CourtArtist.com

Farewell Justice Souter

Monday was David Souter's last day as a Supreme Court Justice, and this is last sketch of the bench as composed since Justice Alito was seated.

Come Fall, in a bit of musical chairs, Justice Thomas will take the seat vacated by Souter, Ginsberg will take Thomas' seat, Breyer will take Ginsberg's, and Alito will move to where Breyer used to sit. The new, most junior Justice will take her seat at the far end on the Chief Justice's left.

Dana Milbank on Monday's session here.

Spy Couple Back in Court

 
Kendall and Gwendolyn Myers, charged with spying for Cuba over 30 years, were back in court Wednesday for a hearing before Judge Reggie Walton.  They waived their right to a speedy trial, and said they wanted the same lawyers to represent each of them.

AP story here.

Jefferson 'Cold Cash' Trial Begins

A briefcase ( pictured at left above ) that once contained $100,000., and that former New Orleans Congressman William Jefferson took from an FBI informant and placed in the trunk of his car, sat on a table in front of the podium as Assistant U.S.Attorney Mark Lytle told the jury they would hear "a startling and often disheartening account of public corruption at the highest levels of our government". The jury was shown photos of foil wrapped bricks of cash concealed in Pillsbury Pie Crust and Boca Burger boxes that were found in the Congressman's freezer.

In the defense's opening statement attorney Robert Trout told the jury that the ex-Congressman “did not take a  bribe…did not solicit a bribe…is not guilty of any of these charges.”

Times-Picayune story here.

Couple Charged with Spying for Cuba

A retired State Department analyst and his wife were denied release at a detention hearing today following their arrest last week on charges related to serving as illegal agents of the Cuban government.

Assistant U.S.Attorney Michael Harvey, pictured above at the podium (and looking a lot like Steven Colbert), told Judge Facciola that Kendall Myers and his wife Gwendolyn were planning to sail their 37-foot yacht to the Caribbean in November, possibly to Cuba.

 "This escape plan, Your Honor, is no pipe dream," he said.  Kendall Myers smiled.

Myers also taught at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and one of his former students has written about that here.

NYT article here.

Jury Selection for Jefferson Trial

Former Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson stood before prospective jurors in an Alexandria, Virginia courtroom as his public corruption trial began today. He served nine terms in Congress, but is best known for the $90,000. in marked bills found in his freezer in May 2006.

Times-Picayune story here.

Race Descrimination Still a Struggle for SCOTUS

"Damned if you do, damned if you don't situation" is how Justice David Souter described the problem of race-conscious job promotion that avoids race discrimination.
The case, brought by white New Haven firefighters who were denied promotion when an examination was thrown out because no black firefighters scored high enough, raised claims of racial discrimination from both sides.

Dana Milbank writes about it here.

Justices Talk "Underpants"

Where usually the terminology tends to be legal, and in Latin, yesterday the discussion touched on underpants and the "ick factor" as the Supreme Court considered a middle school strip search case from Arizona.

Dahlia Lithwick has the story here.

NYT story here.

Sen. Stevens' Reversal of Fortune

In a stunning about-face prosecutors in the trial of Sen. Ted Stevens found themselves subject to criminal contempt proceedings.  As he dismissed the indictment against the former Alaska senator, an outraged Judge Emmett Sullivan appointed a non-government lawyer, Janis, Schuelke & Wechsler partner Henry Schuelke III, to prosecute the prosecutors.

Nightly News aired the story with sketches, but as usual some of the better drawings are never used. Here's one of Stevens' defense attorney Brendan Sullivan addressing the Judge at yesterday's hearing. Ted Stevens is lightly sketched in the left background.

WaPo story here.

Cuomo Quick Sketch

Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo was in attendance today as the Supreme Court heard arguments in a long running asbestos settlement case. Johns-Manville, once the country's largest asbestos mining and manufacturing corporation, went bankrupt in 1986 as it faced a deluge of asbestos injury lawsuits. As part of it's reorganization plan the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust was created to shield Manville and it's insurers from future claims, but in 2001 the asbestos plaintiffs' bar asserted new grounds on which to sue Manville's insurer, Travellers Insurance. Mario Cuomo led the mediation which reached a settlement in which Travellers would pay $500 million into a new trust in exchange for an order from the bankruptcy court "clarifying" the 1986 injuction. But not so fast! A number of third parties have objected to the proposed settlement and so here we are.

I really just posted this for my mom. She's a Mario Cuomo fan.

Tony Mauro of Legal Times blogs about it here.

UPDATE: Tony Mauro later spoke with Mario Cuomo about his visit to the Court, and has a BLT post here.

Hillary: The Movie / scotus: the sketch

Above is a sketch of Tuesday's arguments in a campaign finance (read McCain-Feingold) case about a blistering 90-minute political film, Hillary: The Movie.

The sketch shows former Solicitor General Ted Olson arguing on behalf of the movie's producers. Note that the foreground is filled with some of the Supreme Court press regulars; they are: in the first (foreground) row, left to right, Pete Williams, NBC, Marcia Coyle, National Law Journal, Tony Mauro, Legal Times, in the second row are Adam Liptak, New York Times, Nina Totenberg, NPR, Joan Biskupic, USA Today, and Robert Barnes, Washington Post.

Slate's Dahlia Lithwick, who is not pictured because she sits back in the alcove with us artists (the true ink-stained wretches), has the story here.

Lively Argument Over DNA Testing

 Today the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case from Alaska that asks whether a convicted felon has a constitutional right to access state evidence for testing. Because the subject of this case, William Osborne, who was convicted of rape in 1993, did not avail himself of the more accurate DNA test prior to trial, and admitted his guilt at a parole hearing some of the Justices seemed to think he might be "gaming the system" by seeking DNA evidence now that he has nothing to lose.

 According to The Innocence Project, whose co-founder Peter Neufeld argued on Osborne's behalf, 232 wrongly convicted persons have been exonerated over the past two decades.

NYT story here.

Ginsburg in Top Form

Just 18 days after undergoing major surgery Justice Ginsburg was smiling as she returned to the bench yesterday after the Supreme Court's February break. She energetically questioned the attorneys arguing their case, at times rocking back and forth in her chair.

Stevens Prosecutors in Contempt of Court

An angry Judge Emmett Sullivan yesterday ruled that government lawyers in the prosecution of Senator Ted Stevens were in contempt of court for failing to produce documents relating to witness tampering and willfully concealing evidence.

NYT article here.

Tejada Pleads Guilty

Houston Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada, shown flanked by his attorneys Mark Tuohey and William Lawler, pleads guilty before Magistrate Judge Alan Kay to charges that he lied to Congressional investigators about steroid use by Oakland Athletics players.

Washington Post story here.

Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals

U.S. v Neal was argued at the Washington Navy Yard last Friday. The issue before the court arises from a sexual assault case. Major Elizabeth Harvey is pictured arguing for the appellant.

You can listen to the argument here.

Judge Leon Orders Release of Another Guatanamo Detainee

Mohammed El Gharani, a citizen of Chad, was captured in Pakistan seven years ago when he was 14 years old, and has been held at Guantanamo ever since.

The government's case relied mainly upon the unsubstantiated statements of two other detainees, and in granting Gharani's habeas petition, Judge Leon said, “a mosaic of tiles bearing images this murky reveals nothing about [Al Gharani] with sufficient clarity, individually or collectively, that can be relied upon by this Court.”  He ordered the prisoner released “forthwith.”

Washington Post story here.

DC Trial Set for Blackwater Guards

Five former Blackwater security guards pleaded not guilty to charges arising from an attack in Iraq in which at least 14 civilians were killed by the guards.

Judge Ricardo Urbina set a trial date of February 1, 2010.

Washington Post story here.

Judge Orders Release of 5 Gitmo Prisoners "Forthwith"

Judge Richard Leon, a conservative Bush appointee, in the first ruling since the Supreme Court ordered habeas review of the government's evidence in the Guantanamo detentions, ordered the release of five of the six detainees in Boumediene v. Bush. The judge said the Justice Department had relied solely on a classified documents from an unnamed source, and that its arguments were not persuasive.

In an unusual move, Judge Leon asked the government not to appeal his decision, saying “seven years of waiting for our legal system to give them an answer to their legal question is enough.”

Washington Post story here.

10 Commandments + 7 Aphorisms = "Tyrany of Labels"

In trying to decide if the town of Pleasant Grove, Utah should be required to allow an obscure religious sect, Summum, to place a monument  bearing the "Seven Aphorisms", supposed by believers to be original tablets given to Moses, in a municipal park where the Ten Commandments now stand engraved in granite the Supreme Court, during arguments yesterday, grappled with constitutional labels  “public forum,” “limited public forum,” “government speech,”and “private speech."  Justice Kennedy said “this case is an example of the tyranny of labels.”

NYT story here.

The Verdict

A Washington jury found Senator Ted Stevens guilty on all seven counts of failing to report gifts. The 84 year-old senator has represented Alaska for 40 years, and is up for re-election next week.
  The senator betrayed little emotion as the verdict was read, but he appeared tired and lowered his head as the jury foreman answered the first of seven "guilty"s.