Federal Judiciary

Special-edition round-up: United States v. Stevens

By Akin Gump Supreme Court Practice Group

This morning, the Court handed down its opinion in United States v. Stevens (08-769), striking down as overly broad a law which criminalized the creation or sale of depictions of animal cruelty.  [DISCLAIMER: Akin Gump represented the respondent in the case.]  In addition to Lyle Denniston?s analysis, published on this blog earlier today, a number of news sources have already begun reporting on the ruling, including the following (listed below the jump):

• The Washington Post (Robert Barnes, ?Justices Cite Free Speech in Striking Down Animal-Cruelty Law?);
• The Wall Street Journal (Jess Bravin, ?Supreme Court Strikes Down Prohibition on Depictions of Animal Cruelty?);
• The New York Times (Adam Liptak, ?Justices Void Law Banning Videos of Animal Cruelty?);
• The Blog of Legal Times (Tony Mauro, ?Supreme Court Strikes Down Ban on Animal Cruelty Videos?);
• Bloomberg (Greg Stohr, ?Animal ?Crush Video? Law Voided by U.S. Supreme Court?);
• The WSJ Law Blog (Ashby Jones, ?High Court Shoots Down Animal-Cruelty Law?);
• CNN (Bill Mears, ?Supreme Court Strikes Down Law Banning Dogfight Videos?);
• The Associated Press (Mark Sherman, ?Court Voids Law Aimed at Animal Cruelty Videos?);
• USA Today (Joan Biskupic, ?Supreme Court Kills Animal Cruelty Law?);
• The Christian Science Monitor (Warren Richey, ?Supreme Court Rejects Animal Cruelty Law, Upholds Free Speech?);
• Reuters (James Vicini, ?Supreme Court Strikes Down Animal Cruelty Law?);
• ABC News (Ariane de Vogue, ?Supreme Court Overturns Law Banning Depictions of Animal Cruelty?);
• Fox News (Lee Ross, ?Court: Animal Cruelty Image Law Too Broad?);
• The BBC News (?US Court Ends Animal Cruelty Law?);
• McClatchy (via the Miami Herald) (Michael Doyle, ?Supreme Court Rejects Law Banning Animal-Cruelty Videos?);
• Above the Law (David Lat, ?SCOTUS Scuttles Ban on Animal Cruelty Videos?);
• JURIST (Jaclyn Belczyk, ?Supreme Court Strikes Down Animal Cruelty Video Ban?); and
• ACSBlog (?High Court Strikes Federal Law Banning Depictions of Animal Cruelty?).

We?ll have more on the media response to United States v. Stevens, as well as links to commentary on the decision, in this week?s subsequent round-up posts.

Full post as published by SCOTUSBLOG on April 20, 2010 (boomark / email).