By J. Scott Applewhite, AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from opponents of same-sex marriage who are seeking to put a proposal on the ballot to overturn the District of Columbia’s gay marriage law.
The court did not comment Tuesday in turning away a challenge from a Maryland pastor and others who want Washingtonians to vote on a measure that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

Bishop Harry Jackson led a lawsuit against the district’s Board of Elections and Ethics after the board refused to put the initiative on the ballot. The board ruled that the ballot question would in effect authorize discrimination.

Last year Washington began issuing marriage licenses for same-sex couples and began in 2009 began recognizing gay marriages performed elsewhere.

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By ADAM LIPTAK
New York Times
November 27, 2010

WASHINGTON — In 1976, just six months after he joined the Supreme Court, Justice John Paul Stevens voted to reinstate capital punishment after a four-year moratorium. With the right procedures, he wrote, it is possible to ensure “evenhanded, rational and consistent imposition of death sentences under law.”

In 2008, two years before he announced his retirement, Justice Stevens reversed course and in a concurrence said that he now believed the death penalty to be unconstitutional.

But the reason for that change of heart, after more than three decades on the court and some 1,100 executions, has in many ways remained a mystery, and now Justice Stevens has provided an explanation. (more…)

By DAVID G. SAVAGE AND CAROL J. WILLIAMS
Tribune Washington Bureau
Nov. 28, 2010
WASHINGTON — The suicide rate in California’s overcrowded prisons is nearly twice the national average, and one inmate dies every eight days from inadequate medical care.

These are just two indicators cited in the 15-year legal battle over whether the state’s prisons are failing to provide humane medical care for 165,000 inmates.

On Tuesday the problems of California’s prisons will move to a national stage, when the Supreme Court hears the state’s challenge to an extraordinary court order that would require the prison population to be reduced by one-fourth in two years. That could mean releasing or transferring more than 40,000 inmates, state lawyers say.

The case is not just of interest to California.

Lawyers for 18 other states, including Illinois, Pennsylvania and Virginia, joined in support of California’s appeal, saying they feared a ruling upholding the prison-release order could trigger similar moves across the nation. “Real world experience” suggests that releasing a large number of inmates would “inevitably place innocent citizens at much greater risk,” they said. (more…)

Sunday, June 20, 2010
BY DIANA FISHLOCK
Message from the Supreme Court: “Privacy? LOL. Use ur phone.”

The court last week unanimously upheld a police department’s search of an officer’s personal, sometimes sexually explicit, messages on a government-owned pager, saying the search did not violate his constitutional rights.

The common-sense message to all employees: If you want privacy, use your own cell phone, pager or computer.
(more…)

On April 16, 2010, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted Attorney Andrew Shubin’s petition for allocatur in Commonwealth v. Zortman, a 2006 drug trafficking case prosecuted by the Attorney General’s office. The Supreme Court will hear argument on whether Zortman, the then girlfriend of a Clearfield County drug dealer, should be hit with a five year mandatory minimum state prison sentence based upon the presence of an inoperable firearm in the residence. Shubin, who represented Zortman in the appellate proceedings, expects the case to be briefed and argued before the end of the year.

Jun. 29, 2006 –The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Pennsylvania prison policy yesterday, saying that officials have the legal authority to keep mainstream newspapers and magazines from the most incorrigible inmates. (more…)

State College man to argue case involving inmate rights

State College lawyer Andrew Shubin has an opportunity to do what most lawyers can only dream about: argue a case before the United States Supreme Court. (more…)