Litigation

Friday Gavel Grab Briefs

By Peter Hardin

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• In part because court staff reductions have increased judges’ workloads, the Florida Supreme Court has asked the legislature to approve 80 more trial judges, according to an Associated Press article. “The loss of staff translates into slower case processing times, crowded dockets, and long waits to access judicial calendars,” the justices wrote.

• The U.S. Supreme Court may be poised to announce Tuesday whether it will hear an appeal in a judicial speech case from Indiana, Bauer v. Shepard, according to Election Law blog. In the case, Indiana Right to Life Inc. unsuccessfully challenged an Indiana ethics rule effectively barring judges from telling their views about abortions (click here for Gavel Grab post.)

• The House of Representatives compromised from an earlier stance and approved a Senate-passed bill to extend for three months key provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the nation’s chief counterterrorism law, the Washington Post reported.

Full post as published by The Gavel on February 18, 2011 (boomark / email).