Predictions of Kennedy v. Louisiana: Yesterday, Corey Rayburn Yung posted his prediction for the Supreme Court's decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana. In his post, Yung states that while he had earlier predicted that the Court might strike down Louisiana's law allowing the death penalty for child rape by "narrowing the class of defendants", Yung now predicts the Court's decision will focus on whether the death penalty for child rape is "cruel and unusual." Yung predicts the Court will "fudge" rather than "overrule" Coker. (We at CJLF do not think that either fudging or overruling is required, as Coker quite clearly left the present question open.) Yung predicts the Court will issue a 5-4 decision in favor of the state, with Kennedy as the swing vote. We could know Monday if his prediction is right...

Military Commission Review: Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog reports on today's D.C. Circuit decision that it does not have authority to hear detainee Omar Ahmed Khadr's challenges to the authority of a "military commission" to try him on terrorism charges. A three judge panel for the D.C. Circuit ruled it could not decide the issue before Khadr had been tried by the military commission. The D.C. Circuit rejected Kadhr's arguments that both the Military Commissions Act of 2006, and the collateral order doctrine, gave the court subject matter jurisdiction over his claim. Denniston reports this is the first time the D.C. Circuit Court has "spelled out" the authority that Congress gave it to review the findings of the military commission trials.