Court Won't Consider Neb. "Rape" Testimony Issue: According to an article by AP press writer Jean Ortiz, the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal involving a case in which a Nebraska judge banned anyone from saying "rape" in a sexual assault trial. Lawyers for Tory Bowen argued that Lancaster County District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront violated their client's constitutional rights by barring her from using such words as "rape kit" and "victim" during her testimony in the trial. The judge said he banned the language because he was concerned about the accused's right to a fair trial.

Supreme Court To Hear Case On Immigrants' Use Of Fake IDs: LA Times writer David G. Savage reports that the Supreme Court will decide whether the government can use new identity theft laws to send illegal immigrants using fake identification cards to prison, or to force them to leave the country. Kent provided his own thoughts on the case yesterday. Judges are divided over whether immigrants can be punished for "knowingly" stealing the identity of another person whenever they are caught using a Social Security number that is not their own. Often, the immigrants say they thought they had bought phony ID cards, not numbers assigned to real people.

Is High Court Gearing Up to Review Discrimination in Capital Punishment? Dan Slater from the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports that yesterday, Justices Stevens and Thomas squared off over the Court’s denial of cert in Walker v. Georgia, a capital case. The issue is to what extent must a court, in a capital case, carry out a proportionality review to ensure that arbitrariness and discrimination don’t figure in a sentence of death. The blog states that the justices might be preparing to review whether the death penalty is being applied in a discriminatory way, an issue the court has not taken up for two decades.

200 Sex Assault Cases Miss Prosecution Deadline Due to Untested Rape Kits: LA Times writer Richard Winton reports that according to a city audit released Monday, as many as 200 potential sexual assault cases have gone without prosecution because LA police officials failed to meet legal deadlines to test DNA evidence. The evidence might have identified a suspect. According to the audit by City Controller Laura Chick's office, the LAPD has a backlog of 7,000 sexual assault test kits that have not been examined. Of those cases, 217 are beyond the 10-year statute in which to prosecute the crimes.