focus on the effect that those victories may have on the issue of same-sex marriage at the Court. Jessica Garrison and Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times consider what effect, if any, the measures will have when the Court considers a cert. petition in the case involving California’s Proposition 8, while at Bloomberg View Noah Feldman discusses the prospect that the Court will review the issues of same-sex marriage and medicinal marijuana.
We expect additional orders from the November 9 Conference at 9:30 this morning, followed by one or more opinions at 10:00 a.m.
Briefly:
- With last week’s cert. grant in a challenge to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, Erin Fuchs of Business Insider suggests that the Chief Justice has already tipped his hand on the need for the preclearance requirement.
- At SCOTUSblog, Lee Epstein and Andrew Martin argue that the “Justices of the Roberts Court, like their immediate predecessors, are neither uniform activists nor committed restraintists” while Kali Borkoski interviews Einer Elhauge, author of Obamacare on Trial.
- Bloomberg TV’s Judy Woodruff has a conversation with retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor about the Court’s structure, political spending, civic education, and other topics. (video).
- Following last week’s oral arguments in Smith v. United States, the editorial board of The New York Times urges the Court to reverse the petitioner’s conspiracy convictions for violating his Fifth Amendment due process rights.
- Adam Liptak of The New York Times previews McQuiggin v. Perkins, in which the Court will consider whether there is an “actual innocence exception” to the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act’s requirement that a petitioner show an extraordinary circumstance that “prevented timely filing” of a habeas petition.
- Debra Cassens Weiss of the ABA Journal previews Maryland v. King, in which the Court will consider whether the Fourth Amendment allows the states to collect and analyze DNA from people arrested and charged with serious crimes.
- Also at the ABA Journal, Debra Cassens Weiss previews American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant, in which the Court will consider whether the Federal Arbitration Act permits courts to invalidate arbitration agreements on the ground that they do not permit class arbitration of a federal-law claim.
- The Washington Post’s Reliable Source column, Debra Cassens Weiss of the ABA Journal, and Ruthann Robson of the Constitutional Law Prof Blog all have coverage of Justice Sotomayor’s appearance on Sesame Street last week (video).
- The Associated Press (via The (Columbus, Ohio) Republic) reports that Ohio will execute Brian Hartman today, barring a stay of execution from the Court.
- At the WSJ Law Blog, Jess Bravin reports that the Chief Justice did not invite President Obama to a congratulatory reception at the White House following last week’s election, in line with the Court’s “relatively recent custom” of holding such receptions only for a President’s “maiden victory.”
- At the Miami Herald, David Ovalle examines Florida’s struggles to apply last Term’s decision in Miller v. Alabama, in which the Court held that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juvenile offenders violate the Constitution.
- David Olson of The (San Bernadino, Cal.) Press-Enterprise and Julie Watson of the Associated Press report that on Sunday veterans’ groups rededicated a war memorial cross in the Mojave National Preserve; the memorial was the focus of extensive litigation that culminated in a 2010 decision by the Court, which refused to order the removal of the cross.
- Donna Freydkin of USA Today and the Associated Press (via The Washington Post) report that Glamour Magazine honored Justice Ginsburg at its annual gala in New York’s Carnegie Hall yesterday night.
