JD Journal » John Roberts

Justice Stevens Will Retire This Summer

joshua — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 15:33:59 +0000

The speculation can finally be put to rest as Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced Friday that he will retire from the high court in late June or early July.

Stevens informed President Barack Obama of his decision in a one-paragraph letter received by the White House at 10:30 am EDT, according to the Associated Press.

“Having concluded that it would be in the best interests of the Court to have my successor appointed and confirmed well in advance of the commencement of the Court’s next Term, I shall retire from regular active service as an Associate Justice,” Stevens wrote. He added it would be “effective the next day after the Court rises for the summer recess this year.”

Chief Justice John Roberts commented on the move in statement, saying that Stevens has “enriched the lives of everyone at the Court through his intellect, independence, and warm grace. We have all been blessed to have John as our colleague and his wife Maryan as our friend.”

Stevens, who will turn 90 later this month, is the court’s oldest member and leader of its liberal bloc. He told the AP he hopes a decision on his successor is confirmed “well in advance of the commencement of the court’s next term.” Among the potential replacements under consideration are Solicitor General Elena Kagan, and federal appellate Judges Merrick Garland, 57, and Diane Wood, 59.

Stevens was appointed to the high court by President Gerald Ford in 1975.

O’Connor Questions Attendance at State of the Union

joshua — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:15:44 +0000

In a wide-ranging discussion with reporters and students at New York Law School, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said fewer justices are likely to attend State of the Union addresses in the future.

“It is not much fun to go because you put on a black robe and march in and you’re seated in the front row,” O’Connor told the Associated Press. “(You) put your hands in your lap and have no expression on your face throughout the proceedings. You can clap when the president comes in and when he leaves and that’s it. It’s very awkward.”

She noted that Justice John Paul Stevens hasn’t attended a State of the Union in years and that Justice Clarence Thomas rarely goes. The issue of Supreme Court justices attending the annual address came to the forefront earlier this year following President Obama’s State of the Union.

After Obama criticized a Supreme Court decision that dealt with corporate campaign financing, Justice Samuel Alito could be seen shaking his head and saying “not true.”

“You might see a diminution in numbers,” O’Connor said. “It’s always been uncomfortable. There were always people who thought, ‘God, do we have to go? Let’s don’t.’ So it’s been kind of a struggle to get them there anyway.”

Earlier this month, Chief Justice John Roberts also questioned attendance by members of the high court. He called Obama’s criticism “very troubling” and said that State of the Union addresses have “degenerated into a political pep rally.”

Among other topics touched on by O’Connor, who served 25 years on the Supreme Court before retiring in 2006, included diversity on the court. She said it should be more inclusive of women, non-judges and Protestants.

“I think that religion should not be the basis for an appointment, but if that were the case, one would expect somewhere in the nine to see a Protestant or two,” she said. “You’ll probably see someone eventually.”

Morning Roundup

sara — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:32:24 +0000

Good morning everyone! Today is Thursday, March 11, and here’s a quick look back at yesterday’s news…

The Robert Half Legal Hiring Index reports that employment prospects are improving for the legal industry in the second quarter…

Arnold & Porter adds three from Arent Fox…

The National Jurist reports that the number of law school faculty has increased by 40%…

Chief Justice John Roberts touches on the State of the Union during a lecture at the University of Alabama…

Two partners from Orrick join King & Spaulding…

Justice Roberts Questions Attendance at State of the Union

joshua — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:10:54 +0000

Speaking at the University of Alabama Law School Tuesday, U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts touched on several noteworthy topics, including the tradition of justices of the High Court attending the president’s annual State of the Union address. He called President Obama’s first such address, in which the president criticized the Supreme Court for its ruling on corporate campaign financing, “very troubling.” The annual speech on Capitol Hill has “degenerated into a political pep rally,” Roberts said.

According to the Associated Press, Roberts said: “There is the issue of the setting, the circumstances and the decorum. The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering while the court — according the requirements of protocol — has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling.”

Roberts also gave his thoughts on the way the Senate confirms justices. He cited the tendency of some senators to politicize the process with questions they know can’t be answered because of judicial ethics rules.

“I think the process is broken down,” Roberts said.

In other remarks, Roberts made light of a recent rumor that he was leaving the court and also said he didn’t know until he reached law school that he in fact wanted to be a lawyer.

Roberts is the ninth justice since 1996 to lecture at Alabama.

Morning Roundup

sara — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:40:59 +0000

Good morning everyone! Today is Tuesday, March 9, and here’s a quick look back at yesterday’s news…

An Illinois judge refuses to dismiss a lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld…

Former Greenberg Traurig partner Mark McCombs is charged with stealing $1 million from a local community…

Former New Jersey state official Karen J. Kominsky joins Cozen O’Connor…

Cravath, Swaine & Moore will represent Air Products and Chemicals in it’s attempted takeover of rival Airgas…

Swiss voters strike down an initiative giving free government appointed legal representation to animals…

A group of lawyers and the Brookings Institution have condemned recent attacks on Justice Department lawyers…

Chief Justice Roberts will speak at the University of Alabama…

The Supreme Court will review a case involving The Westboro Baptist Church during the Fall Term…

Squire, Sanders, & Dempsey promote a dozen lawyers…

Gross revenue remains almost unchanged profits increased slightly at Weil Gotshal…

Latham & Watkins add 8 energy partners to their Houston office…

Jackson Lewis welcomes three partners and two associates to its Raleigh office…

Chief Justice Roberts to Speak at the University of Alabama

sara — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:02:12 +0000

As reported in the school’s newspaper and by WSFA NBC, Chief Justice John Roberts of the U.S. Supreme Court will make a public speech on Tuesday at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Roberts will deliver the School of Law’s 2010 Albritton Lecture; he will be the ninth justice since 1996 to lecture at Alabama. After the lecture Roberts will take questions from law students.

The Albritton Lecture was created by Judge William Harold Albritton III, a 1960 alumnus and a judge on the U.S. District Court of the Middle District of Alabama. Justice Clarence Thomas presented a lecture at the school last fall. The event will be broadcast on CSPAN.

Morning Roundup

sara — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:58:31 +0000

Good morning everyone! Today is Monday, March 8, and here’s a quick look back at Friday’s news…

The Rosen Law Firm files a class action suit against Electronic Game Card,Inc….

Rumors of Chief Justice John Robert’s retirement originates in a law school classroom…

Job losses in the legal sector continue to decline…

Industrial hog producers Premium Standard Farms are required to pay $11 million in damages by the Missouri State Court…

USC delays its Tax LLM program…

A group called “Keep America Safe” runs attack ads against Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department…

The D.C. Appeals Court reverses a wrongful termination suit against Reed Smith…

Heard it from a friend who…

joshua — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:55:04 +0000

There are three things I miss about the 80′s. 1) The music 2) Judicial Nominees getting a floor vote and 3) News outlets that weren’t so pressed to provide minute by minute updates and took the time to research and verify stories before going to press.

Anyone else remember listening to REO Speedwagon on vinyl, or maybe with one of those newfangled Walkman thingies? In 1981 REO Speedwagon released “You Take it on the Run” which started off with this line: “Heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend who heard it from another you’ve been messing around…”

What does this have to do with the law, legal appointments or news outlets? Earlier this week a rumor spread like wildfire through the blawgosphere that Chief Justice John Roberts was about to retire. Numerous outlets ran with the story, first reported by Radar Online.

I’d like to engage you in a small intellecutal exercise. Name three things that would compel John Roberts to allow President Obama name his succesor. I’ll wait.

Still stuck? Ok, name one thing. No? Me either.

Everyone that reported on the story is now frantically posting retractions. We’re happy to say we abstained from the initial feeding frenzy (although my poor liberal heart just about burst with excitement until I thought about it for half a second).

The source of the rumor appears to have been a law school exercise in trusting informants gone horribly, and ironically, wrong. Abovethelaw.com has tracked it down to a 1L class at Georgetown Law where a professor giving a lecture on informants and probable cause started the class by telling his students he had reliable sources that he couldn’t reveal that told him Roberts would be stepping down, and admonished the class not to tell anyone. Within 10 minutes, RadarOnline had the story and ran with it. 30 minutes after making the announcement, the professor retracted it, saying it was a lesson in how an otherwise reliable source could give bad info. Did the professor not realize that his students all had cell phones with text capabilities and laptops tapped into the university network? And how gullible were these students, RadarOnline, and every other blog that ran with the story?

There’s a larger lesson here. We, the information craving public, are equally to blame for stories like this one. Our incessant demand for minute by minute updates has created a media that must publish non stop to satisfy our ravenous desires.

Tribe Headed to Justice Department

sara — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:45:53 +0000

Laurence Tribe, prominent Harvard Law professor and generally considered one of the foremost liberal constitutional law scholars and Supreme Court practitioners in the country (he has appeared before the Supreme Court 34 times), will join the Justice Department next week to serve as a senior counselor for “access to justice”. In this role Tribe will focus on increasing legal access for the poor. Tribe has taught at Harvard Law since 1968 and will take a leave of absence when he joins the DOJ.

This turn of events comes a week after senior officials at the Justice Department appeared at a Washington conference to draw attention to large caseloads handled by public defenders and other struggles in providing legal aid to economically disadvantaged defendants. For example, there are cases of juvenile defendants forced to go to court without seeing a lawyer because of a lack of access to legal services.

Tribe has had a storied and prominent career. His formers pupils include President Obama, whom he backed in the last election, Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and US Solicitor General Elena Kagen. Tribe was a part of Gore’s legal team during the election recount in 2000. He has argued before the Supreme Court 34 times on behalf of gay rights, in support of busing to integrate schools, to defend “dial-a-porn” services as free speech and against a rule that forbade mentioning abortion in federally funded family planning clinics. In 1987 he was a key witness against Robert Bork during Bork’s nomination hearings.

Tribe has done extensive pro bono work involving victims rights, including representing migrant workers injured by large farming companies, tenant farmers in Hawaii who wanted land reforms and representing plaintiffs who sued Tobacco companies for their deliberate deception of the health effects of cigarettes.

Additionally Tribe has written several works, including “American Constitutional Law”, often referenced as one of the most cited legal texts of the past half century.

Sotomayor Emerges as the Court’s Most Prolific Questioner

joshua — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:53:48 +0000

Nobody expected her to be a wallflower, but Justice Sotomayor has exceeded expectations when it comes to questioning lawyers during oral arguments. In a report issued by the National Law Journal, Sotomayor came out on top in the number of questions asked so far this term with 146. Chief Justice Roberts followed with 110 questions.

According to the NLJ, the Court as a whole has become more talkative in recent years, with the number of questions and interruptions steadily increasing – for all except Justice Thomas, who hasn’t asked a question since 2006.

Supreme Court Rules Against Utah Teacher’s Union In Political Speech Case

Erik Even — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 05:51:11 +0000

The Supreme Court dealt a blow to Utah’s teachers union on Tuesday by limiting how it can collect contributions from its donors. The high court ruled that the union could not collect donations for its political action committee by automatically deducting money from their members’ paychecks.

The precedent was set in a very similar “paycheck protection” law in Idaho.

“Idaho’s law does not restrict political speech, but rather declines to promote that speech by allowing public employee checkoffs for political activities,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts in the court’s 6-3 decision. “Such a decision is reasonable in light of the state’s interest in avoiding the appearance that carrying out the public’s business is tainted by partisan political activity.”

The 10th District Court, which covers Utah, waited to act on Utah’s 2001 law to see how the Supreme Court would rule on Idaho’s law, which is part of the 9th District Court.

Supreme Court Upholds Domestic Violence Gun Ban

Erik Even — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:47:57 +0000

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court decided in favor of a law barring people convicted of domestic violence crimes from owning guns. In a 7-2 decision, the court said laws against battery do not need to specifically mention domestic violence to fall under the domestic violence gun ban. That ban was enacted in 1996.

The case centered around Randy Edwards Hayes, a West Virginia man who had previously been convicted of domestic violence. Thus his ownership of a gun lead to a federal felony indictment for gun possession.

“If the case had gone the other way, there are thousands of people who currently are prohibited from buying guns who would have been allowed to buy guns. Women in abusive situations would have been more at risk. Police officers responding to domestic violence calls would have been more at risk,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

The two dissenting opinions in the case were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anton Scalia.

Supreme Court To Decide On Mojave Cross

Erik Even — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 23:32:54 +0000

The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide whether or not a cross honoring fallen soldiers in the Mojave National Preserve is a violation of the 1st Amendment. It will be the first time that the court will hear a case regarding “an establishment of religion” with John Roberts as the Chief Justice.

The current cross is eight feet tall, though a smaller wooden cross was erected by the Veterans of Foreign Wars in 1934 and was maintained by the National Park Service as a war memorial.

The American Civil Liberties Union objected to the cross and filed a suit on behalf of Frank Buono, a former Park Service employee. The suit noted that the government declined to build a Buddhist shrine near the cross.

The case appeared before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The court ruled in favor of the ACLU, declaring the cross an “impermissible government endorsement of religion.”

The government has questioned Buono’s right to challenge the cross. Mr. Buono lives in Oregon and, according to government lawyers, suffers no obvious harm because of the cross’ existence.