Courts
From NBC's Pete Williams
The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down an emergency application from lawyers for John Allen Muhammad, the DC-area sniper, clearing the way for his scheduled execution Tuesday.
*** UPDATE *** Justices John Paul Stevens and Sonia Sotomayor say states like Virginia should not be allow to rush the Supreme Court into deciding death penalty cases hours or days before scheduled executions.
Muhammad's lawyers asked the court to put his execution on hold so that it could consider his challenge to the death sentence. They claim Muhammad was mentally ill.
"This case highlights once again the perversity of executing inmates before their appeals process has been fully concluded," Stevens wrote today, with Sotomayor agreeing.
"By denying Muhammad's stay application, we have allowed Virginia to truncate our deliberative process on a matter -- involving a death row inmate -- that demands the most careful attention. This result is particularly unfortunate in light of the limited time Muhammad was given to make his case in the District Court."
From NBC's Pete Williams
The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to take up the case of James Ford Seale, a central figure in an infamous racially motivated crime in 1964. Today's action leaves his conviction standing. But two justices said the court should have taken the case, because the issue will come up again in other cold cases from the 1960s.
The FBI accused Seale and other Ku Klux Klansmen of kidnapping two black college students in 1964, beating them in a forest, and dumping them, still alive, into the Mississippi River. Seale and another man were arrested at the time, but local authorities declined to prosecute them for killing the students, Charles Moore and his friend, Henry Dee. Moore's brother, Thomas, helped get the case re-opened, and Seale was re-arrested in 2007, this time on federal charges, and later convicted.
When the crime was committed in 1964, a kidnapping that resulted in harm to the victim was punishable by death. And that is true today. But for more than two decades, violating that law was not a capital offense. There's no statute of limitations for crimes that carry the death penalty, but there is for others. Accordingly, Seale challenged his conviction, arguing that when the death penalty was taken off the books, only a five-year statute of limitations applied to the crime. Once that period elapsed, he could no longer be charged, even though the death penalty was later revived, he claimed.
A federal appeals court disagreed and upheld Seale's conviction, but it urged the Supreme Court to straighten out the law. Today, the justices declined to do so. But two justices -- the liberal John Paul Stevens and the conservative Antonin Scalia -- said the court should have taken the case. It's an important issue, they said, "that may well determine the outcome of a number of cases of ugly racial violence remaining from the 1960's."
From NBC's Pete Williams
Despite a plea from the Obama administration to stay on the sidelines, the U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to jump squarely into the legal battle over bringing Guantanamo detainees into the United States.
It's the first time the court has agreed to review an Obama policy in the war on terror.
The court said it will hear a constitutional challenge brought by 13 Chinese Muslims now held at Guantanamo Bay but no longer considered enemy combatants. They've asked, and the U.S. has agreed, that they not be sent back to China out of fear that they'd be tortured. But, so far, no other country has agreed to take them. Given all that, a federal judge ruled a year ago that because the government had no basis on which to detain them, and with no other country willing to take them, they should be released into the United States.
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From NBC's Pete Williams
Formally announcing its new guidelines to prosecutors on medical marijuana, the Justice Department says "the focus of federal resources should not be on individuals whose actions are in compliance with existing state laws."
In a written statement, Attorney General Eric Holder said, "It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana, but we will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal."
The guidelines contain examples of conduct that would show when individuals are not in clear compliance with state law and may indicate illegal drug trafficking activity -- including unlawful use of firearms, violence, sales to minors, money laundering, amounts of marijuana inconsistent with purported compliance with state or local law, marketing or excessive financial gains similarly inconsistent with state or local law, illegal possession or sale of other controlled substances, and ties to criminal enterprises.
From NBC's Pete WilliamsSupreme Court Associate Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is out of the hospital and expected back on the job today.
From NBC’s Pete Williams
Another "birther" lawsuit, challenging President Obama's constitutional qualification to be president, has been rejected in federal court. And in tossing the case out, the judge said that Congress seems satisfied that Obama is qualified, based on the unanimous passage of a House resolution dealing with Hawaii.
On July 27th, the House approved, by a vote of 378-0, a resolution to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Hawaii's statehood. In extolling the state's history, the resolution says, "the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961."
"Congress is apparently satisfied that the President is qualified to serve," says federal judge Clay Land, in dismissing the case. "Congress has not instituted impeachment proceedings, and in fact, the House of Representatives in a broad bipartisan manner has rejected the suggestion that the President is not eligible for office."
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For most observers who listened to the Supreme Court hearing yesterday,
it seems the consensus is that the court could very well overturn much of the campaign finance system giving corporations and unions more power to spend money.
From NBC's Pete Williams
The U.S. Supreme Court appears to be on the verge of permitting a huge change in the mix of money in American politics.
Based on the comments from the justices today during an unusual summer argument session, the court appears to be inclined to strike down decades of federal laws and court decisions that have limited who can buy political campaign ads. At stake are laws that ban corporations and labor unions from spending their own money to run ads that attack or support candidates, and ads that even mention a candidate's name in the months leading to elections.
The conservative backers of the "Hillary: The Movie" documentary argued today that the laws are a violation of free speech, and at least five justices appeared today to agree.
From NBC's Pete Williams
In interviews with C-SPAN, several U.S. Supreme Court justices say whenever a new member comes on the court, its entire chemistry is altered.
C-SPAN did the interviews earlier this year and made the tape available today to coincide with the arrival next week of Sonia Sotomayor.
Both Chief Justice John Roberts and Clarence Thomas say getting a new justice is like living through a change in a family. "You quickly get to view the court as composed of these members, and it becomes kind of hard to think of it as involving anyone else," Roberts says.
Justice Anthony Kennedy says changes are "stressful for us, because we so admire our colleagues. We wonder, oh, will it ever be the same?"
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor say one difference for a woman is finding a suitable judicial robe. Most are made for men, designed with a v-neck to show a little shirt and tie. Women struggle to find robes with collars, they both said.
From NBC's Athena Jones
President Obama today thanked the Senate for confirming Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, calling it a "wonderful day" for America.
The Bronx-born Sotomayor, who was approved by a 68-31 vote, will become the court's first Hispanic justice when she is sworn in Saturday morning by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. She was spending the day in New York, according to the White House, and was not present for the president's comments.
In brief remarks delivered just moments after the vote, Obama declared himself "very happy" with the 68 votes Sotomayor received and said he was filled with pride at this achievement.
Video: President Obama comments on the Senate’s vote to confirm Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"With this historic vote," he said, "the Senate has affirmed that Judge Sotomayor has the intellect, the temperament, the history, the integrity and the independence of mind to ably serve on our nation's highest court."
The Senate's role in confirming judges helped ensure that equal justice under the law was not just a phrase inscribed above the courthouse door, but a description of what happens inside the courtroom each day, the president said.
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