Tuesday round-up
on Aug 13, 2013 at 12:40 pm
Briefly:
- At 1 p.m. today, Roberta Kaplan – who argued on behalf of Edith Windsor in United States v. Windsor, her successful challenge to the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act – will discuss the case and answer questions at HuffPost Live.
- At USA Today, Richard Wolf reports on recent efforts to increase transparency at the Court, which include not only calls for the Court to make video and audio of its proceedings available to the public, but also proposals to have better access to the Justices’ financial disclosure statements and a formal code of ethics for the Justices.
- As Tom reported on Friday for this blog, Ian Gershengorn has been named the new Principal Deputy Solicitor General. At The BLT, Tony Mauro has more details on the position and Gershengorn’s background.
- At the Cato Institute’s blog, Ilya Shapiro discusses the amicus brief that Cato recently filed inWoollard v. Gallagher, a Maryland resident’s challenge to a state law that requires an applicant for a handgun license to show “a good and substantial reason to wear, carry, or transport a handgun as a reasonable precaution against apprehended danger.”
- As Lyle reported for this blog last month, the Electronic Privacy Information Center has asked the Court to overrule a federal court’s order authorizing the government to collect telephone and other data from U.S. customers. The Cato Institute has filed an amicus brief in support of EPIC, which authors Jim Harper and Randy Barnett discuss at Cato’s blog.
- At ACSblog, Alexander Wohl – the author of a book on Justice Tom Clark and his son, Ramsey – observes the fiftieth anniversary of what he describes as “one of the Court’s most significant modern decisions reaffirming a different principle of individual liberty – government neutrality in matters of religion”: the Court’s decision (authored by Justice Clark) in Schempp v. Abingdon School District, in which the Court invalidated a state law requiring public school students to begin each school day with a reading from the Bible and the Lord’s Prayer.
- Adam Liptak of The New York Times reports on Marek v. Lane, a challenge to a settlement between Facebook and its users in a privacy class action. The Ninth Circuit upheld the settlement, which compensates the plaintiffs’ lawyers but does not give anything to the class members; lawyers challenging the settlement have now asked the Court to review the Ninth Circuit’s decision.
Disclosure: Kevin Russell of the law firm of Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys work for or contribute to this blog in various capacities, is among the counsel on an amicus brief in support of Ms. Windsor in United States v. Windsor. However, the author of this post is not affiliated with the law firm.
