The Effect of Bush's Nominees on the Federal Bench:   Jonathan Adler posts at Bench Memos on a Washington Post story that discusses how President Bush's nominees have altered the make-up of the Federal Bench.  The Washington Post story highlights divisions on the Sixth Circuit.  Adler's more detailed analysis of the article can be found at Volokh Conspiracy. Near the end of his Volokh post Adler points out that after eight years with a GOP president, most of the circuit judges came from Republican Presidents.  In the grand scheme, we can contribute this to Republican control of the White House for 28 of the past 20 years.  Ashby Jones also has this post on the story at Wall Street Journal Blog. 

South Carolina Is Last Execution of 2008:  On Sentencing Law and Policy, Doug Berman posted his thoughts on South Carolina's execution of Joseph Gardner.  A story by Glenn Smith of Charleston's Post and Courier can be found here.  According to Berman, Gardner's execution was the last scheduled execution of 2008.  This puts the number of executions in 2008 at 37, the lowest number since 1994.  Of course, the big reason for the lower number of executions this year was the Supreme Court case of Baze v. Rees.  The litigation in the case prevented any executions between October 2007 and April 2008.

Commentary on Oregon v. Ice:  At the Federalist Society, Former White House Counsel William Otis provides commentary on Oregon v. Ice and the Supreme Court oral arguments in the case.  CJLF's amicus brief can be found here.