Bump and Update: The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a death row inmate.

The Supreme Court sided with a convicted killer in an important test of legal standards for death penalty cases, ruling Thursday that inexperienced lawyers failed their client at trial. The court, by a vote of 7 to 2, threw out the death sentence of Kevin Wiggins, a borderline retarded man convicted of drowning an elderly Maryland woman who employed him as a handyman.

Bump and Update:The Supreme Court has dismissed the Nike free speech appeal.

The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed on Thursday on technical grounds a Nike Inc. appeal on whether it can be sued for false advertising over a publicity campaign to defend itself against accusations that Asian sweatshops made its footwear. The high court, on the last day of its term, said the free-speech appeal was dismissed without reaching the merits of the dispute. The ruling means the lawsuit against Nike, the world's largest maker of athletic shoes, can go forward.

In another ruling, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the government cannot retroactively erase statutes of limitations, a defeat for prosecutors trying to pursue priests accused of long-ago sex abuse.

On a 5-4 vote, the justices struck down a California law that allowed prosecutions for old sex crimes. It was challenged by a 72-year-old man accused of molesting his daughters when they were children. The case was closely watched because of sex abuse problems in the Roman Catholic church, but it also has implications for terrorism and other crimes.

Update: The Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision in Lawrence v. Texas has struckdown the Texas law prohibiting consensual homosexual sodomy. The justices held that the law was an unconstitutional privacy invasion and violated due process.

From How Appealing:

Lawrence v. Texas (syllabus here; majority opinion here; opinion concurring in the judgment here; dissenting opinion here; additional dissenting opinion here;

From a Press Release from People for the American Way:

"The Supreme Court has recognized what most Americans regard as common sense - the government has no place regulating private sexual behavior between consenting adults. And the Court has recognized as law what most Americans see as basic fairness: being gay should not mean being a second-class citizen. This decision has not eliminated all the barriers to full equality for gay Americans, but it takes a major step towards dismantling those barriers."

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Today will be a big day for Supreme Court news. Decisions are expected in the Texas sodomy and Nike cases. There could be an announcement regarding retirement of one of the Justices. Be sure to check in with Howard Bashman of How Appealing and ScotusBlog for the latest news.

On a related topic, Eric at IsThatLegal has some sharp criticism for Justice O'Connor's extra-judicial comments on the affirmative action ruling made in a post-decision interview.