Over At The Supreme Court: At SCOTUSblog today, Lyle Denniston has posted his thoughts on the "State of the Docket" as of December 1, 2008. He predicts that the Court will grant review to approximately 11 new cases this term, and five new cases will be announced after Court conferences on December 5th and 12th. Most of his post discusses the scheduling of oral arguments, but, at the end, Denniston does note that the Court is unlikely to issue grants in cases that will produce "blockbuster rulings." He states that this term "there are not many cases of significant broader public interest." He believes that could change if the Court agrees to hear NAMUDNO v. Mukasey or Al-Marri v. United States. Tom Goldstein also provides a link to his merits reply breif in Cone v. Bell in his SCOTUSblog post today. Our Amicus breif in support of Respondent, Bell, can be found here.
Amendments to Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure: Thanks to Orin Kerr at Volokh Conspiracy for this little reminder that the latest round of amendments to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure go into effect today. The amendments can be found here, and an excerpt explaining the amendments is here.
A Response to a Claim That This is the "Most Conservative Court Since the Mid-1930s": Also at Volokh Conspiracy, Jonathan Adler has posted his thoughts on Dean Erwin Chemerinsky's essay "The Roberts Court at Age Three." Apparently, Chemerinsky believes the Roberts Court to be the most conservative court since the mid-1930s. Adler disagrees with this position, and offers up his response: "Getting the Roberts Court Right: A Response to Chemerinsky," as well as the argument that the "Roberts Court is moderately more conservative than some of its recent predecessors on some issues, but it remains quite 'liberal' on others. Particularly because Justice Kennedy is the swing vote on so-many ideologically charged cases..."
Blogging on Victim-Impact Videos: At Sentencing Law and Policy, Doug Berman, a self-proclaimed "strong believer in victims' rights at sentencing," has a post discussing Saturday's Washington Post article by Jerry Markon. The article discusses the use of victim videos during sentencing, and reports that the Supreme Court has recently declined to hear challenges to the use of two such videos. This could mean that we will see an increase in the use of such "technology-aided victim impact statements" during trial and sentencing. To counter his own bias, Berman offers a link to a defense view of victim videos from ChrisT at Talk Left.
Amendments to Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure: Thanks to Orin Kerr at Volokh Conspiracy for this little reminder that the latest round of amendments to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure go into effect today. The amendments can be found here, and an excerpt explaining the amendments is here.
A Response to a Claim That This is the "Most Conservative Court Since the Mid-1930s": Also at Volokh Conspiracy, Jonathan Adler has posted his thoughts on Dean Erwin Chemerinsky's essay "The Roberts Court at Age Three." Apparently, Chemerinsky believes the Roberts Court to be the most conservative court since the mid-1930s. Adler disagrees with this position, and offers up his response: "Getting the Roberts Court Right: A Response to Chemerinsky," as well as the argument that the "Roberts Court is moderately more conservative than some of its recent predecessors on some issues, but it remains quite 'liberal' on others. Particularly because Justice Kennedy is the swing vote on so-many ideologically charged cases..."
Blogging on Victim-Impact Videos: At Sentencing Law and Policy, Doug Berman, a self-proclaimed "strong believer in victims' rights at sentencing," has a post discussing Saturday's Washington Post article by Jerry Markon. The article discusses the use of victim videos during sentencing, and reports that the Supreme Court has recently declined to hear challenges to the use of two such videos. This could mean that we will see an increase in the use of such "technology-aided victim impact statements" during trial and sentencing. To counter his own bias, Berman offers a link to a defense view of victim videos from ChrisT at Talk Left.
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