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First Monday (Yawn)
Less drama, more work. That seems to be the prevailing view of the docket facing the Supreme Court as it begins its new term. "Compared with the last term, which included historic cases concerning
Guantánamo Bay, the Second Amendment and execution by lethal injection,
the new term is a buffet without entrees," writes Adam Liptak in the New York Times.
Fewer media-friendly entrees, perhaps, but plenty to please a lawyer's palette. As Marcia Coyle explains in the National Law Journal: "Following a blockbuster term involving guns, Guantanamo Bay and the death penalty, the U.S. Supreme Court opens its doors to a new term with less drama, more cases initially and many challenges having potentially major implications for business, the environment, injured consumers, job bias victims and law enforcement."
Perhaps the term's most media-watched case will be Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations, in which the court will decide whether the FCC can punish broadcasters for "fleeting expletives." Liptak provides this preview:
Come Election Day, there will almost certainly be cursing at the Supreme Court. The justices are scheduled to hear a case that day concerning dirty words on television, and it will be hard for the advocates in the case to describe its facts without using four-letter words. The appeals court argument, which involves swearing by Cher and Paris Hilton on a prime-time awards show, would have made a sailor blush.
While the docket may not provide much tabloid fodder, it includes plenty of cases with meat for lawyers. And, as the NLJ's Coyle writes today, it just got even meatier, with the court's orders list last week adding 10 new cases, including seven criminal cases and the term's fifth environmental case, a Superfund challenge that could make this a "potentially huge term for environmental law," Coyle says.
If there is less drama in this term's docket, there is more interest in issues involving the court's management and composition. At Legal Times, Tony Mauro explains:
The Supreme Court begins its fall term today on the verge of significant change -- in its caseload and among the lawyers who argue before it, and possibly even in its membership.
By the end of the term in June, the Court could have decided more cases than it has in a decade. More of those cases than ever will be handled by lawyers or professors affiliated with law school clinics -- unheard of just four years ago. And a new wave of lawyers and law firms will be joining Supreme Court veterans in jockeying for the increased caseload.
As always, one of the best places online to keep tabs on the court's activity is SCOTUSblog and its companion site, ScotusWiki. The latter includes a complete index of 2008 cases, including briefs and other documents.
Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on October 6, 2008 at 01:10 PM | Permalink
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