Category Archives: OT 2015

The Fishing Expedition Continues: Will there be a Fisher III?

Guest post by Vinay Harpalani, Associate Professor at Savannah Law School On Wednesday, December 9, for the second time, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. The question in Fisher II is the exactly the same it was in Fisher I: does the University of Texas at … Continue reading The Fishing Expedition Continues: Will there be a Fisher III?

What to Look For In Tomorrow’s Evenwell v. Abbott Oral Argument

Tomorrow the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Evenwell v. Abbott, a voting rights case. Evenwell involves the one person, one vote standard the Court developed in the 1960s. In Reynolds v. Sims (1964), the Court held that voting districts that vary widely in population violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment … Continue reading What to Look For In Tomorrow’s Evenwell v. Abbott Oral Argument

Looking Ahead to Next Week at the Supreme Court

Next week promises to be a big week at the Supreme Court.  Two major cases are scheduled for argument, one a case involving voting rights, the other an affirmative action case. Each has potentially dramatic consequences.   Evenwel v. Abbott, which will be argued on Tuesday, December 8, revisits the one person-one vote principle that … Continue reading Looking Ahead to Next Week at the Supreme Court

Race and Peremptory Challenges at the Supreme Court: Assessing Foster v. Chatman

Guest Post by Nancy S. Marder, Professor of Law, Director of the Justice John Paul Stevens Jury Center, and Co-Director of the Institute for Law and the Humanities at IIT Chicago-Kent. On November 2, 2015, the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument in Foster v. Chatman.  The petitioner in this case, Timothy Tyrone Foster, asked … Continue reading Race and Peremptory Challenges at the Supreme Court: Assessing Foster v. Chatman

Listen to This—Justice Scalia’s Remarkable Bench Announcement in Glossip

Last term at the Supreme Court ended with a bit of drama from the bench that provided a fitting end to a term marked by more than its fair share of raw emotions in the courtroom.   The last major decision announcement was Glossip v. Gross, a challenge to Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol.  Glossip, a … Continue reading Listen to This—Justice Scalia’s Remarkable Bench Announcement in Glossip

The Term Ahead at the Supreme Court

One week into the new Term at the U.S. Supreme Court, the early conventional wisdom is taking shape, and it’s looking like a good term for the conservatives.  Last term ended on a high note for the liberals.  In addition to the same-sex marriage decision, there were a number of dodged bullets as the four … Continue reading The Term Ahead at the Supreme Court

Remembering Yogi Berra (and Earl Warren)

On April 5, 1979, the New York Times ran on its Op-Ed page a piece by Yale Law Professor Robert Cover titled “Your Law-Baseball Quiz.” Each of the six questions began with the name of a Supreme Court Justice, followed by a list of four Major League Baseball players. The object of the quiz was … Continue reading Remembering Yogi Berra (and Earl Warren)

Fisher v. Texas, the Remix

Guest Post by Vinay Harpalani, Associate Professor of Law, Savannah Law School In its October 2015 term, the U.S. Supreme Court will once again consider the constitutionality of race-conscious admissions policies. On June 29, the Court surprised many observers when it granted Abigail Fisher’s petition for a writ of certiorari in Fisher v. Texas (II)—two years after its … Continue reading Fisher v. Texas, the Remix