The U.S. Supreme Court, signaling it may make Sonia Sotomayor’s first case on the bench a blockbuster, questioned the constitutionality of longstanding federal restrictions on corporate election spending. Hearing an unusual second round of arguments in a case involving a ...

Tagged with: corporate election spending Sonia Sotomayor U.S. Supreme Court

Justice Antonin Scalia minced no words in a 2007 campaign spending case when he accused colleagues John Roberts and Samuel Alito of lacking candor by overruling a U.S. Supreme Court precedent without saying so. “This faux judicial restraint,” Scalia wrote ...

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Justice John Paul Stevens has hired only one law clerk so far for the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010-11 term, raising the possibility that the 89-year-old might retire next year. Stevens, like other justices, typically hires four law clerks for each term and usually has completed his hiring by this time of year. "It would be out of character for Stevens to hire more clerks when he knew he was going to retire," said Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University Law School in Washington. A Stevens departure would mean a second vacancy for President Barack Obama.

Tagged with: John Paul Stevens U.S. Supreme Court

The Obama administration urged the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a century-old ban on corporate political giving, saying the restrictions protect the free-speech rights of shareholders. The Justice Department, in a legal brief filed Wednesday, supported a lower court ruling ...

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I joined the Dark Side one particular day in the summer of 1990. I was living in Washington, D.C., working for what I thought was a pro-First Amendment PAC. Among my duties was to write the first draft of a ...

Tagged with: Amicus U.S. Supreme Court

“Never be afraid to concede when it’s right to do so.” That was a lesson taught to me more than a decade ago, back when I was 2L at a law school in Boston. And the man who said those ...

Tagged with: David Souter U.S. Supreme Court

The Connecticut firefighter case resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court last week showed the power of the court’s conservative wing to reshape the law. The rest of the nine-month term underscored the limits of that power. The 5-4 decision backing ...

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The U.S. Supreme Court won’t review a dispute between Level 3 Communications and the city of St. Louis concerning whether the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 pre-empts a local ordinance. The denial of a writ of certiorari filed by Level ...

Tagged with: Level 3 Communications Telecommunications Act of 1996 U.S. Supreme Court

After observing his whirlwind, extemporaneous 2008-09 Supreme Court Term Review Thursday, few could argue that Erwin Chemerinsky isn't "one of the brightest leading lights in the legal community today." That's the description 10th U.S. Circuit Court Judge Deanell Reece Tacha offered in introducing Chemerinsky, the speaker at a UMKC School of Law event. Pictured is Chemerinsky greeting Tacha.

Tagged with: Erwin Chemerinsky U.S. Supreme Court

The Constitution doesn’t guarantee access to DNA evidence for accused and convicted criminals, a divided U.S. Supreme Court said, ruling against a convicted Alaska rapist who sought to test DNA samples from a condom. The justices, voting 5-4, overturned a ...

Tagged with: DNA rape U.S. Supreme Court

Plaintiffs suing under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act must prove that but for their age they would not have suffered the adverse employment action, the U.S. Supreme Court said Thursday in a 5-4 decision. That standard is a much ...

Tagged with: age discrimination Age Discrimination in Employment Act Dennis Egan Title VII U.S. Supreme Court