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Supreme Court begins new term
Monday, October 05, 2009 | No comments posted.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court began its new term trying to decide how long a suspect’s request for a lawyer is valid.
The justices heard their first arguments of the 2009 term this morning. The court will have to decide whether to throw out a prisoner’s sexual abuse conviction because he asked a police officer for a lawyer two years and seven months before he confessed to another police officer.
The court has a new look this term. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the Supreme Court’s first Hispanic justice, replaced retired Justice David Souter.
Although she’s the newest justice, Sotomayor peppered the arguing lawyers with as many questions as her eight more experienced colleagues.
The court also decided to reject a number of cases today. The court:
• Refused to block the release of documents generated by lawsuits against priests in Connecticut for alleged sexual abuse.
• Won’t get involved in a dispute between breakaway Episcopalians and their former national church over who owns a California church and its property.
• Rejected an appeal to review a Florida law that requires public school students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance each day unless they have their parents’ written permission excusing them.
• Rejected an appeal that tested whether the First Amendment protects public employees who seek to challenge their boss at the polls. The court declined to consider whether the dismissal of a deputy who ran against the sheriff in Bullitt County, Ky., violated the deputy’s civil rights.
• Refused to hear an anti-abortion’s group request to force a state to issue “Choose Life” license plates, leaving in place a federal appeals court ruling that state officials were within their rights in trying to keep viewpoints on abortion off of Illinois license plates.
• Left in place a court ruling that the Obama administration says will cost taxpayers at least $19 billion in royalties on energy leases in the Gulf of Mexico. The justices declined to hear the government’s appeal of a ruling in favor of the Anadarko Petroleum Corp. involving eight deepwater leases the company holds in the gulf.
• Refused to revive a libel claim against the Chicago Tribune by a former prosecutor who accused the newspaper of a “witch hunt” against him.
The justices heard their first arguments of the 2009 term this morning. The court will have to decide whether to throw out a prisoner’s sexual abuse conviction because he asked a police officer for a lawyer two years and seven months before he confessed to another police officer.
The court has a new look this term. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the Supreme Court’s first Hispanic justice, replaced retired Justice David Souter.
Although she’s the newest justice, Sotomayor peppered the arguing lawyers with as many questions as her eight more experienced colleagues.
The court also decided to reject a number of cases today. The court:
• Refused to block the release of documents generated by lawsuits against priests in Connecticut for alleged sexual abuse.
• Won’t get involved in a dispute between breakaway Episcopalians and their former national church over who owns a California church and its property.
• Rejected an appeal to review a Florida law that requires public school students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance each day unless they have their parents’ written permission excusing them.
• Rejected an appeal that tested whether the First Amendment protects public employees who seek to challenge their boss at the polls. The court declined to consider whether the dismissal of a deputy who ran against the sheriff in Bullitt County, Ky., violated the deputy’s civil rights.
• Refused to hear an anti-abortion’s group request to force a state to issue “Choose Life” license plates, leaving in place a federal appeals court ruling that state officials were within their rights in trying to keep viewpoints on abortion off of Illinois license plates.
• Left in place a court ruling that the Obama administration says will cost taxpayers at least $19 billion in royalties on energy leases in the Gulf of Mexico. The justices declined to hear the government’s appeal of a ruling in favor of the Anadarko Petroleum Corp. involving eight deepwater leases the company holds in the gulf.
• Refused to revive a libel claim against the Chicago Tribune by a former prosecutor who accused the newspaper of a “witch hunt” against him.
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