7 Big Cases to go before the Supreme Court soon
 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080625/...JI_JgAFBdMEP0E

Death Penalty for raping children- Denied earlier today

2.5 billion in punitive damages against Exxon-Mobil for the Valdez spill- slashed to $500 million earlier today

Indian courts' jurisdiction is limited

Tomorrow morning:
Ban of handguns in Washington D.C.
Hopefully they realize that this is unconstitutional and don't allow it.

I haven't gotten a chance to read the decisions, but here are my two cents after reading SCOTUS blog and a couple of the news articles...

The decision on the Valdez spill isn't terribly surprising, in that the Court has been cracking down on punitive damages for a few years. From what I'm reading, it's essentially limited to maritime cases, so I'm not sure how much future effect it will have.

The death penalty case was interesting; from what I understand, it essentially eliminates the death penalty for non-homicide cases. Kennedy wrote the opinion, so you figured he would try to make a splash. The entire court (save for Stevens, I believe) thinks that the death penalty is Constitutional in some cases, so those who are anti-death penalty shouldn't start counting on the penalty being abolished any time soon.

I haven't seen much on the jurisdiction case, or the Giles decision (confrontation clause issue).

Aw, c'mon. The Supremes are like umpires -- the ban isn't constitutional unless they say it is. ;)

'Course, I'm expecting that they will. But they have surprised before.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080626/...co/scotus_guns

The Court decided, 5-4, that the 2nd Amendment allows an individual to have a gun, at least in their own home and for self defense purposes.

Tom Goldstein makes an interesting point on the SCOTUS blog that this ruling, at least on its surface, implies that the 2nd Amendment is incorporated against the states. So, this ruling would apply to state regulation as well. See http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/ .