Monday, March 2, 2009

A Reminder: Tuesday, It’s On.

Tomorrow, the United States Supreme Court will hear argument in a case I never, not-in-a-million years thought they would take: Caperton v. Blankenship, the judicial recusal case out of West Virginia.  For those not terribly familiar with the case, The Washington Post has a thorough preview here.

Caperton is pressing SCOTUS to rule that the due process clause of the 14th Amendment is violated when a judge who circumstances indicate has a “probability of bias” refuses to recuse himself or herself.  I can’t fathom that the Court will accept that argument at the end of the day-- the implementation problems are just too monumental.  But then, I was shocked that the Court took the case in the first place.

In any event, hopefully tomorrow we’ll get a read from the justices as to whether Caperton has a plausible shot at winning.  I’ll have coverage up of the oral argument as soon as my schedule allows.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the update, Brian. I read the transcript online. Looks like a 5-4 split depending on Kennedy (as usual).


Also, you might find this interesting: Thomas scraps implied pre-emption.

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/08pdf/06-1249.pdf

Hancock.Tom said...

I don't know, I got the feeling a couple of the pro-caperton justices were just questioning frey because they felt obligated. Unless the dissenting opinion essentially says "we have no practical solution to this problem but we are dissenting anyway" I don't think it will be as close as you think.

Alex said...

I haven't read it yet, but here it is:

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/08pdf/08-22.pdf

Alex said...

Well, then again,

http://www.state.wv.us/wvsca/docs/fall09/33350.htm