He's the only Republican on the Judiciary Committee who voted for Sotomayor.

Ugh, this partisan garbage is really getting on my nerves.  She's highly qualified, okay?  She's a good, basic judge who won't change anything on the court.

I'm excited about what the article says about filling vacancies on the 4th Circuit, though.  Please, please, please ( Read more... )

This time, siding with the 5-4 Supreme Court majority saying there is no right to access to DNA evidence for post-conviction testing.

WTF?  We know Obama is weird on criminal issues -- saying he supported the death penalty for rape was insane, for example -- so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Queers, criminal defendants -- who's he going to throw ( Read more... )

LIVE FREE OR DIE, PEOPLE!

Next stop:  Rhode Island?

It's official.

And while shaking up people's regional assumptions is always a good thing, I'm finding it bizarre that I can get married in Des Moines but not San Francisco.

At least Mr. Sulu is still married.  Are all the people who got in under the wire now saying "neener, neener"?

It's been weird in CA since November, and it's about to get even ( Read more... )

To Melisa and Shelby, Grant and Andrew, Alicia and Jessica, Curtis and Daren, Patrick and Denny,  and all the other happy Iowa couples who are getting their marriage licenses today.  And a special shout-out to Sean and Tim, who managed to get married right after the trial court ruling, before the judge issued a stay, and will now have some company.

( Read more... )

Birthday greetings and love to thedeepquiet , and a big "live long and prosper" to Justice Stevens, who turns 89 today.  While the thought of his death or retirement no longer terrifies me (YES WE CAN get a decent replacement appointed!), I wish him many more happy healthy years.  Justice Stevens, if you feel like you want to devote more time to your ( Read more... )

Of course you knew that already.  But today I learned that Judges Kozinski and Reinhardt are made of awesome.   They've both ruled in employee grievance cases that the court must give health benefits to the spouses of its employees, regardless of  what kind of junk they have in their pants.   Reinhardt, in a truly inspiring display of awesomeness, ( Read more... )

The governors of a bunch of states, including our very own Martin O'Malley, are looking at getting rid of the death penalty because it costs too much.

Kudos to my learned friends who represent capital defendants, at trial and in post-conviction appeals -- you made this happen.  This is brilliant -- put in so many procedural safeguards, make it so ( Read more... )

The California Supreme Court has agreed to hear the Prop 8 case.  And the mean people are threatening to vote the judges out of office if they over turn it.  According to the article, this happened once before in CA, in 1986.  Several judges were voted out of office for opposing the death penalty.

Constitutional rights should not be determined by ( Read more... )

I went to law school with this guy, who now teaches at NYU.  We were in a seminar on sexual orientation and the law, taught by Bill Rubenstein, together.

Kenji doesn't seem to think much of the new lawsuit to block enforcement of  Prop 8.  He thinks the only way to get it overturned is to go federal, which no one in their right mind would do in the ( Read more... )