Round-Up

The AP’s Mark Sherman has this midterm review of the Supreme Court reporting on the Chief Justice’s recent dissent in the Texas capital cases, Kennedy’s voting record and the Court’s interest in the death penalty.

At Deliberations, Anne Reed has this post about the lack of clarity surrounding death penalty instructions for jurors, as exhibited by the Court’s opinions on Wednesday. Here, Doug Berman of Sentencing Law and Policy discusses Chief Justice Roberts’s dissent in the death penalty rulings. Capital Defense Weekly offers this background on Texas death penalty law.

Caitlin E. Borgman of the Reproductive Rights Prof Blog discusses the aftermath of the Gonzales v. Carhart decision here, referring to this article by Judy Peres in today’s Chicago Tribune. NPR’s Julie Rovner has this audio segment on “Morning Edition” reporting that the Court’s ruling has energized the abortion debate on Capitol Hill. At Part-Time Pundit, John Bambenek has this post analyzing the merits of the Court’s ruling. And University of Chicago Law School Professor Rick Garnett has this op-ed, entitled “Carhart, Casey, and the Supreme Court’s Catholics,” at Jurist.

The Associated Press has this article on the Chief Justice’s decision to deny two requests by Guantanamo Bay detainees to prevent the dismissal of their cases.

Finally, Adam Liptak of the New York Times had this article about where the Supreme Court is headed in last Sunday’s “Week in Review”.