Detainee Habeas Cases Heard In Federal Court: At SCOTUSblog, Lyle Denniston reports that U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon will hear the first detainee habeas case on Monday, October 6th, 2008. Denniston notes this is the very same day the U.S. Supreme Court will return from their summer recess. Interestingly, the Boumediene case will be the first case heard by District Judge Leon in October. Judge Leon stated it was "mostly by coincidence" that Lakhdar Boumediene, one of the detainees prevailing in Boumediene v. Bush, would be the first to receive his habeas hearings.

D.C. Circuit Appointment's Clause Decision: For those interested in separation of powers cases, Eugene Volokh and Jonathan Adler have posts at Volokh Conspiracy on the three-judge panel's decision in Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Volokh's post notes that the decision is "very interesting," while Adler cites excerpts from the decision to explain why the decision is so interesting. The case challenged the constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) on appointments clause grounds. The plaintiffs challenged the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, claiming its statutory scheme violated the Appointments Clause because it did not permit adequate Presidential control of the PCAOB. The plaintiffs claimed the Act stripped the President of his authority to remove members of the Board. The majority opinion, authored by Judge Rogers, and joined by Judge Brown, found that the Act did "not contravene separation of powers, as that principle embraces independent agencies like the Commission and their exercise of broad authority over their subordinates."