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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Courts - "A Defining 48 Hours at the Supreme Court"

From Joan Biskupic's Supreme Court Blog today, this entry that begins:

Sitting in the courtroom the last two days, I was reminded of how profoundly the Court is split 5-4, conservatives-liberals, on cases that really matter. The divide was evident during oral arguments in the Arizona campaign finance dispute Monday and in the gigantic Wal-Mart job-discrimination class action fight Tuesday. And one of most compelling moments along these lines came Tuesday morning when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg read aloud her dissenting opinion from a decision in which the five-justice conservative majority ruled that a former Louisiana Death Row could not sue prosecutors who had failed to turn over blood evidence that could have shown his innocence.

Justices rarely read dissents from the mahogany bench, and when it happens, it’s usually in June, the final, tense month of the term.

But Ginsburg, the most senior liberal, could not hold back from a very public protest of the majority decision in Connick v. Thompson, written by Justice Clarence Thomas and overturning the $14 million verdict John Thompson won in a civil rights trial after he was freed from prison.

With her outrage barely betrayed by a steady, flat voice, Ginsburg emphasized the injustice Thompson faced and responsibility former District Attorney Harry F. Connick bore. She noted that prosecutors have a constitutional obligation to reveal evidence that might exonerate a person: “That obligation was dishonored in this case. Consequently, John Thompson spent 14 years isolated on death row before the truth came to light.”

See the earlier ILB entry today on the Thompson decision.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 30, 2011 10:24 AM
Posted to Courts in general