TalkLeft (Free subscription) | yesterday
Chief Justice John Roberts signaled today at oral arguments in the Supreme Court in two cases involving the constitutionality of life without parole sentences for juveniles convicted of non-homicide crimes, that he's not inclined to find them unconstitutional . Neither are Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito. More receptive were Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John...
Law.com - Inside Opinions: Legal Bl (Free subscription) | yesterday
... Green Bag." The first of the "Supreme Court Sluggers" series commemorates Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. as the Court's "pitcher." As the NLJ's Tony Mauro reports: Roberts is shown in the image of Mordecai "Three Fingers" Brown, the famed Chicago Cubs pitcher who, like Roberts, grew up in Indiana. In the background is legendary umpire...
Election Law (Free subscription) | yesterday
Ken Klukowski has posted this Citizens United-related essay at TownHall.com....
Peter Brett's Blog (Free subscription) | yesterday
... low. Take this extract from the oral arguments ( thanks to Groklaw for pointing it out ): JUSTICE KENNEDY: But it would be different, it seems to me, than what you are -- let's assume you can't patent an alphabet. I assume that is true. And you can take an alphabet to make beautiful words, and -- and so forth. You -- you want to say that these -- these electronic signals can be used in a...
BankTech (Free subscription) | 10 hours ago
The Supreme Court started hearing arguments Monday on whether business methods are patentable material or just too abstract to be worth protecting. According to a report in The New York Times, some of the justices were a bit skeptical about issuing such protections.
Sentencing Law and Policy (Free subscription) | yesterday
As mentioned in this recent post, I am expecting (or at least hoping) that the big Graham and Sullivan SCOTUS cases to be argued this morning will not simply turn on Justice Kennedy as a swing voter in another 5-4...
Patently-O: Patent Law Blog (Free subscription) | yesterday
... or thing ("machine-or-transformation" test), to be eligible for patenting under 35 U.S.C. § 101. Justices Sotomayer, Kennedy and Breyer were particularly active, with only slightly lesser participation by Justices Scalia and Ginsburg and Chief Justice Roberts. The Justices appeared to be struggling to come up with the "right" answer and appeared...
Crime and Consequences Blog (Free subscription) | yesterday
... committed the same crime 35 days later. That's pretty hard to swallow, and in today's argument no Justice gave a clear indication of having swallowed it. Unlike a death sentence, which is cleanly distinguishable from all other sentences, a life-without-parole sentence may not be significantly different in reality from other sentences. How about a sentence of life with the possibility of...
Crime & Federalism (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
Sometimes someone says something so crisp that one can only feel awe and jealousy. Justice Sotomayor put me and everyone else to shame during oral arguments in Pottawattamie County v. McGhee. §§§ During the oral arguments in Pottawattamie, Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito and Breyer kept niggling over the alleged “chilling effect” that...
Vox Verax (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
... next word – “indivisible” – before stumbling into “with liberty and justice for all.” Akin spokesman Steve Taylor said the congressman acknowledges having had “a little bit of a Justice Roberts type of moment,” blaming it on “a little echo of the speakers.” “It is not a problem with knowledge or understanding,”...
The Business Insider (Free subscription) | 11/03/2009
... long as there was full disclosure to the fund's board, regardless of the size of the fee. Though Justice Kennedy appeared to be interested in parsing the specific meaning of fiduciary in these instances, Chief Justice Roberts was more focused on the negotiation of the fee and whether fund investors really needed to be protected from high fees. "These days, all you have...
SCOTUSblog (Free subscription) | 11/03/2009
... the designated fee regulator. One exchange during Monday’s argument could signal that at least two Justices were willing to look beyond the standards proposed by the parties and the United States. First, Chief Justice Roberts raised questions the proper role of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in regulating the investment fees issue. He asked Assistant to...
