Today at the Court

The Court is expected to release orders at 10 a.m.  Then it will hear oral arguments in three cases:

~10 a.m. – In Berghuis v. Thompkins (08-1470), the Court will consider whether a criminal defendant waives his Fifth Amendment rights when he is given a Miranda warning and verbally acknowledges that he understands his rights, but he neither invokes nor waives them explicitly. Ray Seilie of Harvard Law School discussed the case yesterday for SCOTUSblog.

~11 a.m. – The Court will hear argument in Holland v. Florida (09-5327) regarding whether, in a capital case, the time to file a habeas plea should be extended due to the defense lawyer’s negligence.  Harvard Law School student Kate Wevers previews the case here.

~1 p.m. – In the afternoon argument, Skilling v. United States (08-1394), the Court will consider the constitutionality and scope of the “honest services” fraud law and whether in a criminal case the government must rebut a presumption of jury prejudice when there is extensive pre-trial publicity regarding a case.  Lyle Denniston analyzed the arguments in the case last week on SCOTUSblog.