Constitutional Law

More reading of tea leaves

As I noted during the last such exercise, the Supreme Court considers each two-week session of oral arguments a ?sitting,? and the custom is that each Justice (if at all possible) gets to write at least one opinion from each sitting.

McDonald was heard during the sitting of February 22. That sitting had 13 cases, one of which was dismissed after it settled. As of today, from that sitting, Sotomayor, Kennedy and Breyer have written two opinions apiece, and Stevens, Scalia, and Thomas have written one.

That leaves three opinions to be written, and three Justices to write them: CJ Roberts, Ginsberg, and Alito. Hmm... first incorporation case in thirty years or so, perhaps most interesting case of the Term, likely to wind up in all the Con Law casebooks ... I suspect CJ Roberts may keep this one for himself.

Other than McDonald, the two remaining cases from that sitting are Skilling v. US, (prosecution for ?theft of honest services? ? interpretation, void for vagueness, and prejudicial publicity issues) and Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project (1st Amendment challenge to statute forbidding providing service, training or assistance to organizations listed as foreign terrorist groups).

Full post as published by Of Arms and the Law on June 14, 2010 (boomark / email).