The Supreme Court takes today off in honor of Christopher Columbus. Tomorrow, the Court considers in United States v. Resendiz-Ponce, No. 05-998, "Whether the omission of an element of a criminal offense from a federal indictment can constitute harmless error." This involves the (only?) criminal provision of the Bill of Rights that still doesn't apply to the states.

Wednesday is a big day for criminal law. In Carey v. Musladin, Judge Reinhardt is up for another AEDPA spanking for declaring a state-court judgment "unreasonable" despite the fact that it is in accord with the overwhelming weight of authority in the area and contrary only to an idiosyncratic Ninth Circuit case. The decision is an exemplar of precisely what Congress intended to prohibit when it enacted 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). The case involves the homicide victim's family wearing buttons with his photo during the trial. CJLF's press release is here, and our brief is here. A set of links to all the briefs is here.

Also up Wednesday is Cunningham v. California, which will decide if California escapes the Blakely tsunami. Doug Berman has links to his many posts and the briefs here.