Today at the Court

The Court is expected to release one or more opinions at 10 a.m., which we will blog live. Oral arguments are also scheduled in two cases:

~10 a.m. -In Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project (08-1498; 09-89), the Court will consider whether a federal statute prohibiting the knowing provision of “any service, training, [or] expert advice or assistance” to a designated foreign terrorist organization is unconstitutionally vague.  Lyle Denniston’s discussion of the case is here.

~11 a.m. – In United States v. O’Brien and Burgess (08-1569), the Court will consider whether a mandatory minimum sentence enhancement when the firearm used is a machine gun is an element of the offense that must be charged and proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt, or instead a sentencing factor that may be found by a judge by the preponderance of the evidence.  Leif Overvold, a student at Harvard Law School, previewed the case earlier for SCOTUSblog.