Legal minds on legal matters and whatever else strikes our fancy.
Yesterday’s argument in Snyder v. Phelps produced more than its share of intriguing story lines: two first-time Supreme Court oral advocates (including one representing her father), a spirited debate inside the courtroom, and an even more spirited demonstration outside. And, of course, there are the you-can’t-be-serious facts of the case: protesters holding [...]
Here in the Heartland, I awakened this morning to the news on KIOS-FM, Omaha’s NPR station. The headline: Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa has won the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature. In the words of the Swedish Academy (an institution that does not shy away from sending a political message), Vargas Llosa [...]
A new legal blog called “The CockleBur” has been launched. The blog features authors such as Erwin Chemerinsky of the University of California at Irvine, David Franklin of DePaul, Ron Sullivan of Harvard, Palma Strand of Creighton, and Dan Ortiz of the University of Virginia, just to name a few. The CockleBur is hosted by Cockle Law Brief Printing [...]
On Monday, the Supreme Court granted six petitions for certiorari in five cases. Two of those petitions were printed here at Cockle. The first was the petition in Williamson v. Mazda Motor of America, Inc., No. 08-1314. The questions presented in that case are: 1. Where Congress has provided that compliance with a federal motor [...]
This post is the first in a series of three discussing what Supreme Court experts suggest when preparing a successful petition for writ of certiorari. The first will address the “argument” section, the second the “questions presented” section and the third, tips and techniques to use when writing the cert petition. While Supreme Court experts [...]
After conducting research on decisions written by particular federal appellate judges that are later granted by the Court, I am of the belief that perhaps Supreme Court Rule 10 should officially be modified. While a conflict among the lower courts remains the prevailing reason why the Court grants cert, there are other certworthy factors not [...]
The Petitioner’s Brief and Joint Appendix in Michigan v. Bryant, No. 09-150, were filed on April 30th. At issue in Bryant, is whether statements made by a wounded citizen regarding the circumstances of a shooting are testimonial statements implicating the Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause.
The Court granted two cert petitions this morning. In Schwarzenegger et al. v. Entertainment Merchants Association et al., No. 08-1448, the Court was asked to decide whether the First Amendment allows video games with offensive conduct to be sold to minors and whether the State of California’s regulation prohibiting the sale of violent video games must [...]