Big Week at the Supreme Court!

March 1, 2015

It’s a big week at the Supreme Court. The Court here’s oral arguments on March 2 in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, No. 13-1314. (I was a finalist for the Redistricting Commission; often, we are blessed in failure!) The Court has framed the issues as follows:  (1) Whether the Elections Clause of the United States Constitution and 2 U. S. C. § 2a(c) permit Arizona’s use of a commission to adopt congressional districts; and (2) whether the Arizona Legislature has standing to bring this suit.

The “Elections Clause” provision is located in Article I, Section 4. It states:  “The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in

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Spiderman Goes to the Supreme Court

December 22, 2014

The U.S. Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari in Kimble et al. v. Marvel Enterprises, Inc., No. 13-720 on December 12, 2014, aka the Spiderman case. The plaintiffs are Tucson attorneys Steve Kimble and Bob Grabb; their involvement aside, however, the case offers a look inside the world of patent law.

Steve Kimble developed an add-on device for spraying Silly String, a la Spiderman. While he was obtaining a patent, he pitched his idea to Marvel. Its people passed, but said they would pay if they used the idea. Later, Marvel marketed what amounted to the same toy.  Litigation ensued, and there was a settlement, which included cash and royalty payments. (Bob Grabb acquired an interest in

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The Supreme Court: Secrecy and Extrajudicial Activities

December 15, 2014

Two weeks ago I read The Great Paper Caper, written for The New Yorker by Jill Lepore. Professor Lepore teaches history at Harvard, and is also a staff writer for the magazine.

The piece tells a great story about missing papers from the files of Justice Felix Frankfurter. Seemingly, through poor record-keeping and controls, someone walked the papers out the doors of the Library of Congress. (The article includes a “who’s who” of prominent men from the 1930s through the 1970s, and the story proves yet again that clerking at the U.S. Supreme Court advances careers.)

An over-arching theme of the story relates to document secrecy. The Presidential Papers Act of 1978 and the Federal Records Act of 1950

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The Court as an Echo Chamber, Etc.

December 8, 2014

“I’m taking this case all the way to the Supreme Court,” are words heard occasionally in hot contested matters, most often where the chances of that happening are nil. The words do, though, provide a jumping off place for discussing an interesting new study.

Cases get heard by the U.S. Supreme after a grant of certiorari. The word translates roughly to “to be more fully informed” and, here, being more fully informed means having the Court grant the writ, so that it can illuminate us with its wisdom.

I’m not delving into process here very much. The Court does take a limited category of cases by direct appeal (as opposed to cert), and does have original jurisdiction in

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