Top Ten Supreme Court Contenders: Stuart Taylor Jr. provides thoughts on the top ten possible Supreme Court nominees for National Journal Online. He bases his ranking on media reports, online chatter and the opinions of "various experts," but admits his conclusions are "fairly arbitrary." Ranking #1 is Solicitor General Elena Kagan, and coming in at #10 is Merrick Garland, the only male on Taylor's list. (Check out the sidebar of Taylor's post for more information on each of the nominees.)
Can Acquitted Conduct Enhance a Sentence? At Blog of the Legal Times, Mike Scarcella reports on a D.C. Circuit Court case that will determine whether a trial judge can use acquitted conduct to enhance the sentence of a man convicted of drug crimes. Oruche was acquitted of conspiracy charges for distributing more than 1,000 grams of heroin, but, according to attorneys for Oruche, the trial judge improperly relied on these charges to sentence the man for an additional eight years. Scarcella reports that trial judge's use of acquitted conduct has caused debate in circuit courts around the country. The D.C. Circuit has found nothing prohibiting its use. Stay tuned to see how D.C.'s Chief Judge David Sentelle, Senior Judge A. Raymond Randolph and Judge Douglas Ginsburg resolve the case...
State Drops Charges Against Paul House: At Volokh Conspiracy, Jonathan Adler reports that the Tennessee has dropped charges against Paul House, a man who was convicted of murdering Carolyn Muncey in 1985. House spent 22 years on death row before the U.S. Supreme Court granted House's petition for a writ of habeas corpus because the availability of new evidence cast doubt on his conviction. House was scheduled for retrial on June 1, 2009, but prosecutors are dropping the charge because they are not certain whether House acted alone or was an accessory. Prosecutors remain certain that he had some involvement in the murder. Doug Berman also links to this AP article on Sentencing Law and Policy. Kent's 2006 post on House's case can be found here. Additional press links are in today's News Scan.
First or Second Hispanic Justice?: Ashby Jones wonders over on Wall Street Journal Blog whether the Supreme Court has "Already Had a Hispanic Justice?" Apparently, sometime after Wall Street Journal Blog reported on lobbying efforts to appoint a Hispanic judge to the U.S. Supreme Court, one commenter asked, "What about the great one, Justice Cardozo? Wasn't he a [Portuguese] Jew?" To follow-up with an answer, WSJblog dropped a line to Harvard Law professor Andrew Kaufman, author of the biography "Cardozo." Kaufman's response neither confirms nor denies the question, but does acknowledge that while Cardozo's family came to the American colonies in the eighteenth century via Holland and England, there is family legend that the Cardozos came from Portugal.
Can Acquitted Conduct Enhance a Sentence? At Blog of the Legal Times, Mike Scarcella reports on a D.C. Circuit Court case that will determine whether a trial judge can use acquitted conduct to enhance the sentence of a man convicted of drug crimes. Oruche was acquitted of conspiracy charges for distributing more than 1,000 grams of heroin, but, according to attorneys for Oruche, the trial judge improperly relied on these charges to sentence the man for an additional eight years. Scarcella reports that trial judge's use of acquitted conduct has caused debate in circuit courts around the country. The D.C. Circuit has found nothing prohibiting its use. Stay tuned to see how D.C.'s Chief Judge David Sentelle, Senior Judge A. Raymond Randolph and Judge Douglas Ginsburg resolve the case...
State Drops Charges Against Paul House: At Volokh Conspiracy, Jonathan Adler reports that the Tennessee has dropped charges against Paul House, a man who was convicted of murdering Carolyn Muncey in 1985. House spent 22 years on death row before the U.S. Supreme Court granted House's petition for a writ of habeas corpus because the availability of new evidence cast doubt on his conviction. House was scheduled for retrial on June 1, 2009, but prosecutors are dropping the charge because they are not certain whether House acted alone or was an accessory. Prosecutors remain certain that he had some involvement in the murder. Doug Berman also links to this AP article on Sentencing Law and Policy. Kent's 2006 post on House's case can be found here. Additional press links are in today's News Scan.
First or Second Hispanic Justice?: Ashby Jones wonders over on Wall Street Journal Blog whether the Supreme Court has "Already Had a Hispanic Justice?" Apparently, sometime after Wall Street Journal Blog reported on lobbying efforts to appoint a Hispanic judge to the U.S. Supreme Court, one commenter asked, "What about the great one, Justice Cardozo? Wasn't he a [Portuguese] Jew?" To follow-up with an answer, WSJblog dropped a line to Harvard Law professor Andrew Kaufman, author of the biography "Cardozo." Kaufman's response neither confirms nor denies the question, but does acknowledge that while Cardozo's family came to the American colonies in the eighteenth century via Holland and England, there is family legend that the Cardozos came from Portugal.
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