With four justices in their seventies, odds are good that whoever is elected president in November will have a chance to fill at least one Supreme Court seat. The next justice could dramatically alter the direction of a court closely divided between conservatives and liberals. One new face on the bench could mean a sea change in how millions get health care, shape the rights of gay Americans and much more.
Archive for September, 2012
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. expressed frustration at what he said were inaccuracies in the media about the court and its decisions, saying it’s difficult to sit by when opinions are misinterpreted.
“Sometimes it’s inadvertent, and sometimes opinions are spun, just like everything else. … They’re reduced to a slogan that you put on a bumper sticker, and that’s very frustrating,” he told an audience of students, judges and others at Roger Williams University School of Law.
Arizona’s Supreme Court, stepping into a zoning dispute over a tattoo parlor, ruled that tattooing was a constitutionally protected form of free speech, the first such decision by any state high court in the country, lawyers said.
The ruling stemmed from a dispute between tattoo artists Ryan and Laetitia Coleman and the Phoenix valley city of Mesa, which denied the pair a business permit three years ago to set up shop in a local strip mall.
The distinctive red soles of Christian Louboutin shoes are entitled to trademark protection, even if the company can’t exactly call the color its own, a federal appeals court said.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan reversed a lower court judge who had ruled against the French maker of luxury shoes worn by stars such as Sarah Jessica Parker, Scarlett Johansson and Halle Berry.
A federal appeals court ruled that Marilyn Monroe’s estate is powerless to stop a California company from selling her images without its permission.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that The Milton Greene Archives can continue to sell iconic images of the actress without paying her estate for publicity rights. The ruling hinged on Monroe’s legal residency. She owned a home in California and an apartment in New York when she died in Los Angeles in 1962.
The Press and The Bench 