Reset Your Internet Bookmark to www.supremecourt.gov: Lyle Denniston posts on SCOTUSblog that today, the U. S. Supreme Court assumed management of its website, and changed its URL. The Supreme Court's website may now be found at www.supremecourt.gov, instead of www.supremecourtus.gov. According to the Court's official press release, both addresses will provide access to the website through July 1, 2010. New features include: access to recent decisions from the Court's homepage; docket files dating back to 2000; an interactive Court calendar; and a new case citation finder. Blog of Legal Times writer, Tony Mauro, has reviewed the features on the new website, and reports "it does not appear that the Supreme Court's new site has much new or
different content, but what is there is more accessible and
reader-friendly."
Fourth Circuit Upholds Death Penalty for Prison Murderer: Yesterday, on Sentencing Law and Policy, Doug Berman posted on the Fourth Circuit's decision to uphold the federal death sentence of David Caro, a member of the Texas Syndicate convicted of killing his cellmate, Roberto Sandoval. Berman's post highlight's Judge Gregory's dissent, and the controversial Eighth Amendment aspect of the ruling. Judge Gregory believes that the majority applied the wrong test for deciding whether eligibility factors sufficiently narrow the class of defendants who can be executed. While the Eighth Amendment aspect may be controversial, Caro's conviction for murder is not. Caro was sentenced to 30 years in prison for transporting illegal drugs into the United States. Once in prison, he became the leader of the Texas Syndicate, and was involved in two violent attacks on other prisoners. In 2003, Caro murdered his cellmate, Sandoval, because Sandoval had cursed at Caro for eating his breakfast. Caro admitted the murder in a letter, writing "I killed a guy two weeks ago . . . [f]or being a fool."
Confrontation at the Court: On Bench Memos, Matthew Franck comments on a recent New Republic article by Jeffrey Rosen, titled POTUS v. SCOTUS. The article opens with "Barack Obama is gunning for a confrontation with the Supreme Court, and Chief Justice John Roberts has signaled that he welcomes the fight[,]" and Franck comments that '[t]his is not a promising beginning for Rosen's piece..." Franck finds fault with Rosen's presumption that the Chief Justice and the President are "gunning for a confrontation[,]" and disagrees with Rosen's assertion that when presidents confront the Supreme Court, "it's almost always the president who prevails." Franck examines the history of "POTUS v. SCOTUS" confrontations and reaches a different conclusion. He believes presidents that "confront the Supreme Court, more often than not, wind up involving themselves in ineffectual flailing against a sphinx-like institution that gives little response and less ground."
Fourth Circuit Upholds Death Penalty for Prison Murderer: Yesterday, on Sentencing Law and Policy, Doug Berman posted on the Fourth Circuit's decision to uphold the federal death sentence of David Caro, a member of the Texas Syndicate convicted of killing his cellmate, Roberto Sandoval. Berman's post highlight's Judge Gregory's dissent, and the controversial Eighth Amendment aspect of the ruling. Judge Gregory believes that the majority applied the wrong test for deciding whether eligibility factors sufficiently narrow the class of defendants who can be executed. While the Eighth Amendment aspect may be controversial, Caro's conviction for murder is not. Caro was sentenced to 30 years in prison for transporting illegal drugs into the United States. Once in prison, he became the leader of the Texas Syndicate, and was involved in two violent attacks on other prisoners. In 2003, Caro murdered his cellmate, Sandoval, because Sandoval had cursed at Caro for eating his breakfast. Caro admitted the murder in a letter, writing "I killed a guy two weeks ago . . . [f]or being a fool."
Confrontation at the Court: On Bench Memos, Matthew Franck comments on a recent New Republic article by Jeffrey Rosen, titled POTUS v. SCOTUS. The article opens with "Barack Obama is gunning for a confrontation with the Supreme Court, and Chief Justice John Roberts has signaled that he welcomes the fight[,]" and Franck comments that '[t]his is not a promising beginning for Rosen's piece..." Franck finds fault with Rosen's presumption that the Chief Justice and the President are "gunning for a confrontation[,]" and disagrees with Rosen's assertion that when presidents confront the Supreme Court, "it's almost always the president who prevails." Franck examines the history of "POTUS v. SCOTUS" confrontations and reaches a different conclusion. He believes presidents that "confront the Supreme Court, more often than not, wind up involving themselves in ineffectual flailing against a sphinx-like institution that gives little response and less ground."
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