Supreme Court Watch

The April arguments, the last set of the term, will continue the Big V policy of limited court presence and live audio.

The Supreme Court also submitted to Congress proposals for court procedure, which Congress can accept, deny, or (likely) edit in some fashion. This includes: Rules of Appellate Procedure Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure Rules of Civil Procedure Rules of Criminal Procedure.  Technical stuff, except if the procedures matter to the lawyers involved.

The weekend religious holidays pushed the conference back to Thursday (4/14) with a order dropped providing various bookkeeping type orders for upcoming cases.  There will be an Opinion Day next Thursday, orders on Monday, and two weeks of oral arguments (finishing up the term).

For whatever reason, I came across the "Powell memo," the in some quarters infamous marching orders by Lewis Powell (then not a justice) to big business to control messaging. On some level, there is nothing too corrupt or anything about it; it really is a lesson to any group on how to frame one's argument. Of course, one can dispute the message here.

But, it is a lesson that humans make arguments, and they frame their messages. We should keep this in mind and ensure this is done in an aboveboard way, and not let certain groups dominate the discussion. How to do that is the rub. 

[I originally had this as part of the last entry.  I split the two, adding content to both entries.  Perhaps, we won't have anything new until Monday.]