The US Senate is scheduled to vote on cloture today for the nomination of U.S. District Judge David F. Hamilton to a seat on the Seventh Circuit.  Leading Republicans have so far filibustered the nomination in response to what they see as Hamilton's liberal social agenda, and have vowed to keep the filibuster going as long as possible.

Never mind the fact that Hamilton has been lauded as a moderate by both Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar - a Republican from Hamilton's home state - and the president of Indiana's chapter of the conservative Federalist Society.  Lugar plans to cross party lines and vote for a motion that will allow a final vote on Hamilton's nomination.

Also disregard the fact that the GOP condemned the Democrats' use of the filibuster to block several of George Bush's judicial nominees, even going so far as to call it unconstitutional and threatening to remove the use of filibusters from the judicial confirmation process altogether.

It's not all hard work at the Supreme Court these days, apparently. 

While the Court is currently wrapping up the first month of the 2009 October Term, some of the justices have snuck out of the dreary confines of One First Street and gone out on the town(s) for a taste of the nightlife.

C-SPAN has taped a documentary on the Supreme Court that shows some of the justices' private sides. 

For instance: Sonia Sotomayor, like so many Americans, doesn't want to sell her primary residence right now because the real estate market's still down a well. 

In an interview with the network, Sotomayor admits that concerns over the state of the market have prevented her from selling her Greenwich Village condo, even though she's currently shopping around for a new pad in D.C. 

Is the Supreme Court getting lazy?

Adam Liptak explores the Supreme Court's Incredible Shrinking Docket in a column in the New York Times today, and lists some of the theories that have been bandied about to explain the sharp drop in the number of cases that the Court hears each term.

In the early '80's, the Court heard over 150 cases each term; now it decides around half that amount.

It must have been a scary afternoon at One First Street yesterday.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the 76 year-old justice who had surgery for pancreatic cancer earlier this year, reported feeling faint after a treatment for anemia and was taken to Washington Hospital Center.

U.S. District Judge Stephen G. Larson has announced that he's stepping down from the federal bench because he's not making enough money to support his family, which includes seven children all under the age of 18.

Larson's announcement on Tuesday that he would leave his seat in the Central District of California has reignited the ongoing debate on judicial salaries and their effect (or lack of effect) on the federal judiciary. 

Chief Justice John Roberts of the US Supreme Court stated in 2006 that the low judicial salaries have "now reached a level of constitutional crisis." 

US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has had a good run so far.

At 89, he's currently the second-oldest person to serve on the Court (behind Oliver Wendell Holmes), and his more than 33 years on the court places him seventh on the list of the longest-serving justices.

So, after all that, is Stevens, a key member of the Court's liberal wing, thinking of hanging up his gavel and robe?

I've written about Texas Judge Sharon Keller's disciplinary trial for closing her courthouse to a last-minute death row appeal while meeting with a repairman several times. 

While there can be an honest divergence of opinion about whether what Judge Keller did was unethical or unprofessional, if the allegations against this other Texas judge prove true, there is no question that he's guilty of some serious professional misconduct and at least a little criminal behavior.

Harris County Criminal Court-at-Law Judge Donald W. Jackson stands accused of official oppression, a misdemeanor, for allegedly offering to obtain a different attorney for a defendant in exchange for sex. 

Thomas Spargo, a former N.Y. State Supreme Court Justice was convicted by a federal jury today in Albany today of attempted extortion and bribery.

According to his original indictment (see below), in 2003 Spargo solicited a $10,000 bribe from any attorney who had cases pending before him. At trial, it federal prosecutors proved that when the attorney refused to pay the bribe, the Judge called the attorney on the telephone and told him that he and another judge in New York's Ulster County were assigned to handle divorce cases, including the attorney's own pending divorce case.

The message was clear: while he was sitting on the bench, then-Justice Spargo suggested that the attorney's failure to pay the bribe could have potentially negative personal and professional repercussions.

The attorney for Judge Sharon Keller, the Texas judge accused of misconduct for closing the courthouse doors to a last-minute death-row appeal while she was at home with a repairman, has wrapped up his closing argument and ended the hearings that will help determine whether Keller will remain on the bench as the presiding judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals

Unfortunately, the waiting game now begins.

Keller has five charges of misconduct before the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct (TSCJC) arising out of the execution of Michael Wayne Richard.  On the day Richard was scheduled to be put to death, Keller went home early to meet a repairman.  While she was at home, the court's general counsel called her with an urgent request from Richard's attorneys to keep the clerk's office open past normal office hours so they could file a last-minute appeal.