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SCOTUS Accepts!


dorvinion

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Tom Goldstein - The Court has announced that it will release opinions against at 10am Wednesday. Because seven opinions remain, it will almost certainly have one additional day. Based on past practice, that day likely will be Thursday.

 

Looks like it will be Wednesday or Thursday, I'm betting Thurs. They will announce it and get the heck out of D.C. and away from the press as much as possible.

 

I hope that Scalia did write the Heller decision, should bode well for our side.

 

AB

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I am also interested in how the court will rule on the death penalty for child rapists but some how I dont think they will give those two rulings on the same day.

 

I hope that turns out well, if they enact the death penalty for child rapists, then I'll have some solid genuine faith that our country is finally headed back in the right direction.

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There is very little information that can be gleaned with confidence about the authorship of the remaining opinions from the Term.

 

It does look exceptionally likely that Justice Scalia is writing the principal opinion for the Court in Heller – the D.C. guns case. That is the only opinion remaining from the sitting and he is the only member of the Court not to have written a majority opinion from the sitting. There is no indication that he lost a majority from March. His only dissent from the sitting is for two Justices in Indiana v. Edwards. So, that’s a good sign for advocates of a strong individual rights conception of the Second Amendment and a bad sign for D.C.

 

Backing up to February, there are two remaining cases (both argued, like the guns case, by Walter Dellinger): Morgan-Stanley (an energy regulation case) and Exxon (the maritime punitive damages case). Six Justices haven’t written from the sitting, making predictions very dicey. The best guess is that Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Stevens are writing. Justices Scalia, Souter, and Kennedy are unlikely because they had already written twice in a sitting before February. Justice Ginsburg wrote twice in later sittings.

 

For April, there are four opinions remaining: Plains Commerce (involving Indian tribes), Kennedy (death penalty for child rape), Davis v. FEC (campaign finance), and Giles (a Confrontation Clause case). Justices Scalia, Kennedy, and Alito have not written and therefore almost certainly have three of the opinions. The most likely author for the remaining decision is Justice Souter (who needs another opinion to take him to seven for the Term).

 

With the exception of Heller, these predictions have no genuine value. They are just informed guesses and none says anything about the outcome of the cases

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Its always possible he didn't write an opinion this session... I don't think they are required to...

 

Not trying to be all doom and gloom but our chances in having Scalia be the writer are honestly 1 in 9...

 

My understanding is that the Chief Justice assigns writing the opinion to one of the Justices in the majority. If he is on the losing side the most senior Justice on the winning side assigns it. Justices are always free to write their own separate opinions, citing which parts of the majority opinion they either agree or disagree with.

 

The more I've been thinking about it, the more it may have been better if Kennedy was writing the majority opinion. In my opinion that would be a sign of a broader decision that would cover more points. My guess is that he is with the majority on the central issue of Heller, but wanted a narrow ruling.

My feeling is Scalia writes the main opinion, with Kennedy concurring in part and dissenting in part. It would not surprise me if Thomas writes his own concurring opinion that would be even more to our liking than the official opinion of the Court.

 

I have to go back to work tomorrow, I hope the decision comes down today...

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