Order List: Short list with one notable thing. Breyer again flags his longstanding opposition to executing those on death row for decades, especially when the government is clearly to blame for the delays. He also flags the solitary confinement suffered by the people involved. Such a person was due to be executed last week, but was delayed for a technical reason (competency matters also were flagged by his lawyers).
There were two opinions today. First, we had a technical arbitration opinion by Kagan, which liberal sorts have praised as a reasonable unanimous opinion. The opinion was not even seven pages long (minus head notes) and shows SCOTUS will have various limited cases that are not controversial. These are the sorts of "see?!" cases Justice Breyer loves.
The second opinion [against the same person as Breyer's statement] was a lot more controversial, a 6-3 habeas opinion that received some strong criticism. Thomas v. Sotomayor, which is likely (as here) to have strong takes on each side. It involved the right to counsel in a death penalty case. Sotomayor shows how much "hollowing out" of precedent is going on.
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Thanks for your .02!