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Monday, February 11, 2008

Courts - Two fascinating audio/video pieces

Two fascinating audio/video pieces, mentioned by Howard Bashman of How Appealing during the past week.

First, if you don't have but a few minutes, listen to this NPR story, from the 2/8 All Things Considered, headed "W.Va. Judges Asked to Recuse in Massey Coal Case." The summary:

The plot of John Grisham's latest novel has already come to life, he says, in West Virginia. [ILB - kind of like what happened with Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities.]

Three of the five state Supreme Court justices have been asked to recuse themselves from rehearing a case in March involving one of the biggest businessmen in the state, Don Blankenship of Massey Coal. Two of the justices have ties to him, and the third has publicly criticized the businessman.

For more on this, see this 1/28/08 entry from the WSJ Law Blog. And this is one among many stories in the press, an AP report dated 1/27/08.

Second, when you have an hour, watch this video from the Feb. 2 edition of C-SPAN's America and the Courts, on The Future of the Supreme Court:

New York Times Supreme Court Correspondent Linda Greenhouse and CNN's Jeffrey Toobin talk about recent cases and shifts in the Court since Justice Alito and Chief Justice Roberts joined.
It begins with a fascinating discussion of the Indiana voter ID case and Chief Justice Roberts. You'll either love it or hate it, but either way, you will want to watch it.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 11, 2008 04:11 PM
Posted to Courts in general