Litigation

Thursday Gavel Grab Briefs

By Peter Hardin

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• A screening commission working to fill three vacancies on the Iowa Supreme Court finished the last of its interviews with 60 candidates, the Sioux City Journal reported. Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins, who participated, said Iowans were served well by the commission’s interviewing the candidates in public. That was a new procedure.
• Republican legislators in Florida said they were preparing to remove some of the state Supreme Court’s powers, such as writing the rules that set practices and procedures for the statewide judicial system, according to an Orlando Sentinel article. The move came after the state high court had struck some Republican-backed measures from last year’s ballot.

• The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has sped up its scheduling for hearings on two cases challenging the constitutionality of the federal health care reform law, with both hearings to be held the same day in May, according to a SCOTUSblog post.

Full post as published by The Gavel on January 27, 2011 (boomark / email).