Litigation

Pragmatic Approach Seen in Kagan Records

Posted on June 07, 2010
In a new batch of documents from the William J. Clinton Presidential Library, one of the themes to emerge about Elena Kagan’s legal work in the Clinton White House is her pragmatic approach. Because Kagan was nominated by President Obama to the U...

Judges Facing Conflicts on Oil-Spill Litigation?

Posted on June 07, 2010
It will be harder to find federal judges free of ethics conflicts to consider lawsuits tied to the Gulf oil spill, due to many of the judges’ overlapping financial interests with the oil and gas industry. Thirty-seven, or more than half of the 64 active or senior judges in key Gulf Coast districts have financial ties [...

Merit System Yields ?Fewer Turkeys, Fewer Crooks?

Posted on June 07, 2010
A Nevada newspaper columnist says she has done her homework. But her toughest votes in Tuesday’s upcoming primary will be cast in the judicial races, and about some of them, she is candidly “clueless.” There’s little way to know much about contenders in some of the open seats, Jane Ann Morrison confides in the Las Vegas [...

Judicial Ballot Blank, MN Reform Efforts Revived

Posted on June 07, 2010
A surprising scenario has left a Minnesota judicial ballot blank and brought new life to calls for reforming elections for judges. Thomas Armstrong, a district court judge in Washington County, filed on time to run for reelection. Shortly before a deadline for candidates to file, his longtime law clerk, Dawn Hennessy, filed for election too...

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Monday Media Summary

Posted on June 07, 2010
KAGAN COMMENTARY AP: Clinton records show many sides of Kagan MARK SHERMAN – 6/5/2010 CNN: Kagan documents reveal pragmatic approach on abortion controversy Bill Mears – 6/4/2010 NY Times: Glimpses of Kagan?s Views in Clinton White House SHERYL GAY STOLBERG – 6/4/2010 CNN: Kagan opposed making doctor-assisted suicide federal crime Bill Mears – 6/5/2010 FOX News: New Docs: Kagan on Assisted Suicide Law Lee Ross [...

Souter Speech Prompts Diverse Opinions

Posted on June 04, 2010
Retired Justice David H. Souter’s recent commencement speech at Harvard is causing ripples–depending who you listen to. In the New York Times’ Opinionator blog, Linda Greenhouse said she listened to the speech “with a mixture of joy and relief...

Old Kagan Clerking Memos: Ammo for Attack?

Posted on June 04, 2010
The public and politicians are getting a glimpse of more old memos written by Elena Kagan when she was a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. At least one Senate Republican is seizing on the memos as ammunition for attack. “Kagan’s memos unambiguously express a leftist philosophy and an approach to the law that seems [...

Corporate Disclosure Bill Defeated in NH House

Posted on June 04, 2010
The New Hampshire House has defeated a Senate-passed bill to require corporations to disclose their spending to support or oppose political candidates. In response to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in January, a number of states have enacted new disclosure laws to help citizens follow the money spent by corporations for political purposes...

CO Chief Justice Will Not Seek Reelection

Posted on June 04, 2010
Colorado Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey has announced that she will retire effective Nov. 30 for personal reasons. The decision means Justice Mullarkey, 66 and affected by multiple scleroris, will not seek another term in a fiercely controversial retention vote...

Recusal Causes Reversal of Climate Change Ruling

Posted on June 03, 2010
Because eight judges of a 16-member federal appeals court now have disqualified themselves, the remaining appeals judges have thrown out a landmark environmental ruling by a three-judge panel. The panel of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2009 that plaintiffs could go ahead with a lawsuit against utilities, chemical companies and the oil [...

Kagan?s Own ?Confirmation Mess? Coming?

Posted on June 03, 2010
Bring on the platitudes. When Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan was younger, she wrote acerbically about the Senate confirmation process. She blasted it as a “vapid and hollow charade” (see Gavel Grab) and asserted that in confirmation proceedings for would-be Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, “the safest and surest route to the prize lay [...

NJ Judicial Screening Panel Quits En Masse

Posted on June 03, 2010
The en masse resignation of a panel that advised New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on judicial appointments has highlighted one of the hottest disputes in the nation over preserving an independent judiciary. All seven members of the Judiciary Advisory Panel resigned, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer article, and six of them signed a letter protesting Christie’s [...

AR Justice: Routes to Judicial Election Reform

Posted on June 03, 2010
There are significant reforms that can improve judicial elections around the country while stopping short of eliminating them, a sitting justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court writes. Justice Robert L. Brown listed some of the reforms in a recent letter to the New York Times, responding to an opinion column by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra [...

Thursday Media Summary

Posted on June 03, 2010
KAGAN COMMENTARY The Atlantic: Don’t Bet on Kagan Overturning Citizens United Garrett Epps – 6/2/2010 FOX News: Kagan’s Troubling Record on the First Amendment Horace Cooper – 6/2/2010 LifeNews.com: Kagan’s First Case as Solicitor General Was Suppressing Pro-Life Free Speech Steven Ertelt – 6/2/2010 National Review Online/Bench Memos: Do As I Say… Carrie Severino – 6/2/2010 NOMINATION/POLITICS NY Times: A Knock-Down, Drag-Out ? Yawn SHERYL GAY [...

Kagan Nomination: About Biography, and Baseball

Posted on June 02, 2010
Because Elena Kagan has a slimmer paper trail than many Supreme Court nominees, the press is looking at her biography for clues about what kind of justice Kagan would make. A Los Angeles Times article examines the period after her stint in the Clinton White House, when Kagan unsuccessfully sought a  job offer to return to [...

?Gaveling for God? Sparks Debate

Posted on June 02, 2010
A set of candidates seeking to unseat four incumbent Superior Court judges in San Diego County, portrayed by some critics as comprising a “religious slate,” is starting to attract coast-to-coast attention. The candidates were selected individually by a group called Better Courts Now and have captured support from a coalition of evangelical pastors, a gun store [...

Wednesday Media Monitoring Summary

Posted on June 02, 2010
KAGAN COMMENTARY CNN/Political Ticker: CNN Poll: Regardless of experience concerns, majority back Kagan 6/1/2010 LA Times: Setback may have set Kagan on course for Supreme Court Christi Parsons – 6/2/2010 Kansas City Star/Midwest Voices: Kagan’s shameful record on military recruiting at Harvard Sen...

Corporations Treading Lightly after ?Citizens United??

Posted on June 01, 2010
Corporations love branding. Except when it comes to putting their corporate logo on a political ad, as some advocates would like to see in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling. That’s one of the principal messages of a Washington Post article headlined, “Political ads are tough sell for image-conscious corporations...

Supreme Court Justice Who?

Posted on June 01, 2010
Just how ignorant are we about the U.S. Supreme Court? The official results are in. Almost two-thirds of Americans cannot name one Supreme Court justice, according to a survey by FindLaw.com, and only 35 percent of Americans can name a single justice...

Terror at Court in China

Posted on June 01, 2010
In central China, a gunman shot three judges to death and wounded three other people before taking his own life. An Associated Press article said the 46-year-old gunman was described by the official Xinhua News Agency as bearing a grudge against the court over a ruling in a marital property division dispute three years ago...

Female Judge Stands Alone for 16 Years

Posted on June 01, 2010
“You get tired of being the only one,” says Judge Diana Murphy of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. She is the only female judge to serve on the court, and in an era of increasing diversity, it is the only U.S. appeals court with only one woman jurist...

Running for Election as ?God?s Ambassadors?

Posted on June 01, 2010
This is a judicial election you’ll be hearing a lot more about: The conservative lawyers who are trying to unseat four San Diego Superior Court incumbents are “vowing to be God’s ambassadors on the bench,” according to an Associated Press article...

Hot IA Issue: ?Checking? Court?s Gay Marriage Ruling

Posted on June 01, 2010
An Iowa Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage has flared as the top issue in the state’s gubernatorial campaign, in the view of a Republican primary candidate. Bob Van Der Plaats has pledged that if elected, he would issue an executive order blocking the high court’s decision, the Associated Press reported...

MN Activists Eye a New Try for Judicial Election Reform

Posted on June 01, 2010
Advocates who want to change the way judges are selected in Minnesota are laying the groundwork for their next try, following derailment of a bill in the legislature for a proposed ballot question. Former Gov. Al Quie told the Hennepin County Bar Association?s annual meeting  ?it?s too important an issue? not to continue pressing for judicial [...

Tuesday Media Summary

Posted on June 01, 2010
KAGAN COMMENTARY Dallas Morning News: Questions for Elena Kagan Editorial – 5/28/2010 Human Events: Senate Should Reject Kagan Nominiation Kevin Gutzman – 5/29/2010 Miami Herald: Sexism, softball and the Supreme Court JODI MAILANDER FARRELL – 5/30/2010 Human Events: Kagan?s Thesis Endorsed Judicial Activism David McIntosh – 6/01/2010 NOMINATION/POLITICS LA Times: From Carswell to Kagan: Learning the hard way to vet court nominees David G...

Scholar: Caperton Has Fueled Real Reforms

Posted on May 29, 2010
The Supreme Court’s landmark Caperton v. Massey decision in 2009 already has led to improvements in protecting courts from the influence of campaign cash, according to a legal scholar’s draft law review article. James Sample of the Hofstra School of Law (photo), and formerly of the Brennan Center for Justice, takes a look at state court [...

Souter: ?Fair Reading? of Constitution not Realistic

Posted on May 28, 2010
Retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter stood up in a commencement speech at Harvard for justices whose interpretation of the Constitution leads them to identify rights that it doesn’t mention explicitly. The Constitution has “a lot of general language in order to be useful over long stretches of time,?? Justice Souter said, and it ?contains values [...

Blame Goes All Around in PA Scandal

Posted on May 28, 2010
A panel that investigated the kids-for-cash scandal in Luzerne County, Pa. has assigned widespread blame. The Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice put the blame, according to a Scranton Times-Tribune article, on “on criminal judges, passive prosecutors, inattentive pubic defenders and Luzerne County’s history of ‘conflict and corruption...

Cameras OK?d for Top Arkansas Courts

Posted on May 28, 2010
The Arkansas Supreme Court has cleared the way for cameras in the state’s top courtrooms. Under an opinion by the court, news media will be allowed to photograph and broadcast oral arguments before the state Supreme Court and state Court of Appeals, with a number of limits set, according to a report by KSPR News...

Hopes Buoyed for WI Public-Finance Law?

Posted on May 28, 2010
Some defenders of a controversial new Wisconsin law for public financing of state Supreme Court candidates are taking heart from a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision. The appeals court upheld the matching funds provision of Arizona?s public financing system for statewide and legislative offices (see Gavel Grab)...

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