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Sunday, October 05, 2008

Courts - Tomorrow is "First Monday in October" and SCOTUS convenes

Adam Liptak's story in the NY Times is headed "Justices Return to Less Meaty Docket ." Here is a quote from the long story:

Perhaps the most significant cases of the term involve pre-emption, a doctrine that can bar state-court lawsuits over products that met federal safety standards and one that has repeatedly occupied the Roberts court. The doctrine is in some tension with the Rehnquist court’s attentiveness to state’s rights, which had been known for a time as the “federalism revolution.”

“Corporate America has discovered that they would much rather be regulated by one government in Washington than by 50 state governments, or by the most aggressive of them,” said Kathleen M. Sullivan, a law professor at Stanford and a Supreme Court advocate.

The court will also return to an emerging theme of the Roberts court, which has repeatedly turned back general, or “facial,” challenges to laws in favor of more focused, or “as applied,” attacks.

“The one trend that has emerged most clearly from the first three years of the Roberts court is a certain skepticism about facial challenges,” Paul D. Clement, who was until recently the solicitor general of the United States, said at a recent briefing at the United States Chamber of Commerce. That theme will be further explored this term in a case involving environmental regulations.

David G. Savage's story in the LA Times is headed "This time, Roe vs. Wade really could hang in the balance." It begins:
Every four years, defenders of abortion rights proclaim that the fate of Roe vs. Wade hangs on the outcome of the presidential election.

This year, they may be right.

Through most of the 1990s and until recently, the Supreme Court had a solid 6-3 majority in favor of upholding the right of a woman to choose abortion. But the margin has shrunk to one, now that Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is retired and has been replaced by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.

And Justice John Paul Stevens, a leader of the narrow majority for abortion rights, is 88.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 5, 2008 01:11 PM
Posted to Courts in general