A version of this post appears on scotusblog.com For the past eleven years, the Supreme Court has been defining — one case at a case — how far the Sixth Amendment goes to protect a right of the accused person on trial to confront witnesses who will give evidence to support a guilty verdict. The process… Read More
Feb 19 2015
Same-sex marriage reaches Texas — for one couple (FURTHER UPDATED)
UPDATE 5:12 p.m. The Texas Supreme Court has blocked both of the orders issued by state judges in Travis County — both declaring the state’s ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional. Details to come. FURTHER UPDATE 6:11 p.m. The state court’s orders do not mention the one marriage performed Thursday, but state Attorney General… Read More
Feb 19 2015
Another setback for Guantanamo trials
The often troubled system of war crimes trials at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, faced another setback Wednesday when its first conviction was nullified by a special military appeals court. The Pentagon said it would not challenge the ruling in a further appeal. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Military Commission… Read More
Feb 17 2015
Federal trial judge blocks immigrant benefits
In a sweeping ruling that the Obama administration will quickly challenge on appeal, a federal trial judge sitting in a courthouse along the Texas-Mexico border has blocked the government from enforcing its three-month-old policy of allowing more than four million undocumented immigrants to remain legally in the country and qualify for benefits. Firm opposition to… Read More
Feb 13 2015
Same-sex marriage spreads in Alabama (UPDATED)
UPDATED Friday 9:01 p.m. The number of counties where marriage licenses are now being issued has risen to 50. There are 68 probate judges in 67 counties with authority to issue such licenses. (There are two probate judges for Jefferson County.) With a federal judge for the first time ordering a county official in Alabama… Read More
Feb 10 2015
“Fisher II” reaches the Court
Lawyers for Abigail Noel Fisher, the Texas woman who has waged a prolonged challenge to the use of race in selecting entering students for the University of Texas at Austin, filed a new case in the Supreme Court on Tuesday. It is a renewed complaint that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth… Read More
Feb 9 2015
Alabama: the 37th same-sex marriage state
With the Supreme Court again refusing to delay lower courts’ rulings in favor of same-sex marriage, Alabama on Monday morning became the thirty-seventh state where such unions are legal, and at least four couples promptly were wed at a courthouse in Montgomery. Alabama’s situation, though, is unique because of a looming legal battle over who… Read More
Feb 5 2015
Bobby Chen seeks a second chance
With one of the highest profile Supreme Court lawyers now at his side, and with abundant apologies, Bobby Chen, a New York man who succeeded in the rarest of opportunities for a non-lawyer, is trying to get his case reinstated before the Court. Beating the odds, he had succeeded in getting the Justices to grant review… Read More
Feb 4 2015
Alabama seeks same-sex marriage delay
State officials in Alabama asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday evening to postpone same-sex marriages in the state, after lower trial and appeals courts refused any delay. At present, a federal trial judge’s ruling striking down the state’s same-sex marriage ban is due to go into effect on February 9. The state officials asked the Justices… Read More
Jan 30 2015
Same-sex marriage issue grows at appeals court
A federal judge in Atlanta on Thursday cleared the way for a same-sex marriage case in Georgia to move to a federal appeals court, joining cases already there from Alabama and Florida. The Georgia appeal should come before the case is decided in his trial court, U.S. District Judge William S. Duffey, Jr., ruled.
