Below The Beltway

When the head of the third branch of government is hospitalized, it’s always a big story:
WASHINGTON, July 30 — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was hospitalized on today after suffering a seizure at his summer home in Maine, the Supreme Court announced.
The episode, described as a “benign idiopathic seizure,” was similar to one he [...]

And this time, she’s facing possible contempt charges:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A congressional panel moved toward seeking contempt charges against former White House counsel Harriet Miers on Thursday after she refused to appear — under orders from President George W. Bush — at a hearing on the firing of federal prosecutors.
The White [...]

I’ve written in more detail at The Liberty Papers about the major cases that came out of the Supreme Court today, but here’s a roundup.
In FEC v. Wisconsin Right To Life, the Court declared unconstitutional those provisions of the McCain-Feingold law that restrict advertising that specifically mentions a candidate for office 30 days before a [...]

There’s been some controversy in the legal blogosphere over remarks that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made at a recent legal conference:
Senior judges from North America and Europe were in the midst of a panel discussion about torture and terrorism law, when a Canadian judge’s passing remark - “Thankfully, security agencies in all our countries [...]

The Washington Post has an interesting article this morning about the tough choice that D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty faces over how to deal with the Parker v. D.C gun case:
D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty must make a risky choice about the District’s gun ban: defend it before the Supreme Court or write new, looser laws [...]

Do Supreme Court Justices have too much time on their hands ? Judging from these statistics, in a Washington Post Op-Ed by Margaret and Richard Cordray (one a law professor the other a former clerk for two Supreme Court Justices) it would appear so:
Each June, as its term ends, the Supreme Court issues blockbuster opinions [...]

Late yesterday, timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the Kelo decision, President Bush issued an Executive Order suppoosedly intended to protect private property rights. At The Volokh Conspiracy, Ilya Somin isn’t very impressed:
Read carefully, the order does not in fact bar condemnations that transfer property to other private parties for economic development. Instead, [...]

It was one year ago today that the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Kelo v. City of New London approving the use of eminent domain for economic redevelopment on a scale not before seen. The reaction to that decision was swift and immediate from all sides of the political aisle. Legislation was introduced [...]

By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court ruled today that police do not have to knock before entering a home subject to a search warrant. Both John Roberts and Samuel Alito voted with the majority, making this quite likely the first major Constitutional case directly impacted by the changes in the Supreme Court over the [...]

Professor Bainbridge writes about this statement from Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Foundation:
The Feminist Majority opposes the nomination of Samuel Alito to replace Sandra Day O?Connor on the Supreme Court. Alito is no O?Connor. Instead of reaching out to women and/or people of color to make the Supreme Court more diverse and representative, [...]