Hamdan's Trial Will Go Forward Next Week: At the BLT, Joe Palazzolo has this post on the denial of Hamdan's request to halt his war crimes trial, noted in today's News Scan. The trial is scheduled for next Monday. After a two hour hearing this morning, U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled he would not grant the request, because "challenges to the lawfulness of the military commissions must be resolved, in the first instance, by the commissions themselves." This ruling came hours after a military judge rejected Hamdan's arguments that the military tribunals violate the Constitution's equal protection clause. During the hearing, Justice Department lawyer John O'Quinn stated that he interpreted Boumediene v. Bush to mean "the applicability of the Constitution to detainees at Guantanamo is context-specific. The opinion made plain that the Suspension Clause applied to detainees, but the applicability of others, like the equal-protection clause, should be determined in the commissions..." Judge Robertson may have bought the argument here, but also made clear that his decision was not binding on other judges.

The Second Amendment After Heller: Hattip to Eugene Volokh at Volokh Conspiracy for the link to Glenn Reynolds & Brannon Denning's article on Heller in Northwestern Law Review's Colloquy. The article, "Heller's Future in Lower Courts", argues "many commentators have missed an important point" because, according the the authors, Heller's most important contribution "is its complete and unanimous rejection of the 'collective rights'" - something lower courts have relied on for "nearly seventy years." In the article the authors discuss how the Heller decision may allow the lower courts, when addressing challenges to state gun laws, to rewrite case law on the Second Amendment. Also, Volokh and Doug Berman at SL&P disagree over whether a recent unpublished Ninth Circuit decision is "sensible" in rejecting Heller-based challenges to law against machine guns, sawed-off guns, and possession of guns by felons.

Texas Still Plans to Execute Prisoner, Despite World Court Ruling: At Sentencing Law and Policy Doug Berman sums up the legal drama that has unfolded between the World Court and Texas over the past two days. As reported on SCOTUSblog yesterday, the World Court had ordered Texas to halt the five planned executions Jose Ernesto Medellin, Cesar Roberto Fierro Reyna, Ruben Ramirez Cardenas, Humberto Leal Garcia and Roberto Moreno Ramos. The Houston Chronicle reported today that despite the World Court's order, Texas still planned to proceed with the August 5th execution of Medellin.