Tom Goldstein at SCOTUSblog has his very valuable "petitions to watch" list, plus a version sorted by category, at this post. The Long Conference is Monday, with a probable orders list on Tuesday. The Crawford case of New Mexico v. Romero, previously noted here, is on the list. In Cage v. California, also discussed in our prior post, the state has an extension to October 15 to file the brief in opp., so it won't be considered at this conference after all.
Other criminal cases on Tom's list include Chester v. Texas on Atkins standards, Missouri v. March on lab reports under Crawford, Missouri v. McFadden on challenging a juror with "crazy red hair" as covert race discrimination*, Bell v. California on comparative juror analysis, Virginia v. Moore on the Fourth Amendment and state law limits, and Sasouvong v. Washington on Apprendi and juvenile priors.
* Can't you just picture Judge Ricky Ricardo finding a prima facie case has been made and then telling the prosecutor, "You got some serious 'splainin' to do."
So why is it called the Long Conference? It's probably an allusion to the Long Parliament. To understand the American Constitution, one must study the history of England, especially the 17th and 18th centuries. Much of what our Framers put in the Constitution is there to prevent the abuses that occurred during this period. Why do our Congressmen have to run for reelection at fixed intervals and so much more often than most countries? Blame it on the Long Parliament.
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