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When the U.S. Supreme Court is in session, each Wednesday and Friday afternoon is set aside for an esoteric conclave known as the Justices' Conference. During these private meetings, the justices discuss cases they have recently heard or might decide to hear. The first order of business usually involves the latter, requests from various litigants for the high court to review cases that have been adjudicated by lower courts. Typically, these cases have already been through the appellate process, but occasionally the justices receive a "petition for certiorari before judgment" asking them to consider the decision of some District Court...

Juror's research led to murder mistrial By Bob Kalinowski (Staff Writer) Published: January 17, 2011 Legal experts have coined them "Google mistrials." Curious jurors seeking to conduct their own research surf the Internet about facts presented in court, bringing a halt to important court cases and tainting the outcome. Sometimes it's done unwittingly. Other times it's done against a judge's specific directions. On Friday, it ended Lamont Cherry's murder trial in Luzerne County court. A juror admitted to researching medical issues at home on her computer after five hours of deliberations Thursday ended in a deadlocked panel, prompting a cloud...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Don't expect a Facebook friend request from Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer any time soon. The 72-year-old justice said in a speech at Vanderbilt Law School on Tuesday that he was perplexed when he recently saw the film "The Social Network" about the origins of Facebook. But Breyer said the film illustrates his argument that modern conditions — like the development of the social-networking site — should inform justices when interpreting a Constitution written in the 18th century. "If I'm applying the First Amendment, I have to apply it to a world where there's an Internet, and...

Results of the recent elections showed that growing numbers of Americans are fed up with “public servants” who act as if they are public masters. This went beyond the usual objections to particular policies. It was the fact that policies were crammed down our throats, whether we liked them or not. In fact, laws were passed so fast that nobody had time to read them. Whether these policies were good, bad, or indifferent, the way they were imposed represented a more fundamental threat to the very principles of a self-governing people established by the Constitution of the United States. Arrogant...

Gay marriage support knocks 3 Iowa justices off the bench Comments November 4, 2010 DES MOINES, Iowa -- Iowans voted to remove three state Supreme Court justices, siding with conservatives angered by a ruling that allowed gay marriage. Justices Marsha Ternus, David Baker and Michael Streit will be removed after about 54 percent of voters backed their ouster -- the first time Iowa voters have removed a Supreme Court justice since the current system began in 1962. They were on the court of seven justices who unanimously decided last year that an Iowa law restricting marriage to one man and...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court says the Constitution's "right to keep and bear arms" applies nationwide as a restraint on the ability of government to limit its application

As Congress gears up to do battle over Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court, Americans are struggling to identify the names of her would-be colleagues... Two-thirds of the 1,000 American adults polled couldn't name a single current justice, and just 1 percent were able to name all nine sitting justices. The largest proportion of respondents were able to name Clarence Thomas, at 19 percent; Chief Justice John Roberts was next with 16 percent. Bringing up the rear were Anthony Kennedy — the pivotal swing vote in many high court decisions — with 6 percent, and Stephen Breyer, who rang...

<p>WASHINGTON – Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the court's oldest member and leader of its liberal bloc, he is retiring. President Barack Obama now has his second high court opening to fill.</p> <p>Stevens said Friday he will step down when the court finishes its work for the summer in late June or early July. He said he hopes his successor is confirmed "well in advance of the commencement of the court's next term."</p>

American Minute for March 24th: William Jay, son of the First Supreme Court Chief Justice, helped found New York City's Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. His son, John Jay, was manager of New York Young Men's Anti-Slavery Society in 1834. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story helped establish the illegality of the slave trade in the 1844 Amistad case. Salmon P. Chase, appointed Chief Justice by Lincoln, defended so many escaped slaves in his career he was nicknamed "Attorney-General of Fugitive Slaves." Cassius Marcellus Clay, diplomat to Russia for Lincoln and Grant, founded the anti-slavery journal True American in 1845 and helped...

THE FIVE THAT STAND AGAINST ALL AMERICANS, THE “MAFIA� JUDGES By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor Five members of the Supreme Court declared that a “corporation� is a person, not a “regular person� but one above all natural laws, subject to no God, no moral code but one with unlimited power over our lives, a power awarded by judges who seem themselves as grand inquisitors in an meant to hunt down all hertics who fail to serve their god, the god of money. Their ruling has made it legal for foreign controlled corporations to flush unlimited money into our bloated...

Counting the majority opinion and the various partial concurrences and dissents, today’s landmark First Amendment decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission clocks in a hefty 183-pages. But one thing that jumped right out while reading the dissent (it’s also a concurrence, in parts) written by Justice John Paul Stevens and joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor, is Stevens' angry tone. He calls the idea that the First Amendment forbids distinctions between individuals and individuals organized as a corporation “a glittering generality” with no foundation in the law, and later declares, “Under the majority's...

A prominent pro-life organization has thrown down the gauntlet before a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court justices. The Supreme Court's fall/winter session is just gettingunder way. The challenge comes from Judie Brown, president of the American Life League (ALL). "Now that we have six people on the Supreme Court out of nine who claim to be Catholic," she notes, "we'd like for them to take the opportunity to address the reality of who it is who lives in the womb from the moment that his or her life begins, and then take action to overrule themselves so that the...

Recent diatribes have appeared in the media criticizing and misrepresenting the rationale of those opposed to the Sotomayor nomination to the Supreme Court. Sotomayor has been lauded ad nauseam for her desire to be empathetic in her adjudication, and many have remarked unceasingly about the impressiveness of her "life experience." Empathy and "life experience" are certainly wonderful virtues. But are they most appropriate for a social worker or for a judge? Our own legal icon, Lady Justice, wears a blindfold and holds balanced scales in her hand. There is no room for favoritism in adjudication, and the idea of judicial...

Adesperate — and ridiculous — claim that Sonia Sotomayor would not be the first Hispanic justice to take the U.S. Supreme Court bench is very revealing. There are actually people claiming with a straight face that Benjamin Cardozo, appointed to the court by Herbert Hoover in 1932, was the first Hispanic justice.

JUDGES should interpret the Constitution according to other nations' legal "norms." Sharia law could apply to disputes in US courts. The United States constitutes an "axis of disobedience" along with North Korea and Saddam-era Iraq. Those are the views of the man on track to become one of the US government's top lawyers: Harold Koh. Obama has nominated Koh -- until last week the dean of Yale Law School -- to be the State Department's legal adviser. In that job, Koh would forge a wide range of international agreements on issues from trade to arms control, and help represent our...

President Barack Obama / Leonard A. Leo Washington DC, Feb 1, 2009 / 07:55 pm (CNA).- Confirmation hearings for President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice nominees are reportedly proceeding so quickly that Republicans and outside groups are unable to make meaningful criticisms of their intense support for abortion rights and other moral issues. One critic said the nominations portend the most “Culture of Death” justice department in American history.“We are on the brink of having the most Culture of Death, anti-family Justice Department ever,” Leonard Leo, former Co-Chairman of the Republican National Committee Catholic Outreach and Chairman of Students...

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline)-The U.S. Supreme Court reconvenes next week for a term that will be conducted under the backdrop of November's presidential election. Among cases to be heard by the high court is whether pharmaceutical companies may be sued for patient injuries, if the Federal Communications Commission may restrict foul language on broadcast television, if the Navy can be barred from using sonar off the California coast and whether local officials can be sued for violations that took place on their watch.

WASHINGTON - All five Roman Catholic justices on the Supreme Court were invited to Wednesday night's splashy White House dinner in honor of Pope Benedict XVI. Republican presidential contender John McCain will be there, too. But Democratic rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, who had a nationally broadcast debate scheduled Wednesday night, were not invited. About 250 guests were to attend the dinner. Benedict will not be there because he will be attending an evening prayer service with U.S. bishops. The guests include former Los Angeles Dodgers baseball manager Tommy Lasorda, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader John...

It took Nixon to go to China. It took Bill Clinton, a Democrat, to get control of the federal deficit. (Sorry, conservatives, but it’s true.) And it might take Rudy Giuliani to appoint solid Supreme Court Justices.With Fred Thompson out of the race, judicial conservatives are looking for a candidate. John McCain? Three words: Gang of 14. Mike Huckabee? He’ll never be President. Mitt Romney? Ehhhh . . . he might be OK — but I think he comes across to voters as too slick and unprincipled. And there may be a reason for that.But there’s no reason, in my...

WASHINGTON – Supreme Court justices indicated Monday they are deeply divided over a challenge to the way most states execute prisoners by lethal injection, which critics say creates an avoidable risk of excruciating pain. With executions in the United States halted since late September, the court heard arguments in a case from Kentucky that calls into question the mix of three drugs used in most executions. Justice Antonin Scalia was among several conservatives on the court who suggested he would uphold Kentucky's method of execution and allow capital punishment to resume. States have been careful to adopt procedures that do...

Abstract: "The Irony of Populism: The Republican Shift and the Inevitability of American Aristocracy" analyzes the shift in the role of the Supreme Court following the movement towards a democratic Senate which culminated in the Seventeenth Amendment. The Supreme Court's shift is presented as the inevitable result of the system of mixed government that underlies the constitutional order, which orders American Government into democratic, aristocratic, and monarchical parts. While in the original conception of the constitution the Senate was the aristocratic part, the Senate would become part of the democratic part with the Seventeenth Amendment and prior procedural changes. Into...

If a U.S. Supreme Court justice steps down in the coming months, the Bush administration may have an easier time filling the seat with a conservative nominee than is generally expected, some political analysts argue. The first full term in which Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr., and Associate Justice Samuel Alito have served together is drawing to a close, and the country is again bracing for the possibility of another justice retiring from the bench. Retirement speculation focuses on Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, both liberals. Stevens is 87 years old; and although Ginsburg is 13 years...

If a Supreme Court vacancy unexpectedly develops this summer, the conventional wisdom is that President Bush will find it extremely difficult or impossible to get a strong proponent of judicial restraint confirmed by the Senate....snip....This conventional wisdom is unsound.

The Supreme Court refused to review the convictions and death sentence Tuesday for serial killer Richard Ramirez, the so-called Night Stalker who killed 13 people in California in the 1980s. The justices declined without comment to act on Ramirez's appeal. His killing spree terrorized the Los Angeles area in 1984 and 1985. Satanic symbols were left at murder scenes and some victims were forced by the killer to "swear to Satan." Ramirez, convicted in 1989, is not likely to be executed any time soon. He still has another round of federal appeals to pursue and the state's death penalty has...

It is understandable that liberal Democratic presidents, beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt, loaded the Supreme Court with liberal, Democratic justices. What is far harder to understand is how a whole succession of conservative Republican presidents — Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Bush 41 — managed to appoint so many liberals to the Supreme Court.

WASHINGTON - Three of the five Supreme Court justices who handed the presidency to George W. Bush in 2000 say they had no choice but to intervene in the Florida recount. Comments from Justice Anthony Kennedy and retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor are in a new book that was published this week. Justice Antonin Scalia made his remarks Tuesday at Iona College in New York. Scalia, answering questions after a speech, also said that critics of the 5-4 ruling in Bush v. Gore need to move on six years after the electoral drama of December 2000, when it seemed the...

Don’t Despair Strong justices can still be confirmed. By Edward Whelan The Democrats’ capture of formal control of the Senate is bad news for President Bush’s judicial nominations — especially to the federal courts of appeals — during his final two years in office. But don’t be fooled by Democrats’ bluffing. There’s still plenty of room to get another excellent Supreme Court justice — or even two or three more — confirmed. Skeptical? Consider the last Republican appointee to the Court to be confirmed by a Democrat-controlled Senate — Clarence Thomas in 1991. That Senate had 57 Democrats and only...

Washington DC, Oct. 02, 2006 (CNA) - Four Supreme Court justices attended the annual Red Mass, which is traditionally held each autumn to mark the beginning of the court’s new term and draws members of the legal community, Presidential Cabinet members, and occasionaly the President himself. Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington presided at yesterday’s Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, where the Red Mass has been held since 1952. Four of the five Catholic Supreme Court justices — Chief Justice John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, and Clarence Thomas — attended, reported The Associated Press. Justice Samuel...

The California Supreme Court is taking a dim view of libel lawsuits against Web site operators who post inflammatory information from other sources. The justices said during a 60-minute court hearing Tuesday testing the 1996 Communications Decency Act that Congress and other courts have already spoken on the issue. The justices were leaning toward tossing out a lawsuit against a San Diego woman who posted an allegedly libelous e-mail she received on her site's message board. The widely watched case included briefs from some of the Internet's biggest names, including Amazon.com, America Online Inc., eBay Inc., Google Inc., Microsoft Corp....

The California Supreme Court upheld the convictions and death sentence Monday for serial killer Richard Ramirez whose so-called Night Stalker killing spree terrorized the Los Angeles area in the mid 1980s. Ramirez, 46, was sentenced to death in 1989 for 13 Los Angeles-area murders in 1984 and 1985. Satanic symbols were left at murder scenes and some victims were forced to "swear to Satan" by the killer, who entered homes through unlocked windows and doors. The justices unanimously denied claims that Ramirez was incompetent to stand trial, that the case should have been moved outside Los Angeles, and that all...

The California Supreme Court delved into the world of religion Wednesday, agreeing to decide whether doctors can deny treatment to patients who offend their religious beliefs. The justices decided to review the case of two Vista fertility doctors, Christine Brody and Douglas Fenton, who refused to artificially inseminate a lesbian woman. The Christian doctors, however, do not object to treating married patients requiring insemination. "These physicians do not believe that it is necessarily appropriate for a woman to have a baby out of wedlock," the doctors' attorney, Robert Tyler said. "Should a Christian be forced to artificially inseminate an unmarried...

WASHINGTON For the second time, the Supreme Court on Monday shied away from getting involved in a child custody fight between a San Diego woman and her former lesbian partner. The birth mother, known as Sharon S., is trying to prevent her former partner from adopting one of the two children the women were raising together. Sharon S. and her partner Annette F. separated after an incident of domestic violence that Sharon blames on Annette. The California Supreme Court rejected the attempt by Sharon to prevent the adoption, which she consented to by signing an adoption petition in August 1999....

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer said Tuesday the high court has more discussion and debate behind closed doors with its two new members. Breyer, though, said the court "seems to be running very well" under Chief Justice John Roberts, and he doesn't think the extra discussion is a major change. "Perhaps it has to do with younger people," Breyer, 67, told reporters at a news conference before he was to speak at the Clinton Library. President Bush's first nominee to the court, 51-year-old Roberts, was sworn in last fall, becoming the nation's youngest chief justice in...

Just for fun, I am introducing this thread for Freepers who have much interest in the Supreme Court. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the influential justices of the mid-to-late twentieth century, so I have provided a list below naming some of the most prominent justices of that period. I’d love to get reactions from fellow Freepers regarding some of these justices and get an idea of some favorites and least favorites. Obviously, I know very well what harsh words nearly all members will have for the left-wing justices! LOL In an effort...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court today refused to hear an appeal by two North Carolina-based tobacco companies who claimed California's tough anti-smoking ads smeared their reputations. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., now Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Reynolds American Inc., and Lorillard Tobacco Co. of Greensboro, N.C., had asked the justices to overturn a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that rejected the companies' claims that their First Amendment rights were violated by California's ad campaign. California uses part of an 87-cent tax on every package of cigarettes to fund health education that includes a campaign to discourage smoking. The ads included a...

NY Ruling Could Impact Kansas Courts Print E-mail By Jalexson Wednesday, 15 February 2006 By Jalexson HUTCHINSON, KS -- The recent ruling by federal Judge John Gleeson in Lopez Torres v. New York State Board of Elections, could set the stage for a federal court challenge of some Kansas courts. The specific ruling, however, would not be applicable because of differences in the courts of the two states. The New York case involved the selection of judicial candidates for election to lower courts ( called “supreme courts” in New York ). Although voters choose judges, the mechanism for selecting the...

NOTE: Patrick Leahy referenced "court-packing" in the Judiciary Committee debate today. The scumbag is trying to equate the Constitutional power of the president to appoing judges with the unconstitutional attempt of FDR. The dumbed down Americans among us may fall for it. We won't. ========================================================================= FDR's court-packing fiasco By K. Daniel Glover web posted July 12, 1999 The Supreme Court. The title alone lends an air of distinction to that august legal body and its nine justices who sit in judgment on an entire nation. And indeed, the United States' highest tribunal, more than any other root of America's democratic...

WASHINGTON — It was deja vu all over again at the Supreme Court yesterday, as justices reprised the First Amendment debate over provisions of the federal campaign-finance law that restrict electioneering ads just before an election. In the 2003 litigation over the law that resulted in the ruling McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, the First Amendment lost, with a majority of the Court upholding the restrictions on their face, even though they restrict speech when it arguably matters most. Yesterday, presented with a real-life challenge by a Wisconsin antiabortion group that had to yank its advertisements off the air because...

Make up of the 13 federal appellate courts. There are currently 15 vacancies on the 11 numbered appellate courts plus the DC Circuit and the Federal Circuit. There are no vacancies on the First, Second, Seventh, Eighth, Eleventh, and Federal circuits. The Ninth has 4 vacancies, the DC circuit has 3, and with Judge Alito's promotion the 3rd circuit has 3. Of the 179 active judge positions, 60 have been appointed by Bill Clinton(33%). GW Bush has appointed 22%(39), Reagan 17%(30), GHW Bush 16%(28), Carter 3%(6), Nixon 0.5%(1). 8%(15) of the seats are vacant, with 3 nominations pending(Saad, Myers, and...

After a tough couple of weeks, Bush emerged from the failed nomination of Harriet Miers and the legal troubles of Scooter Libby to hit a home run as big as anything we saw by the White Sox. All that I know about Samuel Alito is what I have read and heard in the past several hours, and almost every objective analysis of Alito confirms what most conservatives want-a justice who does not believe that judges should make the laws.

Conservative strategists are drafting a letter to Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee demanding the release of hundreds of internal memos detailing contacts between the lawmakers and liberal interest groups opposing John Roberts’ nomination to the Supreme Court. By planning to press Democrats on the sensitive subject, conservatives seem to be pulling a page from the Democrats’ own political playbook. In the weeks leading up to the confirmation hearings, Senate Democrats have repeatedly called on the White House to give them memos Roberts penned while he was deputy solicitor general in President George H.W. Bush’s administration. Sen. Patrick Leahy...

Senator Diane Feinstein today spoke a little about Supreme Court nominees, and what we can expect from the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. She also let us in on what issues Liberals in the U.S. consider when they think of the rulings that affected them, and which they cherish the most. Feinstein told those gathered to hear her at a meeting of the L.A. County Bar Association that in her opinion the person chosen to replace Sandra Day O'Connor should be "balanced and Fair," and not come from either extreme. She then proceeded to give a history lesson to those gathered,...

Those who want to see judges who will apply the law instead of imposing their own policies face not only political obstruction to the appointment of such judges but also calculated confusion about the very words used in discussing what is at issue. Judges who impose their own preferences, instead of following the law as it is written, have long been known as "judicial activists" while those who carry out the law, instead of rewriting it to suit themselves, have been said to be following the "original intent" of the law. But now a massive effort to muddy the waters...

WASHINGTON - President Bush's deftly orchestrated Supreme Court announcement muffled a controversy over the leak of a CIA official's identity and put the president back on his political game, analysts said Wednesday. Whether Bush maintains control of the agenda in coming weeks depends largely on events outside of his control, such as the Senate debate over his nominee, John Roberts, and developments in the investigation of the Valerie Plame affair. As he strolled the colonnade outside the Oval Office with his newest nominee on Wednesday, Bush twice described himself as "confident." "I'm confident the senators will come to realize what...

Senators Edward M. Kennedy and Christopher Dodd urged the president to nominate a mainstream conservative for the Supreme Court at a news conference earlier this month. (Reuters Photo) WASHINGTON -- Senator Edward M. Kennedy's ringing baritone carried over the nearly empty Senate chamber, sounding a warning on a familiar subject. The liberal lion stood behind his desk in the chamber's last row and promised an aggressive and detailed grilling of whomever President Bush selects for the Supreme Court. .....Cooperation and comity aside, Kennedy has made it clear that he will not hesitate to lead an effort to block a nominee...

Perhaps Sen. Charles Schumer should have taken the Quiet Car. Here’s what the New York Democrat reportedly was overheard saying the other day on Amtrak: “Even William Rehnquist is more moderate than they expected. The only one that resulted how they predicted [was] Scalia. So most of the time they’ve gotten their picks wrong, and that’s what we want to do to them again.” Whether or not this quote from the Drudge Report is accurate, the sentiment is correct: The litany of conservative disappointments over Supreme Court appointments is a long one. Earl Warren. Harry Blackmun. John Paul Stevens. Anthony...

George W. Bush is loyal to his buddies. The gooder the good ol' boy, the better. It's one of the president's most endearing traits. He stood up for Alberto Gonzales on his way to the G-8 summit in Scotland, scolding the "extremists" on the right who are suspicious of the attorney general's credentials as a conservative nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. "I don't like it when a friend gets criticized," the president told reporters at a stop in Denmark. "I'm loyal to my friends. And all of a sudden this fellow, who is a good public servant and a...

Certain seasons or events have historically spawned their own lexicons which are unique to those events and used almost exclusively to describe them. Late in the college football season, some games have what are unfailingly called, “serious bowl implications.” Likewise vice-presidential candidates must possess ''gravitas'' and Super Bowls oddly acquire roman numerals. So. too. does the Supreme Court nomination process require its own terminology, especially when the president is a Republican. Over the next several weeks there are a number of ordinary words and phrases that will be used ad nauseam in reference to whomever President Bush submits to the...

I Corinthians 3: 16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?

We are prepared to release one or two flyers the day or two after President Bush announces his Supreme Court nominee. If you would like to be added to our ping list for flyer distribution, please let us know. Here is the list of flyers distributed by you and others to 10,000s of homes during 2004. Flyers