FURTHER UPDATE Monday 4:52 p.m. The generic companies have now filed their reply brief, arguing that Teva has not actually taken any significant step — and may not be able to do so — in the trial court, so the Supreme Court should go ahea…
Oklahoma takes next step on executions (UPDATED)
The state of Oklahoma will ask the Supreme Court on Monday to delay three executions by lethal drugs while the Justices weigh a new test case, but it will also seek the option of resuming executions if the officials put together a new drug protocol, l…
Judge strikes down Alabama same-sex marriage ban (UPDATED)
UPDATE Monday 12:11 p.m. Judge Granade has delayed her ruling for fourteen days to allow the state to seek a longer delay from the Eleventh Circuit Court. ————— The still-lengthening list of court decisions nullifying state bans on same-sex marriage added another Deep South state on Friday as a federal judge in Mobile struck down Alabama’s laws against such unions. U.S…. Read More
Court to rule on lethal-injection protocol
The Supreme Court agreed on Friday afternoon to hear the appeal of three Oklahoma death-row inmates who are challenging the three-drug protocol the state now uses for executions. The Court on January 15 had refused, by a five-to-four vote, to grant d…
Do court decisions in favor of civil rights create real rights?
January 22, 2016 — Reprinted from Constitution Daily, the blog of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Lyle Denniston, the National Constitution Center’s constitutional literacy adviser, looks at one of the most significant issues the Supreme Court faces in the same-sex marriage controversy: where it should be resolved.
Argument analysis: Scalia versus Scalia on housing law?
Analysis
An observer who left the Supreme Court chamber halfway through Wednesday’s argument in a major civil rights case could easily have concluded that Justice Antonin Scalia is ready to give the law in that case a much broader scope to protec…
On same-sex marriage, what is settled, what is not
Reprinted from Constitution Daily, the blog of the National Constitution Center, Philadelphia By Lyle Denniston, adviser on constitutional literacy to the National Constitution Center
Argument preview: That housing bias issue is back
On Wednesday morning, after opinions are released at ten o’clock, the Supreme Court will hold one hour of oral argument on the issue of how difficult it will be to prove discrimination in home sales or rentals, in the case of Texas Department of …
Opinion analysis: New but narrow option for death-row inmates
Opening the federal courthouse door slightly to state death-row inmates whose lawyers sloppily miss a deadline, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a new lawyer ought to be available to take up the cause, even if that is years later. The Court f…
Argument analysis: Running for a court seat, tin cup in hand?
Analysis
Florida used to have a tawdry reputation for corrupt judges, but one of the state’s key remedies for that may have gone too far. That, at least, was the impression that emerged from an hour of argument Tuesday on the constitutional…