No Action in Kennedy v. Louisiana: Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog reports that while the Supreme Court issued its final round of summer recess orders today, there was "no action announced" on whether it would reconsider Kennedy v. Louisiana. The State of Louisiana had asked the Court to consider the effect, if any, of the Court's failure to address the federal military law that allows the death sentence for child rape. The Justice Department then asked the Court to allow it to join Louisiana in its plea for rehearing. Today's orders did not mention either request.

More On Today's Orders: Tony Mauro at The BLT has this post on the Supreme Court's decision to deny the SG's request for time to argue in Locke v. Karass. The case will address the dispute over the use of mandatory union dues. According to Mauro, the Justice Department had filed a brief supporting neither side in the case and had requested a total of 10 minutes, 5 minutes for each side, during oral argument. The Supreme Court denied the request without explanation.

Executions Next Week in Texas: Grits for Breakfast has a post on the two executions scheduled next week in Texas. In his post, Scott Henson wonders if either will go through. The first execution, of Gregory Wright, has been reported to be postponed, to allow testing of DNA evidence. The second, of Charles Dean Hood, may not occur because of allegations that the trial judge and the prosecutor were having an affair during his trial. As Kent noted this morning, the Texas AG has supported inquiry into whether the alleged affair took place.

Third Circuit Rules on Searches of Cruise Ship Cabins: Orin Kerr, at Volokh Conspiracy, posted today on a Third Circuit decision that held the search of a cruise ship cabin requires reasonable suspicion. The decision, United States v. Whitted, addressed "whether the Fourth Amendment requires any level of suspicion to justify a border search of a passenger cabin aboard a cruise liner arriving in the United States from a foreign port." The Third Circuit ruled yesterday that it does. The case involved the search of a cruise ship cabin that had been docked in St. Maarten and then in St. Thomas. After the ship was docked in St. Thomas, United States Customs and Border Protection boarded the boat and searched the cabins of suspects the officers had reason to believe were bringing narcotics into the United States. The defendant wasn't present when the officers searched her room. They uncovered heroin stuffed in perfume and shaving containers. The Fourth Amendment issue in this case is interesting because it treats the search of a cruise ship cabin as a non-routine border search, which requires reasonable suspicion, instead of a routine border search, which does not. As Kerr notes, "[s]o far, the only kinds of searches that courts have found to be non-routine searches are invasive searches of the person." Kerr's post notes the "fish[iness]" of this decision in light of precedent, and then addresses how narrow the decision really is. Once the same suspects disembark at the border those perfume bottles and shaving containers can be searched without suspicion.

Former Virginia ACLU President Disbarred: Yesterday, the BLT had this post on the D.C. Court of Appeals decision to disbar former VA ACLU President Charles Rust-Tierney. On July 1, 2007, Rust-Tierney pleaded guilty to charges of receiving child pornography through his home computer. He was sentenced to serve seven years in federal prison in September 2007. Apparently Rust-Tierney consented to disbarment. That means the details of the ethical violations filed against him by the Board on Professional Responsibility remain sealed.