In all the hubbub over the Sotomayor nomination and the Prop. 8 decision, we made no mention of the important decisions that came out of the Supreme Court yesterday. One case overturned a New York law on Supremacy Clause grounds, another ruled that illegal drug buys made over phone lines don't deserve more prison time than face-to-face purchases, and the third did away with Michigan v. Jackson and gave police more leeway when interrogating suspects without their lawyers present.
You can find FindLaw's summaries of the cases and links to the opinions below:
President Barack Obama announced today that he will nominate 2nd Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the United States Supreme Court. If confirmed, she will become the first Latina, and the third woman overall, to serve on the Court.
Judge Sotomayor has been mentioned as the top possibility for the nomination ever since Justice Souter announced his retirement at the end of the Supreme Court's current term. While some observers felt that Elena Kagan, the Solicitor General, might get the nod, or that the President might select a more obscure figure, Sotomayor's name has always been widely considered to be at the top of the list.
Lawyers will often burst into laughter when reading judicial decisions, but that is rarely the author's true intent.
Sometimes, however, judges decide to shake off the seriousness that hangs about those black robes and throw out opinions meant to show that the law, in fact, can be fun.
(For them, anyway. I doubt that the losing party ever sees anything funny in opinions.)
Having never been President of the United States, I can't imagine how difficult it must be to narrow down the roster of potential Supreme Court nominees to a short list, and then to a single individual.
Not only are there the issues of whether or not the individual is a talented jurist, in line with the President's ideology, a student of history, plays well with others, etc., but there's also the pesky question of whether the Senate will actually confirm the nominee. Not to mention the possibility of a long-closeted skeleton hopping out and dancing a jig on the Senate floor while accepting tips and loud praise from the Republican side of the aisle.
After many years on the bench, and many sentences delivered, U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent had to sit on the other side of the courtroom today and listen to a judge hand down a 33 month sentence against him for obstruction of justice during an investigation into alleged sexual abuse.
Two former workers at the Galveston courthouse where Kent sat as a district judge claimed that Kent had engaged in non-consensual sexual contact with them. A federal grand jury indicted Kent on sexual abuse and obstruction of justice charges last August.
Many organizations have begun calling for the resignation or impeachment of Judge Jay Bybee of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Nevada after the Obama administration's released Bush-era torture memos in which the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department sanctioned the use of interrogation devices that many characterize as torture.
Judge Bybee was the head of that office at the time, and he signed the legal memorandums that approved of such coercive techniques as waterboarding, wall-slamming and sleep deprivation. Then-President George Bush later appointed Bybee to the Ninth Circuit.
Republicans have indicated that Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) will become the ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee - the committee that could eventually block President Barack Obama's nominee to replace Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court.
Sessions replaces Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA), who recently crossed the aisle to join the Democrats after a long career as a Republican.
Let the nomination games begin:
After 19 years on the nation's highest court, Justice David Souter will retire from the Supreme Court after the conclusion of the Court's business in June, according to a source close to the justice.
Souter will finally be able to leave Washington DC - a city for which the Justice made no attempt to conceal his disdain - once and for all and return permanently to his beloved New Hampshire.
