Law

Yesterday’s landmark gay-rights ruling in a federal district court in San Francisco was the primary news story of the day, with general coverage by (among others) the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle (here), the San Jose Mercury News, and the Los Angeles Times, as well as Lyle Denniston of this blog. Some coverage [...]

Through Sunday, August 15, we are continuing to accept applications for both blog internships.  We have also extended the deadline for the job opening for a special assistant to Tom Goldstein/Howe & Russell office manager/SCOTUSblog staff member to August 15. See instructions and requirements for applying here (for the internships) and here (for the paid [...]

With Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., considering a plea to block a war crimes trial of a young Canadian detainee at Guantanamo Bay, the D.C. Circuit Court on Wednesday rejected the same request, saying that the prisoner, Omar Khadr, can challenge the constitutionality of  the military commission system in an appeal if he is convicted.  [...]

In a first step toward a historic Supreme Court test, a federal judge on Wednesday struck down California’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples.  U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker ruled that so-called “Proposition 8″ — approved by the state’s voters in November 2008 — violated two clauses of the federal Constitution.  Those who persuaded [...]

It’s almost here . . . the Senate vote to confirm Elena Kagan as the 112th Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  But, you might ask, can you really say at this point that the Court should be purchasing a leather chair for the soon-to-be fourth female Justice?  Yes, given the Democratic majority in [...]

UPDATE 3 p.m.  It now appears that the ruling could be issued between 4 and 7 p.m. Eastern time. —————– The federal judge’s plan to release on Wednesday a ruling on the constitutionality of California’s ban on same-sex marriage has been complicated, at least temporarily, by a dispute over whether the ruling will be promptly [...]

On Friday, August 6, the American Bar Association is hosting a panel discussion with five Supreme Court experts to evaluate the Court’s OT2009 criminal cases.  The panel is part of the ABA’s annual meeting and will take place at 2:00 PM PST at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. Full details on the event are available here.

Yesterday the full Senate opened debate on Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court, and a final vote is planned before the end of the week, likely tomorrow. Even though the result is not in doubt, “the floor speeches were contentious at times,” reports the New York Times. Julie Hirschfeld Davis of the Associated Press [...]

U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walker will release later Wednesday his ruling in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the federal constitutional challenge to California’s “Proposition 8″ ban on same-sex marriage, the Court in San Francisco announced Tuesday (docket 09-2292).  After the announcement, supporters of the ballot initiative filed a request for a stay pending appeal, should the judge strike [...]

We have updated our sister site, SCOTUSwiki, to include a number of new filings in OT10 cases.  New amicus briefs in support of the petitioners have been added to the case page for Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association, and we have added new amicus briefs in support of the respondent to the case page for [...]

Below is the transcript of the second half of my phone interview with Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow about her new book on Brown v. Board of Education.  The book, In Brown’s Wake, examines the legacies of the case in perhaps unexpected places: in struggles for the integration of non-racial identity groups, in social science, and abroad. The first [...]

I thought you'd want to hear about what's just happened in the Software Freedom Conservancy v. Best Buy, et al case. It's another BusyBox case regarding infringement of the GPL, mostly about high definition televisions with BusyBox in them, and while the case is not finished regarding other defendants, it's certainly set another precedent. One of the defendants was Westinghouse Digital Technologies, LLC, which refused to participate in discovery. It had applied for a kind of bankruptcy equivalent in California. Judge Shira Scheindlin of the Southern District of New York has now granted Software Freedom Conservancy triple damages ($90,000) for willful copyright infringement, lawyer's fees and costs ($47,685), an injunction against Westinghouse, and an order requiring Westinghouse to turn over all infringing equipment in its possession to the plaintiffs, to be donated to charity. So, presumably a lot of high-def TVs are on their way to charities. Of course, to collect the money, the plaintiffs must apply to bankruptcy court as a creditor, and you know from watching the SCO case what can happen to creditors in a bankruptcy case, but if you are one of the other defendants, one thing you know for sure now: the GPL has teeth, it is enforceable in a court of law, and if you violate it, it can cost you. Remember when you are choosing a license, you want one that you know is enforceable in court.

The Senate convened this morning to begin consideration of Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court. According to the Caucus Blog of the New York Times, Kagan is expected to garner more votes than Justices Thomas and Alito did. A vote is expected sometime later this week. The Atlanta Journal Constitution, the AP (via NPR), [...]

UPDATE Tuesday a.m.  The Khadr petition for mandamus has now been docketed as 10-5691.  Filed with it was a motion to expedite, not previously linked; it can  be found here.  The stay application is docketed as 10A134. ————– Attorneys for a young Canadian national, Omar Khadr, who has been held by the U.S. military since he [...]

The Supreme Court-mandated system for reviewing the legality of detention at Guantanamo Bay is working, and the prisoners should not be allowed to control their ultimate fate by refusing offers for resettlement to other countries, the Justice Department argued to a federal court on Monday.  The filing in D.C. Circuit Court was in response to that [...]

Raising serious questions about the constitutionality of a key part of President Obama”s new health care reform plan, and finding no Supreme Court decisions specifically on the issue, a federal judge on Monday ruled that the state of Virginia’s court challenge to the plan  may go forward.  U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson of Richmond, VA, rejected [...]

Through Sunday, August 15, we are continuing to accept applications for both blog internships. Through Saturday, August 7, we are also accepting applications for the job opening for a special assistant to Tom Goldstein/Howe & Russell office manager/SCOTUSblog staff member.   See instructions and requirements for applying here (for the internships) and here (for the [...]

With the Senate expected to vote on Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court this week, media coverage this weekend focused on the upcoming vote. As the Washington Post, Bench Memos, The Caucus blog of the New York Times, and the Volokh Conspiracy all report, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska became the first Democrat to [...]

The Court is in recess for the summer, and is expected to return on October 4 for the first oral argument of October Term 2010. A floor vote on Elena Kagan’s confirmation is expected this week, and we will keep you updated as we learn more. The schedule of merits briefs due this week follows [...]

This is the transcript of day three of the SCO v. Novell trial, Wednesday, March 10, as text. The trial began that Monday, March 8, 2010 with jury selection, and it would run for 15 days, Monday through Friday, for three weeks, with the Hon. Ted Stewart presiding. So this is still early, and SCO, who put its first witness, Robert Frankenberg, on the stand the day before, presents two more today. Today's witnesses for SCO will be R. Duff Thompson and Ed Chatlos. Here is Groklaw's eyewitness report from the trial for that day. The day's transcript as PDF is in three parts: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. If you wish to jump to a different day of the trial, you can click on the date that interests you in the calendar, below, and it will take you to a transcript as text, but with the line numbers that appear in the PDFs: March 2010 M Tu W Th F 08 09 10 11 12 15 16 17 18 19 22 23 24 25 26