Friday round-up
on May 31, 2013 at 10:50 am
Yesterday’s coverage and commentary focused primarily on opinions that the Court recently issued and those that it is expected to issue in the coming weeks.
At ACSblog, Brandon Garrett and Lee Kovarsky examine this week’s decisions in McQuiggin v. Perkins and Trevino v. Thaler, two habeas decisions that allow “two different gateways through procedural obstacles to federal habeas review,” while at Harmless Error Luke Rioux analyzes last week’s decision in Metrish v. Lancaster, in which the Court held that Michigan could deny a defendant accused of murder a legal defense that he previously had but then lost the right to use at a second trial.
At Education Week’s School Law blog, Mark Walsh observes that the “lengthy gestation period” of the Court’s forthcoming decision in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin “has ramped up speculation among high court observers about the likely outcomes of the case,” and he outlines some of the possible scenarios for resolving the case. At JURIST, Eric Segall discusses Fisher in the context of the same-sex marriage cases, United States v. Windsor and Hollingsworth v. Perry; he contends that “the reasons why the Court should recognize same-sex marriage shed light on why the Court must allow the states and the federal government to use affirmative action if they so desire.” And on a related note, PBS will air a documentary on Sunday afternoon on the history of race and university admissions, particularly as affected by past Supreme Court decisions.
Finally, in an op-ed for CNN, Scott Berkowitz discusses Maryland v. King, in which the Court is considering whether the Fourth Amendment allows the states to collect and analyze DNA from people arrested and charged with serious crimes. “Blocking law enforcement from collecting DNA from people arrested for violent crimes,” Berkowitz writes, “would be an enormous step backward in our country’s fight against sexual violence.”
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