Via NPR, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the court's first African American Justice, would have turned 100 today.

Check out this clip -- billed as a "lost interview" between Marshall and Mike Wallace. Though it's undated, Marshall talks about Adam Clayton Powell's controversial support of Republican president Dwight Eisenhower and the Democratic Party's failure to act on segregation in the South.

Update: D.C. v. Heller has been released. The Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice Anton Scalia, has affirmed that the D.C. handgun ban is unconstitutional:

The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditional lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.

The opinion is here.

I will update with selected quotes below as I go through the 157 page opinion. First quote:

Bump and Update: The Court did not issue an opinion today in D.C. v. Heller. Scotus Blog says the Court announced all remaining decisions will released tomorrow at 10:00 am ET.

*****

Original Post

Awaiting the Supreme Court's Second Amendment Decision

Will today be the day the Supreme Court issues its long-awaited opinion in D.C. v. Heller, deciding the constitutionality of D.C.'s handgun ban and settling the question of whether the Second Amendment conveys an individual right to bear arms?

Several court watchers think so. Concurring Opinions believes it will be authored by Justice Anton Scalia, who has yet to write an opinion in the March sitting cases. Heller is also the only case remaining among the March sitting cases. [Hat tip Instapundit.][More...]

Via Scotus Blog: The Supreme Court decided Kennedy v. Louisiana today, holding that "the death penalty for child rape is unconstitutional if the defendants' acts were not intended to cause death." The decision was 5-4.

The Court has released the opinion in Kennedy v. Louisiana (07-343), on whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits states from imposing the death penalty for child rape, and, if not, whether Louisiana’s statute fails to narrow the class of offenders eligible for the death penalty. The ruling below, which upheld the state law, is reversed and remanded.

Justice Kennedy wrote the opinion. Justice Alito dissented, joined by the Chief Justice and Justices Scalia and Thomas. We will provide a link to the decision as soon as it is available.

The opinion is available here. The Court categorically says the death penalty is forbidden for crimes that do not result in death. [More..]

Marcy Tiffany, an attorney and the wife of 9th Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, has written a long e-mail to blogger Patterico, explaining what was really on their family's computer network. (Background here.)

Combine a disgruntled litigant with a reporter focused on sensationalism and the public got a false story the rest of the media was only too happy to run with. I'm not surprised.

Count me as one firmly in Judge Kozinski's corner.

In his dissent in yesterday's Boumediene v. Bush decision, Chief Justice Roberts wrote:

The critical threshold question in these cases, prior to any inquiry about the writ’s scope, is whether the system the political branches designed protects whatever rights the detainees may possess.

(Emphasis supplied.) This is Roberts the judicial minimalist. And so he is when discussing the Great Writ. But not always. For example, in the Parents Involved school desegregation cases, Roberts trampled the "system the political branches designed." He struck down the systems designed by the charged political branches in Seattle and Louisville to deal with that issue. It seems Chief Justice Roberts is a judicial minimalist when it favors the result he wishes to reach. Of course Roberts is no judicial minimalist, he is a Legal Realist. More . . .

A bit embarrassing, this:

One of the highest-ranking federal judges in the United States, who is currently presiding over an obscenity trial in Los Angeles, has maintained his own publicly accessible website featuring sexually explicit photos and videos.

Goes to show how obscene it is that the Justice Department wastes public resources on adult "obscenity" trials. As to whether his own choice of viewing materials was obscene:

[Judge] Kozinski said he didn't think any of the material he posted on his website would qualify as obscene. "Is it prurient? I don't know what to tell you," he said. "I think it's odd and interesting. It's part of life."

The well-regarded judge clearly did not intend the website to be accessible by the public.

Before the site was taken down, visitors to http://alex.kozinski.com were greeted with the message: "Ain't nothin' here. Y'all best be movin' on, compadre."

Which is exactly what the Justice Department should do: move on to serious crime and stop sucking up to the right wingers who want to censor adult entertainment.

UPDATE: The trial has been suspended until Monday.

This is totally cool:

America's first female Supreme Court justice unveiled a videogame project last week to teach children how courts work, saying she wanted to counter partisan criticism that judges are "godless" activists.

Sandra Day O'Connor, 78, who served as U.S. Supreme Court justice from 1981 until her retirement in 2006, said she ... got involved with developing the project called "Our Courts" out of concern over public ignorance about the judiciary and partisan attacks on what should be an independent institution.

Can't argue with this:

She said the only way to preserve an independent judiciary was through public education, which she said was failing to produce citizens with enough knowledge about the three branches of U.S. government -- legislative, executive and judicial.

After kids learn how to steal cars by playing Grand Theft Auto IV, they can learn what happens after a car theft arrest by playing Our Courts.

The Senate Judiciary Committee today approved a bill that would create dozens of new federal judgeships.

The effective date of the bill is Jan. 20, 2009, which means we will have a new President. These are lifetime positions and the President makes the nominations.

The independence of our federal judiciary is one of the most important reasons we need a Democrat to be elected President. After 8 years of the appointment of conservative judges, the pendulum needs to swing back.

This is just another reason why when all is said and done with the presidential nomination, Democrats need to quickly come together to ensure that the party's candidate wins in November.

Alternet has a profile of Bush judicial nominee Gus Puryear.

From a corporate standpoint, Puryear has excelled in his job as general counsel for Corrections Corp. of America (CCA), the nation's largest and most influential private prison company. Under his direction, CCA's in-house attorneys work with a stable of contracted law firms to handle corporate legal matters of all kinds, not the least of which are the hundreds of claims and lawsuits filed against the company at any given time. A smart, enthusiastic GOP stalwart, Puryear is the kind of guy the party wants around. It doesn't hurt that he's also very, very rich: Between his bank account, assets and unexercised CCA shares, he's worth about $13 million, give or take a few thousand.

Alliance for Justice, which has a full report on Puryear, says:

Mr. Puryear's public comments indicate hostility towards civil rights lawsuits in general and to those brought by prisoners in particular.

[More...]

I didn't hear John McCain's speech on judges yesterday, but Andrew Cohen at the Washington Post's Bench Conference and Ann Althouse provide their views.

Would McCain stack the court with right wing ideologues? Of course he would. There's no better reason, other than the war in Iraq, to make sure he doesn't win in November.

Update: 11:12 pm Comments now closed.

"60 Minutes" featured Justice Anton Scalia tonight.

He's a very personable fellow. Among the highlights and lowlights so far:

• torture is not punishment when you are trying to get information out of someone

• Fetuses are not persons within the meaning of the Equal Protection Clause. Persons means people who can walk around. Pregnant women shouldn't be counted twice.

• He has 9 kids and 28 grandkids. He was an only child. Why? They practiced their version of "Vatican Roulette."

If you saw it, let us know what you thought.