Death Penalty The Flordia Supreme Court has rejected convicted murderer Arthur Rutherford's claim that an American Bar Association report uncovers serious flaws in the state's death penalty. In a 6-0 ruling the court states ""The ABA report is a compilation of previously available information," according to an Associated Press story in the Gainsville Sun. The opinion is here. Rutherford is scheduled for execution on Wednesday, October 18.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia squared off with ACLU head Nadine Strossen in a televised debate Sunday. On policy issues such as homosexual and abortion rights he said "Whether it's good or bad is not my job. My job is simply to say if those things you find desirable are contained in the Constitution," according to an Associated Press story in Forbes by Hope Yen. Video is available through the CSPAN site.

Search & Seizure In a divided opinion, the Alaska Supreme Court has declined to overturn an appeals court which suppressed drugs found by police in a Terry search of the driver of a car, ruling that there was not sufficient cause to justify the search. The facts surrounding the search, as reported in a story in today's Anchorage Daily News, seem to be quite enough to meet the reasonable suspicion threshold.