First Monday In October

For those who are not aware, the first Monday in October is the traditional opening day for the new session of the United States Supreme Court. While not all of the cases are going to be groundbreaking we are likely to see a few major decisions between now and the closing of the session in June or July of 2010.

Although Justice Sotomayor is sitting for her first full session it is not likely that this will represent a major change in the direction of the court as her judicial philosophy is close to that of former Justice Souter.

Obviously you can never tell which cases are going to be the big ones, here are a few of the cases to keep an eye on.

In Salazar v. Buono the Court will take up the issue of separation of Church and State and the 1st amendment. The case stems from a cross which stands on a one acre plot of land surrounded by 1.6 million acres of the Mojave National Preserve. The cross was built in the 1930′s and has been rebuilt several times. There were prior cases relating to the public ownership of the land and the presence of the cross.

Recently the one acre plot was traded for a five acre plot of private land located elsewhere in the preserve. On the surface this would have ended the issue as it is now private property. But in authorizing the trade, the Congress declared the land to be “a national memorial commemorating United States participation in World War I and honoring the American veterans of that war.”

According the the plaintiff this brings the land within the standard of being quasi public land and thus is subject to all of the restrictions.

In McDonald v. Chicago the Court will once again examine the issue of gun rights versus gun control. The court already ruled on a restrictive gun law in Washington DC and will now examine one in Chicago. The DC ruling applied only to federal laws (since DC is a federal territory) while this case will examine whether the 14th and 1st amendment protect gun rights and thus invalidate a law which bans all private possession of handguns in the home

In United States v. Comstock the Court will review the subject of whether the federal government can confine sexual predators who have completed their prison terms on the grounds that they are ‘dangerous to society’. This could have a major impact on state laws which make similar provisions (IE if the court rules against the federal law, challenges to state laws are likely to follow).

In Graham v. Florida the issue is another touchy one, that of the repeat offender statutes which sentence multiple offenders to lifetime prison sentences. The case involves a 16 year old defendant who robbed and brutally beat a restaurant employee. He had two prior offenses for robbery at the age of 12. Thus this was his third strike and he was sentenced to life. The issue here is whether or not doing this to someone under the age of 18 amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

This is another case that could be a big one, if they rule against such sentences for those under 18 it could be a starting block for cases to do so for those over 18.

Other cases pending will examine a variety of issues including:

• Whether merchandising by the NFL violates anti trust laws
• If the Sarbanes-Oxley anti fraud law passed in 2002 is a violation of separation of powers
• The application of international treaties to child custody cases
• If prosecutors can be sued for fabricating evidence that leads to a conviction (and 25 years in jail). The prosecutors claim governmental immunity, the plaintiff claims that such immunity does not apply in cases where there was clear misconduct
• How long a request for an attorney remains valid. A man requested that he be provided with an attorney while being investigated for sexual abuse of a minor. This occurred in 2003. Three years later the child was old enough to offer details, the suspect was questioned again and confessed. He now claims his 2003 request was still valid and thus the confession is invalid

It’s looking to be a very interesting year.