Tag Archives: Category: Bench and Bar

Tony Mauro at The Blog of Legal Times: By an 11-7 vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee today approved a bill that calls for television access to Supreme Court proceedings. The bill, S.1945 . . .

The Editors – National Review Online: It’s not a good sign when a 77-page judicial opinion contains a falsehood in its first sentence. Judge Stephen Reinhardt, the most notorious liberal activist on the oft-overturned Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, begins his opinion for the 2–1 majority in the California same-sex-marriage case, Perry v. Brown, thus . . .

Sacramento Bee: U.S. District Judge Fred Biery on Thursday admonished those who “demagogued this case for their own political goals.” He then added, “You should be ashamed of yourselves.”

Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy: Conservative columnist Jeff Jacoby has a good article today on the somewhat overwrought criticism of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for saying, in Cairo, that the US Constitution is not a good model for other countries in 2012. As Jacoby points out, conservative Justice Antonin Scalia recently actually said that “[t]he bill of rights of the former ‘evil empire,’ the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was much better than ours,” without raising any such hackles.

If you happen to be around Charlottesville tomorrow, Friday, February 10, you might want to come over to a symposium on how to resolve conflicting legal norms in US and foreign courts . . .

Sacramento Bee: roposition 8 backers are already dismissing the ruling as the work of a liberal appeals court. As Brian Raum, a lawyer for the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, said in a statement, “We are not surprised that this Hollywood-orchestrated attack on marriage – tried in San Francisco – turned out this way.” But before they engage in the usual stereotyping of the 9th Circuit, Proposition 8 proponents might want to carefully examine the legal precedents the appeals court relied upon in handing down its decision.

Matthew J. Franck at Public Discourse: This week’s decision in the Prop 8 case is a desperate appeal to Justice Kennedy, and the latest assault of judicial supremacy.

WSJ.com: State lawmakers across the U.S. have started 2012 with a controversial message to their judges: keep foreign laws out of our courtrooms.

CBS Detroit: In a case that could set national precedent, the three-judge Michigan Court of Appeals panel plans to hear arguments Thursday about whether a pastor’s testimony related to a possible confession in a child sexual assault case may be used in court.

CBS News: Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich on Tuesday decried the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for striking down California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage — both of them targeting the judiciary system for invoking what Gingrich described as a “radical overreach” of power.

The Hill: “Today’s decision by the 9th Circuit is another in a long line of radical activist rulings by this rogue circuit – and it is precisely why I have called for that circuit to be abolished and split up,” Santorum said in a statement Tuesday. “Marriage is defined and has always been defined as ‘one man and one woman.’ We simply cannot allow 50 different definitions of marriage.”

Findlaw: Even so, administrators at City University of New York Law School think some of their graduating 3Ls should. Those students are being offered an additional semester of “intensive, structured, Bar-oriented coursework” — for free!

Bloomberg: South Carolina sued the U.S. Justice Department over its decision to block a law requiring voters to show photo identification at polls, the state’s attorney general said.

The Daily Caller: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has caused a storm of controversy by saying in a television interview that the people of Egypt should not look to the United States Constitution when drafting their own governing document because it’s too old and there are newer examples from which to draw inspiration.

Bob Unruh at WorldNetDaily: “The American people deserve a court system that upholds the integrity of the judicial process,” said Austin R. Nimocks, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, which has worked on the case. [more]

The American people deserve a court system that upholds the integrity of the judicial process. The 9th Circuit correctly ruled that when a trial judge makes a solemn promise, as Judge Walker did by assuring the parties that the trial video would not be publicly released, the judiciary must not be allowed to renege on its pledge.

ChicagoTribune.com: Three graduates of John Marshall Law School in Chicago sued the university Wednesday over claims that it inflated its post-graduate employment information to attract students.

New York Mag: It’s not exactly Darth Vader versus Obi-Wan Kenobi, but lawyers Jesse Strauss, David Anziska, and Frank Raimond have similarly completed the circle: Once, they were the learners; now, with a new series of lawsuits against fourteen law schools, they are threatening to take down their former masters.

Scott W. Gaylord at NewsObserver.com: Since 1868, North Carolinians have elected the members of their judiciary, making our judges directly accountable to the people for these “political” decisions. The North Carolina Bar Association and other groups now seek to replace our system of elections with an appointment-based system, known in legal circles as the Missouri Plan.

The Hoya: Of the 78 cases brought before the Supreme Court since its term began in October, 73 had been argued beforehand — in a moot court at the Georgetown University Law Center.

Bloomberg: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said his pick to be the first openly gay justice on the state Supreme Court won’t rule on issues involving same-sex marriage.

The GW Hatchet: Four Supreme Court justices and three European human rights judges will visit the GW Law School in March to discuss the judicial system’s role in protecting civil and political rights.

LifeNews.com: Obama has appointed Andrew Hurwitz to the 9th Circuit Court, the most liberal appeals court in the country based in San Francisco and covering laws approved in western states. Yet, according to the Daily Caller, Hurwitz was instrumental to providing some of the legal framework for Roe, which resulted in 54 million abortions.

Michael Paulsen at Law and Liberty: What we think the point is of teaching Constitutional Law should, of course, greatly affect both how we teach Constitutional Law and what we teach as “Constitutional Law.” This is true not just for law school courses in the subject, but for undergraduate study of constitutional law as well.

David Skeel at WSJ.com: The high court calls for accommodating religion. The White House pushes back.

Ronald Rotunda at Fox News: So, the DOJ is simultaneously claiming that it completely walled off Kagan from any discussions involving the constitutional defense of ObamaCare, while admitting that Kagan was participating in emails discussing “legal issues, arguments, and strategy concerning” the anticipated ObamaCare litigation.

The Blog of Legal Times: The Supreme Court is guilty of a broad “failure to communicate” to the public it serves, constitutional scholar and law dean Erwin Chemerinsky said on Friday.

Findlaw: But is the President of the United States bound by the same limitations as mere mortal lawyers? Not according to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. In fact, Gingrich claims that the POTUS can simply “ignore” a Supreme Court decision that he deems “fundamentally wrong.”

Findlaw: And guess what? Eighty percent of respondents said they would definitely or probably do it all over again.

NJ.com: When Christie introduced Harris and fellow nominee Phillip Kwon to the press on Monday, he made a point of noting that Harris is openly gay. He also introduced the domestic partner of the 61-year-old Chatham mayor, who is an attorney in private practice.

KTAR.com: Arizona Supreme Court Justice Andrew Hurwitz was subjected to only a few light questions Thursday as the Senate Judiciary Committee considered his nomination to a seat on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Daily Report: The White House and Georgia’s U.S. senators may agree that Atlanta lawyers Jill A. Pryor and Mark H. Cohen should be federal judges—but they apparently differ on which lawyer should fill an opening at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and which one should serve on Atlanta’s U.S. District Court.

PennLive.com: But some of political Pennsylvania got angry about that wait when they learned today that two members of that court majority – Chief Justice Ronald Castille and Justice Max Baer – have since left for a Pennsylvania Bar Association conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Hendrik Hertzberg at The New Yorker: Yet at least one idea Perry embraced was, and is, very good indeed. It involves the Supreme Court. The Governor may be a little shaky about the Court’s names and numbers, but he knows what to do about it.

News-Gazette.com: On Tuesday, the Illinois Supreme Court officially announced that it will start allowing cameras and recorders in state courts on an experimental basis with the aim of eventually pulling Illinois for good out of the group of 14 states that ban extensive media access at trials.

The Washington Post: The Maryland State Bar Association announced its support Thursday of a same-sex marriage bill sponsored by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), following what the organization said was an “overwhelming” vote by its board of governors.

NYTimes.com: Sure, being the top judge of the appeals court in Brooklyn is impressive. It is one of the most powerful judicial seats in the state.

Atlanta J. Constitution: Republican Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson on Tuesday wrote White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler that they would not hold up Atlanta lawyer Mark Cohen if he is nominated to fill a vacancy on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They also said they would not block U.S. Magistrate Linda Walker and Atlanta lawyer Jill Pryor if they are nominated to the U.S. District Court.

Tulsa Today: Veteran White House reporter Keith Koffler on his blog WhiteHouseDossier.com late last night posted a stunning story that President Barack Obama will ignore an order by an Atlanta judge to appear in court Thursday for a hearing in a case challenging his qualifications under the Constitution to be president. So is this the new state of the union, in which no one must obey the law?

WSJ.com: -Senate Republicans won’t launch a direct legal challenge to the White House’s contentious move to use recess appointments to install senior officials at a new consumer financial agency and the National Labor Relations Board, a senior GOP leadership aide said.

The Blog of Legal Times: Maryland man is suing U.S. Supreme Court Marshal Pamela Talkin, claiming that the rules barring protesters from displaying signs on the high court’s grounds are unconstitutional. Harold Hodge Jr., according to the complaint (PDF) . . .

Sacramento Bee: Dean of Students Mark Davis, a spokesman for the university, says the group’s mission is not aligned with the conservative religious university’s beliefs on sexual morality.

Law firm knee deep in state’s many hot-button issues: As a result, the most influential three names in state politics, outside of Walker, Fitzgerald and Fitzgerald, just might be Michael Best & Friedrich.

NewsOK.com: After a long-running White House effort to find a successor for Robert Henry on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, President Barack Obama has nominated Oklahoma City magistrate judge who was on a list given to Sen. Tom Coburn.

The Blog of Legal Times: The “occupy” movement took its campaign against corporate domination to the federal judiciary on Friday, storming the U.S. Supreme Court building and demonstrating at other federal courthouses nationwide to protest the high court’s 2010 “Citizens United” decision.

Phyllis Schlafly at Townhall: Barack Obama’s latest unconstitutional action is his attempt to make four so-called recess appointments to high-level, well-paying jobs in the federal bureaucracy when the Senate was not in recess. He appointed three people to the National Labor Relations Board, plus Richard Cordray to head the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, even though the Senate had declined to confirm his nomination.

Politico: The Supreme Court on Monday denied a request for debate over whether Justice Elena Kagan should recuse herself from the health care reform case due to be argued in March.

News from The Associated Press: More than 70 nominees to judgeships and senior federal agency positions are awaiting the next move from Republicans, who can use Senate rules to block votes on some or all of Obama’s picks.

NJ.com: Gov. Chris Christie today nominated an openly gay African-American Republican mayor and a Korean-American assistant attorney general to the state’s highest court.

SCOTUS Blog reports.

Rick Santorum at Washington Times: Mr. Romney nominated 36 judges while governor, just nine of whom were Republicans. What he says of this record today is that the Massachusetts Governor’s Council had to confirm the nominees, and the members of the council were all Democrats. So his answer was to nominate persons palatable to Democrats.

Law Professor Michael Stokes Paulsen at Public Discourse: The Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade should not be accepted as law, in any sense. It should be resisted by legislatures and it should be refused enforcement by executive officials because it is not the law. It should be resisted by all citizens, with all the resources at their disposal, and perhaps even with resources not (yet) at their disposal. Anything less is holocaust denial.

CBS Atlanta 46 (includes video): A judge has ordered President Barack Obama to appear in court in Atlanta for a hearing on a complaint that says Obama isn’t a natural-born citizen and can’t be president.

LifeNews.com: So I run to the law books to see what an ‘undue burden’ is,” Scalia said. “What do you know, for 200 years, no burden was an undue burden. You could prohibit it. So I can’t use the law books.”

The Augusta Chronicle: Georgia’s “two-headed” appellate court system needs to be overhauled to create a less confusing set of courts with more clearly defined roles, a state Supreme Court justice told members of the Augusta Bar Association on Thursday evening.

Heritage Foundation Foundry Blog: An internal memorandum from the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) reveals that Justice Elena Kagan “substantially participated” in a health care case in San Francisco in which the Justice Department argued over the effect of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). This raises grave new doubts about the appropriateness of Kagan’s participation as a justice in the Obamacare lawsuit scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court in March.

ADF Attorney Dave Cortman appeared on the Drew Mariani Show to discuss the Forsyth prayer case. | MP3 audio 8:20 mins

News from The Associated Press: In a colorful attack on those high court colleagues who don’t share his approach, Scalia said it’s “absolute madness” to allow the nine justices to decide the Constitution means whatever they say.

The New American: “No federal court has ruled that prayers cannot be offered before public meetings,” said attorney David Cortman of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), the conservative legal advocacy group that represented the county in the case. He added, however, that the Supreme Court had “missed an opportunity to clear up the differing opinions among the various circuits about the content of the prayers. This means that, for the time being, the standard for prayer policies in the 4th Circuit will be different from the standard held by the rest of the country.”

ABC News (includes video): Paul D. Clement is a lawyer standing at the center of three blockbuster Supreme Court cases that could make this term one of the most politically significant in years.

ADF Attorney David Cortman appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss the Supreme Court’s ruling in Hosanna Tabor (ministerial exception for Christian school teachers) and its refusal to hear Forsyth County (sectarian legislative prayer). | MP3 audio 7:10 mins

Winston-Salem Journal: But the county insisted on fighting on through the legal representation of the Alliance Defense Fund, a right-wing Christian organization. The ADF advanced the case for free, but if the county had lost, it would have been liable for paying the victor’s costs. A local group had raised money for that, but there was no guarantee it could meet all the costs.

Winston-Salem Journal: On a vote that splits the county board 4-3 on party lines, the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners accepts an offer from the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian group, to defend the county for free.

Fox 8 (video included): David Cortman with the Alliance Defense Fund, which helped defend the county in the case, said a non-sectarian prayer is no prayer at all. “This was open to anyone to pray according to their own beliefs. It didn’t exclude any religion at all,” Cortman said.

Baptist Press: But David Cortman, an attorney representing Forsyth County, said the ruling makes Christians second-class citizens. “That’s what this case shows,” said Cortman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund. “We believe the Supreme Court has missed an opportunity to clear up the differing opinions among the various circuit courts. It really is disappointing.” [more]

TheHill.com: Some legal experts, including those who have sided with President Obama on other constitutional issues, think there is a good chance the courts could overturn his recent recess appointments.

Mark Levin on ‘Ameritopia:’ ‘We Now Live in a Post-Constitutional Country’ | CNSnews.com: In an interview with CNSNews.com about his new book—“Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America”—Mark R. Levin said he believes America has already largely become “a post-constitutional country.”

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Tuesday to clear up conflicting positions among various appellate courts regarding the historical practice of offering prayers at public meetings according to the faith of the prayer-giver.

Ken Klukowski at the Washington Examiner: David Cortman, ADF’s lead counsel said, “we are obviously disappointed that the Supreme Court did not agree to hear our case on behalf of the Forsyth County Commissioners and the local community. “We continue to believe that the lower court’s decision requiring public officials to censor the prayers of private citizens is inconsistent with historical practice and constitutional requirements. ADF will continue to defend legislative prayer throughout the country until the Supreme Courts hears a case that clears up the confusion.”

JournalNow.com: “I’m surprised and disappointed,” said Mike Johnson, the ADF attorney who argued Forsyth County’s case before the courts. “We really were expecting that the court would want to take a look at the case. I think that this leaves a very important constitutional law issue essentially unresolved. We believe that sometime soon, the Supreme Court will have to hear one of these cases to resolve the issue.”

NY Law Journal: The question has been posed by an unidentified judge in a query to the state courts’ Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics, but the answer remains unclear . . .  In Opinion 11-87 . . .  Dale Schowengerdt, legal counsel …

WSJ: The nonprofit Law School Transparency found that 27% of U.S. law schools don’t provide any information on their websites that can be evaluated.

AthensNews.com: Ohio U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, recently threatened to file a lawsuit against President Barack Obama over his recent controversial recess appointments.

Winston Salem-Journal: The county, backed by the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian group, appealed the ruling to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A local group, the N.C. Partnership for Religious Liberty, pledged $300,000 towards any legal fees the county would pay if it lost the case.

John O. McGinnis and Russell D. Mangas at WSJ (full access via Google): Allowing undergraduate law majors to take the bar exam would increase the number of attorneys and lower legal fees.