Results tagged “ussupremecourt”

The U.S. Supreme Court has denied convicted D.C. Sniper John Allen Muhammad's request to stay his execution. Barring any unforeseen intervention, the decision means that Muhammad will be put to death by the state of Virginia at 9 p.m. on Tuesday night. The Post notes that Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor all objected to the speed at which the high court made its decision, writing that they "allowed Virginia to truncate our deliberative process on a matter." The court sped up its normal review process after Virginia scheduled Muhammad's execution for Tuesday.

Freshly sworn in U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was spotted (and captured in a grainy video by a FOX camera) celebrating with friends and family at Chinatown's Irish Channel Pub on Monday night. That Sotomayor went out dancing and sang karaoke in a local bar makes us supremely happy. We have high hopes that the justice will quickly become a visible fixture in our city. But Sonia, sweetheart, the Irish Channel? The last resort of visiting hockey fans and tourists staying at the Red Roof Inn who have no better ideas of where to go? DCist will admit to knocking a few pints back at the Irish Channel in emergency situations, but nearly every time we've been chased out by the unmistakable ambiance of lonely desperation (or a painfully bad cover band). We have to give props to Sotomayor for looking like she made the best of things and had a great time on Monday, but hopefully after she settles in we can help steer her in the direction of some better bars. What say you, commentariat? Where should the justice hang out?

No big surprise here, but the U.S. Senate just voted 68-31 to confirm Sonia Sotomayor as the next U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Sotomayor will be the first Hispanic and only the third female justice ever.

Just to stick a fork in the overdone bird that is the Donofrio v. Wells, Secretary of State of New Jersey case, which brought seemingly countless cuckoos out of the woodwork and into our comment threads, SCOTUSblog brings confirmation that the high court has indeed allowed the Obama citizenship case to die a quiet death.

In a brief order, the Court, as expected, turned aside a New Jersey voter’s plea for the Court to determine if President-elect Barack Obama was qualified to run for the White House — that is whether he was a “natural born citizen.” The stay application came in the case of Donofrio v. Wells, Secretary of State of New Jersey (08A407). This marked the second time in recent weeks for the Court to turn aside such a challenge; the first came on Nov. 3, in Berg v. Obama (08A391). The Court, in neither instance, gave reasons for turning down the applications. In neither case did the Court seek a reponse, thus indicating it had little interest in either or had found them to be completely without merit.

Special thanks to all of our regular readers who greeted the glassy-eye hordes who visited our site last week with a wink and a smile.

by DCist contributor Dave Weigel

When our pals at Chicagoist forwarded us a link to their post about how the U.S. Supreme Court is actually going to consider whether to take up a lawsuit challenging President-Elect Barack Obama's U.S. citizenship, we thought it had to be a joke. But no, this is sort of really happening tomorrow, and although it's almost assured of going no further than merely appearing on Friday's court meeting schedule, it will bring with it a small army of weirdos who are still pushing this sad little conspiracy theory. There's a vigil planned for the steps of the Supreme Court tomorrow, so if you're looking to get an extra helping of crazy before the start of your weekend, stroll on by!

They say that it's good to never give up, but would someone send Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) a memo telling him that sometimes it's cool to throw in the towel?

Via the WSJ Law Blog, click here to download a PDF from the Smith & Wesson company web site announcing their intention to create a commemorative revolver laser engraved with the words "D.C. vs. Heller" on a scale of justice, tipped toward Heller.

As part of the project, an engraved Smith & Wesson Model 442 revolver will be presented to each of the six plaintiffs - Shelly Parker, Tom Palmer, Gillian St. Lawrence, Tracey Ambeau, George Lyon and Dick Heller - for their key roles in working to protect the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Smith & Wesson will make the commemorative revolver available for consumer purchase in Fall 2008 and will direct a portion of the proceeds to the Second Amendment Foundation to acknowledge the organization's pivotal role in the Heller case and its ongoing efforts to preserve the Second Amendment rights of U.S. citizens.

Over at HuffPost, Josh Sugarman makes the argument that Smith & Wesson is thumbing its nose at police departments with this announcement, since the gun ban was strongly supported by the MPD, and the company is well known for manufacturing a "revolver that can penetrate the body armor worn by law enforcement."

Mayor Adrian Fenty and the D.C. Council, along with Attorney General Peter Nickles and Police Chief Cathy Lanier, announced the details of early legislation that will regulate the registration and storage of handguns in post-Heller D.C.

Despite warnings from both city officials and your trusted bloggers at DCist, it looks like District residents were visiting gun shops over the weekend in Virginia and Maryland to try to take advantage of their freshly interpreted Second Amendment rights. Fortunately, as the Post reports, gun store owners are holding off on taking advantage of the new business -- they're waiting to see what regulations the city eventually chooses to impose on the purchase and ownership of handguns for District residents.

So there we have it -- the U.S. Supreme Court finally issued a definitive ruling on what the Second Amendment actually means. But what will it mean for the District in a more practical sense? For now, not much.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled this morning to uphold an appellate ruling that says the District of Columbia's 32-year-old handgun ban is unconstitutional.

It's been a long four months for both anti- and pro-gun advocates since the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments concerning the constitutionality of the District's infamously restrictive gun laws. And though the court is coming to the end of their session, we're all still waiting to see what's to come of the District's gun laws.