Oral arguments for the 2008-09 Term came to a close this week, but things are just beginning to heat up at the U.S. Supreme Court. NBC News reports that Justice Souter is planning to retire at the end of the Term in June, creating President Obama's first opportunity to nominate a justice to the high court.
It is that time of year when rumors and reports of imminent retirements spread like wildfire, and speculation begins about how the Court will decide the remaining cases. What will the voting line up be? Who will author the majority opinion?
The Court generally issues opinions each Monday morning at 10 a.m. EST until end of the Term in late June. No one outside of the Chambers knows which cases will be decided on any given Monday, and the most controversial cases are often saved until the final days of the Term.
To keep abreast of breaking developments at the Supreme Court, check out the SCOTUSblog (SCOTUS stands for Supreme Court of the United States). With new postings every day, SCOTUSblog reports breaking news, provides analysis and commentary, and compiles statistics for the Term. The blog is maintained by lawyers in the Supreme Court practice group at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, and features posts by veteran litigators, reporters, and law students in Stanford's Supreme Court Litigation Clinic.
If you're interested in more information about a particular case, Akin Gump created a companion website, SCOTUSWiki, as a one-stop shop for information and briefs for each case. The Wiki is organized by Term, and then chronologically in the order in which the cases were argued.
-- Jackie Woodside
1 comment:
The Gallagher Law Library has a guide to Supreme Court Nominations that readers may find useful, http://lib.law.washington.edu/ref/supctnom.html
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