Supreme Court Watch

Firestorm Over Bush Nominees
Olson Predicts Firestorm for Next Justice
WASHINGTON -- Despite Republican gains, President Bush's picks for potential vacancies on the Supreme Court will face "political firestorm" in the Senate, the Bush administration's former chief lawyer at the high court said Thursday. Theodore Olson, who resigned in July as solicitor general, predicted that Bush will get to name as many as three justices during his second term. Olson also said he expected that those choices will come under attack by interest groups and Senate Democrats who have already blocked 10 Bush nominees to other courts.

Related
Filibuster Vote-Counter Will Lead Democrats
Reid: Committed Partisan With
Deceptively Moderate Record
Shortly after securing his place as the top Democrat in the U.S. Senate, Nevada's Harry Reid had a message for President Bush: "I will not shirk from my responsibility to stand up and fight for Nevada values and Democratic principles." As Daschle's loyal lieutenant for six years, Reid spent much of his time counting votes and making sure Senate Democrats were unified. His work paid off. The only other potential candidate for minority leader, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D.-Conn.), quickly backed away from a challenge to Reid. Democrats plan to formally vote for their new leader next month.

One Justice's vision of role of the courts
WASHINGTON -- During the presidential campaign, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia received a strange letter in his home mailbox. It was a fundraising flier from Democratic strategist James Carville. The appeal invoked an issue apparently thought to be so frightening that it would prompt recipients to fork over massive amounts of money to the Kerry campaign. The "terrifying" message came with the headline: "What Would You Think of CHIEF JUSTICE Scalia?" When Scalia related the story at a recent gathering of the conservative Federalist Society here in Washington, the audience erupted into sustained and thunderous cheers and applause.

Supreme Court Throws Out Texas Death Sentence
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday overturned the death sentence of a convicted Texas killer because jurors in his trial did not consider his learning disability and other evidence. Texas courts had turned down LaRoyce Lathair Smith's appeal of his sentence for the January 1991 killing of a Taco Bell manager during a robbery attempt in Dallas. The victim, 19-year-old Jennifer Soto, was pistol-whipped, shot and stabbed with a butcher knife.

Court Considers When Cops Can Use Canines
Driving 6 mph over the speed limit got Roy Caballes pulled over. But what happened next landed him at the Supreme Court, which considered Wednesday when police can use drug-sniffing dogs. Caballes was wearing a suit and driving a new Mercury when he was stopped on an Illinois freeway in November 1998. It looked like he would get off with a warning until Krott the drug dog showed up and sniffed out $250,000 worth of marijuana in Caballes' trunk. Caballes' conviction eventually was overturned on grounds police had no reason to search his car.

Court Steers Clear of Cockfighting Case
WASHINGTON - No cockfighting in Oklahoma, the Supreme Court says. The justices turned down an appeal Monday from cockfighting supporters, who have lost at the ballot box and in courts. Oklahoma voters in 2002 approved a ban on the blood sport, in which knives or cutting barbs are attached to roosters, which usually fight to the death.

Court Declines Adoption Dispute
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider whether a Colorado couple must return their adopted son to his Missouri birth mother. Justices let stand a Colorado Supreme Court ruling in favor of the adoptive parents, who are identified in filings only as G.A.L. and K.L. to protect their privacy. The Denver couple argued they should retain custody of 1-year-old Alex because a judge had not taken into consideration his "best interests."

Court Declines to Step Into Kmart Bankruptcy Dispute
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider whether retailer Kmart Corp. should have been allowed to pay more than $300 million to key suppliers immediately after filing for bankruptcy protection. Justices let stand a lower ruling that declared Kmart had no authority to pay suppliers such as newspaper chain Knight-Ridder Inc. The court said Kmart had not proven that the suppliers were so critical to Kmart's operations to justify payments to them over others.

Court Considers Death Penalty Case
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court last Wednesday considered whether a jury that sentenced a convicted killer to death had properly taken into account his religious conversion, which a prosecutor incorrectly contended was irrelevant. In a 24-year-old case, most of the justices seemed to agree that the California prosecutor was wrong to make that assertion about William Payton and that a trial judge should have corrected the prosecutor. But the justices were divided over whether the errors made a difference in sentencing.

Posted by Editor at November 17, 2004 07:20 AM