C-SPAN wants the U.S. Supreme Court to break tradition and allow live television coverage of the oral arguments next March on the constitutionality of the federal health care law. C-SPAN cited the importance of the hearings to the presidential and congressional elections. -db From SCOTUSBlog, November 15, 2011, by Lyle Denniston. Full story
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to adopt a procedural rule to limit the number of civil cases under seal. The Court wants to rely on a new Judicial Conference policy encouraging federal judges to limit the number of sealed cases. The Reporter Committee for Freedom of the Press had suggested the rule citing the lack of uniform standards used by lower courts for sealing cases from public view. -db From The Reporters Committee
A woman from Orange County, California won a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court allowing her to sue prison authorities for forcing her to remove her hijab in public, contrary to religious law. Lower courts had ruled that the holding cell where the woman was held was a special zone not subject to laws allowing prisoners to wear religious garments. -db From Jezebel, October 3, 2011, by Margaret Hartmann. Full story
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has asked the Supreme Court to make every document in their court open to the public unless it designates otherwise. A New York Times editorial backs the suggestion noting that in the last 18 years the court has increased the practice of sealing records, a troubling trend. -db From an editorial in The New York Times, September 18, 2011. Full story
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that ethics laws on conflict of interest did not violate the First Amendment rights of legislators. Writing for the court, Justice Antonin Scalia that lawmakers have a right to free speech under the Constitution but not to vote on matters in which they have a conflict of interest. Scalia said the right to vote in a legislative body is not personal to the legislator but belongs to the public