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Thursday, July 03, 2008

Courts - More on: Linda Greenhouse points to blog that identified an error in a major SCOTUS opinion

Updating this ILB entry from yesterday, Linda Greenhouse reports today in the NY Times in a story that begins:

In a highly unusual admission of error, the Justice Department acknowledged on Wednesday that government lawyers should have known that Congress had recently made the rape of a child a capital offense in the military and should have informed the Supreme Court of that fact while the justices were considering whether death was a constitutional punishment for the crime.

“It’s true that the parties to the case missed it, but it’s our responsibility,” the department’s public affairs office said in a statement.

“We regret,” the statement said, “that the department didn’t catch the 2006 law when the case of Kennedy v. Louisiana was briefed.”

Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 3, 2008 10:30 AM
Posted to Courts in general