Author: Sara
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No decision on Troy Davis case
The Supreme Court failed to rule upon Troy Davis’ most recent petition prior to adjourning today for the summer. The Court was supposed to have discussed Davis’ petition last Friday at their final conference of the spring term, with an order expected today. However, the last two sets of orders came and went without Davis’…
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Why VRA preclearance may evade further review
Right after Monday’s decision sidestepping the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act’s preclearance requirement, the conventional wisdom appeared to be that SCOTUS was poised to find preclearance unconstitutional the next time the issue came before it. However, the conventional wisdom has fermented and evolved as the week wore on, and now some legal scholars are suggesting…
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The Voting Rights Act survives, for now
In a decision that virtually no court watchers saw coming, the U.S. Supreme Court today dispensed with the constitutional challenge to the pre-clearance requirement of the Voting Rights Act by, in essence, creating a technicality. Back when this case was argued before SCOTUS, most readers of tea leaves believed that the Justices’ questions to counsel…
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Taking over for Dr. Tiller
Nebraska abortion provider LeRoy Carhart, M.D. said today that he intends to provide late-second trimester and third trimester abortions to Kansas patients that would previously have been only able to seek such procedures from the recently murdered Dr. George Tiller. Much like Dr. Tiller, Dr. Carhart has fought a valiant and dangerous legal and personal…
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The ethics of elected judges
This morning the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision that could have huge impact here in Georgia and in every state in which judges are elected. In a story that could be straight out of a John Grisham novel, a West Virginia coal company lost a case at trial to the tune of $50 million. The coal company’s…
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Troy Davis and the AEDPA
For the last 2 years I have been writing over at my home blog, Going Through the Motions, about the strange and sad saga of Troy Anthony Davis. Davis sits on Georgia’s death row and is likely to be set for execution very soon, even though seven of the nine witnesses who testified against him…