A SCOTUS Media Round-Up: SCOTUSblog's Anna Christensen posts a Monday Round-up: Afternoon Addition discussing blog and media coverage of today's Supreme Court action. She points to Kent's post on today's Supreme Court orders, and also links to David G. Savage's L.A. Times coverage of Wong v. Belmontes, a case the Supreme Court has once again decided to re-list. Savage's coverage of the case focuses on in "the contrasting approaches [to the death penalty] of the regional U.S. courts of appeals." He writes that while the South is "dominated by conservative judges who are inclined to reject appeals and to uphold death sentences[,]" the Ninth Circuit's decision to grant relief still stands, even though "[e]ight conservative judges of the 9th Circuit dissented and said the full appeals court should reconsider the ruling."
January Oral Arguments: Lyle Denniston posted a link to the Supreme Court's January Oral Arguments Calendar today on SCOTUSblog. It looks like Briscoe v. Virginia (07-11191) will be argued on Monday, January 11th, and Berghuis v. Smith (08-1402) will be covered on Wednesday, January 20th.
Be Wary of Statistics: At Volokh Conspiracy, Eugene Volokh comments on how statistics get distorted by advocates citing studies. He uses the example of a "legal academic discussion list" that had said, "[i]n two thirds of battered women's households that contained a firearm, the intimate partner used the gun against the woman, usually threatening to shoot/kill her (71.4 percent) or to shoot at her (5.1 percent)." Volokh notes that this sounds like a lot of death threats, and goes directly to the study to find it is limited to women in California that are living in shelters. These qualifying facts make a big difference. Volokh reasons, "many of [the women] would have been deliberately threatened with death or serious injury at some point, which may be what led them to flee in the first instance; they are probably more likely than the typical person, including the typical domestic violence victim, to have been threatened in an especially serious way." We have seen this before with death penalty statistics, and Volokh's example is important to keep in mind anytime an interest group cites a study to prove a general proposition.
Los Angeles Police Chief Given Credit for Dropping Crime Rates: CrimProf Blog links to an L.A. Times article by L.A.'s growing confidence in its police force. The authors credit the city's new found confidence in the LAPD to retiring Police Chief William J. Bratton. Over the past seven year's Bratton's force has shown "drops in every major category of crime: drops of 53.1% for homicides, 38.6% for rapes, 66.9% for aggravated assaults, 28.6% for robbery." The drop could be due to the 828 officers who were added to the force under Bratton's tenure, and is just one more example of how important it is to prioritize law enforcement when budget's are tight.
January Oral Arguments: Lyle Denniston posted a link to the Supreme Court's January Oral Arguments Calendar today on SCOTUSblog. It looks like Briscoe v. Virginia (07-11191) will be argued on Monday, January 11th, and Berghuis v. Smith (08-1402) will be covered on Wednesday, January 20th.
Be Wary of Statistics: At Volokh Conspiracy, Eugene Volokh comments on how statistics get distorted by advocates citing studies. He uses the example of a "legal academic discussion list" that had said, "[i]n two thirds of battered women's households that contained a firearm, the intimate partner used the gun against the woman, usually threatening to shoot/kill her (71.4 percent) or to shoot at her (5.1 percent)." Volokh notes that this sounds like a lot of death threats, and goes directly to the study to find it is limited to women in California that are living in shelters. These qualifying facts make a big difference. Volokh reasons, "many of [the women] would have been deliberately threatened with death or serious injury at some point, which may be what led them to flee in the first instance; they are probably more likely than the typical person, including the typical domestic violence victim, to have been threatened in an especially serious way." We have seen this before with death penalty statistics, and Volokh's example is important to keep in mind anytime an interest group cites a study to prove a general proposition.
Los Angeles Police Chief Given Credit for Dropping Crime Rates: CrimProf Blog links to an L.A. Times article by L.A.'s growing confidence in its police force. The authors credit the city's new found confidence in the LAPD to retiring Police Chief William J. Bratton. Over the past seven year's Bratton's force has shown "drops in every major category of crime: drops of 53.1% for homicides, 38.6% for rapes, 66.9% for aggravated assaults, 28.6% for robbery." The drop could be due to the 828 officers who were added to the force under Bratton's tenure, and is just one more example of how important it is to prioritize law enforcement when budget's are tight.
Leave a comment