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The Constitution already gives Congress power over the Supreme Court's Appellate power in Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution. " In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make." The Heritage organization explained this. "The seminal decision on jurisdiction-stripping statutes under the Appellate Jurisdiction Clause came shortly after the Civil War. Ex parte McCardle (1869) involved a newspaper editor in military custody, who had appealed a lower federal court's denial of habeas corpus relief to the...

A Texas Court of Appeals in Austin has overturned the conviction of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, attorney Brian Wice told KVUE sister station KHOU 11 News.

Remember, the law’s momentarily in limbo after a trial court judge issued a TRO blocking it on procedural grounds. Today was supposed to be the day the appellate court decided whether to uphold the order or lift it. Which hand would be left holding the hot potato? Answer: Neither. They’re passing it up the chain. A state appeals panel said Thursday a case over a new collective bargaining law should go directly to the state Supreme Court. The move puts the issue squarely before the Supreme Court less than two weeks before Justice David Prosser faces re-election. It is at...

Today we filed our opening brief in the Court of Appeals. The basic arguments may be familiar to those who have followed the proceedings below, but we had somewhat more room to work with at this stage, not to mention the decision below required a response. All three remaining Chicago-area cases, ours and the two brought by the NRA against Chicago and Oak Park, have been consolidated on appeal. That means that they will be heard and decided together by the same panel, and the parties on both sides are to minimize the degree of overlapping arguments among them. We’ll...

If an appellate brief is filed, what is the customary exposure of the brief to the respondents? Do they norally even see the brief? Or is it customarily handled by lawyers until some court intervention action is taken, such as a decision against the respondents by an appellate judge? In this case, the respondents are a state university and state university employees (instructors and administrators), and the case itself is a petition for writ of mandate. thanks, -s

If anyone doubted which side of the political aisle is playing dirty in the fight over federal judicial nominees, he hasn't read about the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League's mission to dig up financial and other dirt against 30 sitting federal appellate judges. Columnist Bob Novak unveiled the story in his May 16 column, reporting that a California political consulting firm requested the financial records of U.S. Appeals Court Judge Edith Jones and 29 other "appellate judges in all but one of the country's judicial circuits, including nine widely mentioned Supreme Court possibilities." According to Novak, such a...

Chief Justice William Rehnquist's health is so poor he likely soon will be called to the Great Appellate Bench in the Sky. On NBC's "Meet the Press" program last month, the new Senate Democratic leader, Sen. Harry Reid, said he could support the elevation of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia to chief justice, but not Thomas. Angela Onwuachi-Willig, a liberal Democrat and law professor who is black, said Reid's erroneous attack on Thomas appeared to be motivated by racism. "It is the black justice who cannot write opinions, articulate independent thoughts or perform his job well," she said, writing in the...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

<p>LOS ANGELES - Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she will oppose President Bush's nominee to a key federal appellate court Thursday when the Senate Judiciary Committee votes on her nomination.</p> <p>Feinstein, who is expected to cast a decisive vote, had not taken a stance on the nomination of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kohl until late Wednesday afternoon. Her decision makes it more likely that Democrats on the committee would unite against Kuhl.</p>

On February 14, a Florida Appeals court ruled there is absolutely nothing illegal about lying, concealing or distorting information by a major press organization. The court reversed the $425,000 jury verdict in favor of journalist Jane Akre who charged she was pressured by Fox Television management and lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information. The ruling basically declares it is technically not against any law, rule, or regulation to deliberately lie or distort the news on a television broadcast. On August 18, 2000, a six-person jury was unanimous in its conclusion that Akre was indeed...

A cabal of the usual suspects -- abortion rights advocates, enviro-activists, civil rights groups and organized labor -- is attacking President Bush's nomination choices for the federal bench. Do these groups all share the same board of directors? They all march in lockstep. What they have in common is that they don't like independent judges who won't toe the Democratic Party line. Last year, the Democrat-dominated Congress stalled 64 of Bush's district-court nominees and all 27 of his appeals-court appointments. Now that the Republicans have taken back the Senate, the president has renominated most of these justices with the hope...

MARYLAND STATE Sen. Mike Miller's attempts to contact judges about a redistricting plan pending before the state Court of Appeals were grossly improper, as were similar contacts made by three other Democratic lawmakers. All should have -- must have -- known better. Senate President Miller is a lawyer; he and the other three -- Sens. Ida Ruben of Montgomery and Ulysses Currie of Prince George's and Del. Ruth M. Kirk of Baltimore -- have been around awhile.