“Matthew Limon, the gay man at the center of a Kansas law struck down by the state Supreme Court, was freed late Thursday night, but his ordeal may not be over.
posted by halekon on Nov 4, 2005 - 67 comments

This Highway Adopted By The Ku Klux Klan The US Supreme Court has declined an appeal by the state of Missouri seeking to reverse an 8th Circuit opinion which allows the Ku Klux Klan to adopt a highway. Under the controlling ruling of the 8th Circuit, "desire to exclude controversial organizations in order to prevent 'road rage' or public backlash on the highways against the adopters' unpopular beliefs is simply not a legitimate governmental interest that would support the enactment of speech-abridging regulations."
posted by expriest on Jan 10, 2005 - 114 comments

The Path to Florida A long Vanity Fair article (part one and part two, both PDFs) about the experiences and reactions of US Supreme Court clerks during the 2000 election and Bush v. Gore [PDFs hosted at SCOTUSblog; via Intel Dump]
posted by kirkaracha on Sep 23, 2004 - 11 comments

SCOTUS rules for seperation of church and state for once. The court's 7-2 ruling held that the state of Washington was within its rights to deny a taxpayer-funded scholarship to a college student who was studying to be a minister. That holding applies even when money is available to students studying anything else. "Training someone to lead a congregation is an essentially religious endeavor," Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for the court majority. "Indeed, majoring in devotional theology is akin to a religious calling as well as an academic pursuit."
posted by skallas on Feb 25, 2004 - 42 comments

A follow up on the debate concerning the Constitutionality of the pledge of allegiance. Apparently the Supreme Court is going to hear it.
posted by sourbrew on Oct 14, 2003 - 26 comments

In launching his 21-day "prayer offensive" directed at the Supreme Court, Pat Robertson asks his viewers to help him pray for three justices' death. "One justice is 83-years-old, another has cancer and another has a heart condition. Would it not be possible for God to put it in the minds of these three judges that the time has come to retire?"
posted by mathowie on Jul 15, 2003 - 202 comments

The Onion keeps getting funnier In this week's edition, Antonin Scalia bans the media from covering his acceptance of a free-speech award, and also tells Americans "Most of the rights that you enjoy go way beyond what the Constitution requires." Haw-haw! Get it? Oh, wait a second...
posted by soyjoy on Mar 19, 2003 - 23 comments

On September 17, 1998, in response to an armed robbery call, Houston police burst in to the home of John Lawrence. The police didn’t find a robber (nor would they – the call was deliberately false), but they did find Lawrence having sex with another man, Tyrone Garner. Lawrence and Garner were promptly charged with “engaging in homosexual conduct,” a misdemeanor under Texas law. They paid their fine and began a long legal challenge to Texas’ anti-sodomy law. That challenge has finally reached the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, which today agreed to hear their appeal early next year. Standing in the way is the Court’s own 1986 decision in Bowers v. Hardwick, in which it held that anti-sodomy laws are constitutional. That may be about to change.
posted by pardonyou? on Dec 2, 2002 - 43 comments

Court gives the go-ahead on random drug testing for non-athlete students. "Given the nationwide epidemic of drug use, and the evidence of increased drug use in Tecumseh schools, it was entirely reasonable for the school district to enact this particular drug testing policy," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the decision. Drug tests which really only target marijuana use (alcohol, cocaine, opiates leave the body shortly after use) can now be randomly given to students involved in extra-curricular activities. Is this a further step in the "my anti-drug" campaign? Is debate or drama club YOUR anti-drug? By denying student drug users the privilege of participating in activities, aren't we just marginalizing them further and making the problem worse? What will it be? Drugs or getting involved?
posted by Hammerikaner on Jun 27, 2002 - 58 comments

God's Justice and Ours. Justice Antonin Scalia writes on capital punishment in First Things: "In my view, the major impetus behind modern aversion to the death penalty is the equation of private morality with governmental morality. This is a predictable (though I believe erroneous and regrettable) reaction to modern, democratic self–government."
posted by Ty Webb on Jun 12, 2002 - 28 comments

Writing about child porn/abuse is artistic. Robin Sharpe has successfully defended himself against child porn acusations; case went all the way to the SC in Canada. In unrelated news (except that both stories are from the front page of the Toronto Star) a Taiwan scientist has created a bubble (soap) that you literally can't burst, no matter how hard you try, for days.
posted by Why on Mar 26, 2002 - 13 comments

School Vouchers. This has been discussed before (a while ago) and is going to the Supreme Court.
posted by sadie01221975 on Feb 20, 2002 - 20 comments

The Texas sleeping lawyer case is being submitted to the supreme court by the TX Attorney General in hopes of overturning the 5th Circuit Court's ruling that maybe the lawyer in question did doze a little too often during the trial. It seems the issue is " how often an attorney can sleep during a trial without violating his client's constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel."
posted by kittyloop on Jan 6, 2002 - 8 comments

So you read the "Madman and the Professor" and thought it interesting. Edward Ruloff is another murdering philologist with the extra cachet that his 1871 trial for killing a dry-goods clerk was one of the first to test the admissability of photographs as evidence. The Supreme Court agreed with lower rulings that they could be allowed; Ruloff was hanged. In 1845, he had been accused of murdering his wife and child and was imprisoned for ten years for the abduction of his wife, but without a corpus delecti, he could not be convicted for the murder of his child. This man is writing a biography of Ruloff; a publisher could do a lot worse.
posted by Mo Nickels on Sep 26, 2001 - 3 comments

one, two, three. considering this is the same bunch that put our current resident in the whitehouse, why do i have a bad feeling about this?
posted by bliss322 on Mar 26, 2001 - 35 comments

U.S. Supreme Court to review death penalty for retarded. Regardless of what you think of the death penalty for people of normal(?) mental capacity, can you believe that they are just starting to reconsider this now?
posted by jasonshellen on Mar 26, 2001 - 1 comment

Supreme Court splits again I leave it to others to comment on this. All I can offer: don't get a disability.
posted by Postroad on Feb 21, 2001 - 16 comments

Noted without comment: 'The Italian Supreme Court has ruled that an unexpected pat on the bottom at work could not be labeled sexual harassment — as long as men didn't make a habit of it.'
posted by rebeccablood on Jan 26, 2001 - 16 comments

Nat Hentoff on the Supreme Court and Bush v Gore: "Far from stealing the election for Bush, the majority of the Supreme Court shamed the politicians of both parties who, for so long, have failed to secure everyone's meaningful right to vote."
posted by aaron on Jan 9, 2001 - 10 comments

Justice O'Connor said ''this is terrible,'' when it looked like Gore had won the election But of course, politics played no role in her decision to hand the election to Bush. Right? right? ?
posted by Outlawyr on Dec 18, 2000 - 1 comment

Bush, by a technicality. They've run out the clock. Oh dear. This could be messy.
posted by holgate on Dec 12, 2000 - 33 comments

Send a Telegram to the Supreme Court Michael Moore has come up with another good idea. let the Supreme Court know your opinion through a hand delivered telegram. For only $31.90 your message will arrive hand-delivered by Western Union. Stop stopping the count. Mike suggests you call, but Western Union lets you do it online.
posted by DragonBoy on Dec 11, 2000 - 19 comments

Supreme Court hears the D.C. Metro fries case. While all the reporters were out filing misleading dispatches on the decision in the Florida case, Justices Scalia and Souter started bantering with one of the attorneys (in the "Texas seat belt case" being argued today) about the girl arrested for eating fries in the Metro.
posted by grimmelm on Dec 4, 2000 - 5 comments

ELECTION: Supremes remand decision to SCOFL. He may have balls, but his *luck* is running low.
posted by baylink on Dec 4, 2000 - 13 comments

Damn Supreme Court. Just when you thought this was a free country, now they're telling strippers to keep their G-strings on.
posted by veruca on Mar 29, 2000 - 10 comments