Wednesday round-up

By Kiran Bhat
on Aug 31, 2011 at 8:13 am

Justice Ginsburg spoke on Monday as part of a lecture series at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law.  During her speech, she touched on topics such as her work on the Court, her relationship with now-retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and balancing work with motherhood.  Justice Ginsburg also addressed the confirmation process, telling the crowd that her work with the American Civil Liberties Union would likely disqualify her from consideration for a vacancy on the Court today.  The Associated Press (via the Houston Chronicle), ACSblog, and ABA Journal all have coverage.

Writing for the Christian Science Monitor, John Paul Rollert examines two opinions by Justice Sonia Sotomayor – her dissenting opinion in Cullen v. Pinholster and her majority opinion in Wood v. Allen – and concludes that Republican fears that the Justice would use an “empathy standard” when applying the law were unfounded. Rather, Rollert contends, the two opinions illustrate how Justice Sotomayor has consistently “threaded the needle between empathy and equal justice by a jurisprudence of procedural care.”

Finally, SCOTUSblog began a new symposium on class actions yesterday. In the opening article, Scott Dodson of William & Mary Law School argues that although the class action “was designed to be a public benefit,” recent Court decisions have made the class action “decidedly persona non grata.” The entire symposium can be found here.