Supreme Court

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Judge Draws Ire for Shelving Capital Trial

Six other states can't fund them; issue may be bigger than injection

(Newser) - Judge Hilton Fuller has drawn ire for shelving a Georgia death penalty case, but other states are hitting the same snag: low funds for capital court costs, the New York Times reports. Georgia can’t afford the $1.2 million to defend Brian Nichols, charged with killing four in a...

Justices Stay Execution, Signaling Moratorium

Lower courts will defer until 2008 review

(Newser) - The Supreme Court delivered an eleventh-hour stay for a prisoner slated to die by lethal injection last night, giving what the New York Times calls a "nearly indisputable indication" that a majority of justices are willing to block all executions until they rule on a death penalty case next...

Court Blocks Another Execution
Court Blocks Another Execution
Oct 30, 2007 10:38 PM CDT

Court Blocks Another Execution

Supreme Court decision may halt all lethal injections for months

(Newser) - The Supreme Court tonight stayed the execution of a Mississippi murderer just before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection, a decision that will likely bring a temporary halt to such executions nationwide, the New York Times reports. The fate of this prisoner and others won't be decided until...

Supremes Will Rule on Exxon Valdez Appeal

Record damage award in 1989 disaster washes up in Washington

(Newser) - The Supreme Court will end more than a decade of legal battles over the Exxon Valdez oil spill and review a ruling that awarded a record $2.5 billion in punitive damages in the case. Exxon is hoping the court will throw out or reduce the amount awarded in the...

A Death Penalty Moratorium?
A Death Penalty Moratorium?
Oct 19, 2007 9:19 PM CDT

A Death Penalty Moratorium?

Not so fast: the Supreme Court is sending mixed messages

(Newser) - Is there a stay on all US executions? The Supreme Court has recently granted 2 and refused to nix a third, as more inmates challenge lethal injection. “The states are getting the message,” says one expert, while another mentions “moratorium mojo” on his blog. But critics warn...

Supreme Court Halts Another Lethal Injection

Stay of execution for Virginia man could signal moratorium

(Newser) - The Supreme Court issued a stay of execution yesterday for Christopher Scott Emmett, four hours before the Virginia inmate was scheduled to die. Observers say the move signals a de facto moratorium on executions, as the court considers the legality of lethal injection. One expert called it “the most...

Last-Minute Stay Spares Nev. Murderer

State puts lethal injection on hold until next year's ruling

(Newser) - Nevada stayed a convicted killer's execution today, 90 minutes before he was to receive lethal injection, BBC reports. William Castillo's stay is the latest in a series of postponements by states awaiting a US Supreme Court ruling on lethal injection. The ACLU, which appealed Castillo's case, calls the method "...

Supremes Won’t Hear CIA Torture Suit

Earlier dismissals rested on concerns about national security

(Newser) - The Supreme Court declined today without comment to hear the case of a German citizen who claims he was kidnapped and tortured by the CIA. Lower courts had dismissed Khaled el-Masri's case on the grounds that a trial would expose state secrets. German authorities have said the US acknowledged abducting...

Ex-Thomas Clerk Says Critics Are Unfounded

Emphasizes justice's humanity, at-times liberal ideology

(Newser) - A former clerk for Clarence Thomas lashes out at critical reaction to the justice's new autobiography in a Wall Street Journal commentary today. While liberals accuse Thomas of excessive bitterness over the grilling he received on his Supreme Court nomination, as well as subsequent unfairness, John Yoo points to a...

Ban Stands on Alabama Sex Toys, Finally

Much-challenged law will affect women unfairly, gripes writer

(Newser) - After 9 years of court challenges, an Alabama judge has green lighted enforcement of a state law banning the sale of sex toys—the Supreme Court declined to hear the case last week—making Wired’s Regina Lynn cry misogyny. The statute does not outlaw Viagra to help men achieve...

Justice Memos Endorse Torture
Justice Memos Endorse Torture
Oct 4, 2007 9:56 AM CDT

Justice Memos Endorse Torture

Officials gave green light for array of painful interrogation techniques

(Newser) - The Justice Department under Alberto Gonzales secretly endorsed the use of torture techniques during interrogation by the CIA, the New York Times reports. A classified 2005 legal memorandum authorized the harshest  techniques ever used by the CIA, the Times says, including a combination of head-slapping, waterboarding, sleep deprivation, freezing, loud...

Polarized Court Damages Own Legacy
Polarized
Court Damages Own Legacy
Oct 1, 2007 7:07 PM CDT

Polarized Court Damages Own Legacy

Analyst not excited to see ‘childish’ panel back in session

(Newser) - Despite the chief justice’s declared intentions, the Roberts Court ravages the idea of “rule based on principle,” acting instead like a polarized political body, the New Republic’s Benjamin Wittes argues. Speeches about division's acidic effects aside, John Roberts smirks at precedent even as lefty colleagues on...

Supreme Court Returns for a Big Session

Right-moving bench will rule on lethal injection, Gitmo prisoner rights

(Newser) - The Supreme Court enters its second session with Bush appointees John Roberts and Samuel Alito tomorrow, which means it will likely resume last session’s rightward slant, Reuters says. Before the court will be big cases on Guantanamo inmates’ right to habeas corpus, the legality of the lethal injection death...

Judges Condemn Sentencing Guidelines

High court, Mukasey may give them leeway

(Newser) - Judges across the country are condemning federal sentencing guidelines, 1980s-era anti-drug laws that force them to impose “irrational” sentences, the LA Times reports. “When I have to sentence a midlevel drug dealer to more time than a murderer, something is wrong,” said a judge forced to sentence...

Texas Won't Halt Executions, Despite Stay

State will stick to schedule after Supreme Court ruling

(Newser) - Texas officials plan to go forward with death-row executions, even as other states put them on hold in the wake of the Supreme Court's last-minute stay for Carlton Turner earlier this week. More stays like Turner's are expected in Texas as the court deliberates on the legality of lethal injections,...

Clarence Thomas Settles Scores
Clarence Thomas Settles Scores
Sep 29, 2007 9:06 AM CDT

Clarence Thomas Settles Scores

Book lashes out at media, liberal elites

(Newser) - In a scathing new memoir, Justice Clarence Thomas unleashes his wrath upon those who afflicted him during his 1991 Senate confirmation hearings, calling them a "high-tech lynching" by "left-wing zealots draped in flowing sanctimony." The book, My Grandfather's Son, chronicles the Supreme Court justice's life from his...

Pakistani Judge Frees Political Prisoners

With Musharraf ruling imminent, government clamps down

(Newser) - The chief justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court today told the government to release more than 100 opposition workers and politicians, the New York Times reports. The arrests were aimed to prevent protests as the court deliberates President Pervez Musharraf's right to run for re-election—a candidacy Musharraf made official...

Supreme Court Will Take Up Lethal Injection

Constitutionality at issue; docket also includes voting rights

(Newser) - The Supreme Court will take up the constitutionality of lethal injections in what a public defender called one of the most critical death penalty cases “in decades.” The challenge stems from a 2004 suit by two Kentucky inmates on death row who charged that the method constitutes cruel...

Senior Justice Is Court's Unlikely Liberal Voice

Stevens calls himself conservative but is stalwart vote for left

(Newser) - “I don’t think of myself as a liberal at all,” John Paul Stevens told the New York Times, but the longest-serving Supreme Court justice is the head of liberal dissent in an increasingly conservative court. Stevens was appointed by Gerald Ford as a moderate Republican in 1975,...

Habeas Corpus Bill Withers in Senate

Combatants' rights measure lacks enough support to force a vote

(Newser) - A bill to allow terrorism suspects to challenge indefinite detention faltered in Washington today as only 56 Senate votes could be mustered to cut off debate on the habeas corpus measure. Sixty are needed for bills to move forward for a vote in the upper chamber; supporters said they might...

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