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 …
Jan 20 2015
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…
Jan 20 2015
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…
Jan 19 2015
Argument preview: Judges, politics, and money
At 11 a.m. Tuesday, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hold one hour of oral argument on the solicitation of campaign donations by judicial candidates, in the case of Williams-Yulee v. Florida Bar. Arguing for the candidate will be Andrew J. Pincus…
Jan 18 2015
A quiet departure for Al-Marri
Analysis Every time a detainee is released from Guantanamo and sent to another country, it makes headlines. But very few people noticed last week as another man caught up in what was the “war on terror,” Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, left for his home country, Qatar. Still, it was al-Marri who came close to making constitutional history… Read More
Jan 15 2015
Oklahoma executions allowed to resume (UPDATED)
(UPDATED 9:14 p.m. Oklahoma completed the execution of Charles Frederick Warner less than an hour after the Supreme Court had acted.)
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Nearly nine months after a widely criticized execution that went seriously awry in …
Jan 12 2015
South Dakota same-sex marriage ban falls
Building toward a test on same-sex marriage in one of the handful of federal appeals courts that have not yet ruled on the issue, a federal trial judge in South Dakota on Monday struck down that state’s ban. That means that such marriages are …
Jan 12 2015
Argument analysis: If a law turns out to be “silly” . . .
Analysis
The Supreme Court gave some hints on Monday that it might be willing to give local governments some flexibility on regulating outdoor signs — but probably not when a lawyer for a municipality is led to concede that the impact of that com…
Jan 10 2015
Argument preview: Pointing the way on signs
At 10 a.m. Monday, the Supreme Court returns to the question of local governments’ power to control outdoor signs as a way to avoid clutter and hazards to safety. Arguing for a small church in Arizona and its pastor challenging a sign law in t…
Jan 10 2015
Sharp new critique of same-sex marriage rulings
Three judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, sharply protesting a three-judge panel’s October ruling in favor of same-sex marriage in two states, argued on Friday that courts at that level of the federal judiciary have no auth…
