Posts from ‘April, 2010’

Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., took to the floor of the Senate on Monday to talk about the vacancy on the Supreme Court, and one of his favorite Supreme Court topics: camera access. His argument in favor of camera access hints that if the public could see the Court in action, it might see what he sees — namely a Court that is ideological and not deferential enough to Congress. Specter also joined the chorus of those who’d like to see a nominee come from outside the ranks of sitting appellate federal judges.

With the internet, computers, and blogs speedily available to jurors, the effort required to misbehave can be the touch of a button. Can counsel truly forgo engaging in juror interviews to uncover the potential that extraneous prejudicial information may have tainted the verdict?

Several criminal defense lawyers, a federal judge and a Justice Department policy official gathered in Washington, D.C., on Friday to examine prosecution disclosure obligations, a discussion that comes amid a widespread call for discovery reform. Justice Department officials have concluded there is no widespread misconduct, according to the DOJ lawyer on the panel — but other panelists maintained that there is a national problem regarding disclosure obligations.

The divide between legal education and legal practice emerged as a key issue at a conference that kicked off Friday in the start of what organizers call a yearlong “contest of ideas” sponsored by Harvard Law School and New York Law School. Program organizer Elizabeth Chambliss says several factors sparked the initiative: deep cuts in associate hiring, recession-driven changes to the broader legal market and a highly critical Carnegie Foundation report on how law schools are failing to teach students practical skills.

Washington’s spin machine has cycled into high gear, churning out a new set of names as possible contenders to fill Justice John Paul Stevens’ seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Though speculation about the potential nominee always increases in the day or two after a justice’s retirement announcement, it may also signal a genuine effort by the White House to broaden its list. As one Washington insider close to the nomination process said Monday, “I can almost hear [President Barack Obama] saying, ‘Who else you got?’”

New Jersey’s high court adopted a new, broader definition of the cleric-penitent privilege and used it to exclude from evidence a criminal defendant’s inculpatory statements involving sexual abuse of a child to an acquaintance who was also a minister. The court ruled that the privilege applies if, given all the circumstances, an “objectively reasonable” person would believe that a communication was made in confidence to a cleric and in the cleric’s professional character or role as a spiritual adviser.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg remembers the pressure she felt when she enrolled at Harvard Law School in 1954. As one of just nine women in a class of more than 500, she felt compelled to be aggressive. “We were accustomed to being in the spotlight,” she said. Speaking at a four-person panel on women and the Supreme Court at the Georgetown University Law Center on Wednesday afternoon, Ginsburg credited much of her career success to her aggressiveness and drive.

A group of plaintiffs, including people who sell fowl and feed, challenged a recent amendment to federal legislation that added penalties for transporting items associated with cockfighting across state lines. The government argued in defense of the law, with the Humane Society entering the case as an amicus. The group brought in Arnold & Porter, working pro bono, to help with the brief. The district court dismissed the case last year, and the 6th Circuit affirmed that decision Friday — and did so rather emphatically.

The 5th Circuit ventured into the “culture war” on Wednesday, hearing an interlocutory appeal by two public school principals who say they are immune from liability in a civil suit that alleges they prevented the distribution of religious gifts by students in public elementary schools. The suit involves an issue of first impression for the 5th Circuit: Does the free speech clause of the First Amendment protect student-to-student distribution of religious, noncurricular materials in public elementary schools?

A federal judge on Thursday awarded seven Virginia families $2.6 million in damages for homes ruined by sulfur-emitting drywall made in China, a decision that could affect how lawsuits by thousands of other U.S. homeowners are settled. It remains to be seen how the plaintiffs can collect from Chinese companies that do not have to respond to U.S courts, although some have talked about getting orders to seize U.S.-bound ships and cargoes from the drywall companies.