Tony Mauro

January 31, 2007 | The Legal Intelligencer

At the rare times the U.S. Supreme Court pops into the consciousness of the public, it is usually because of a vexing case or, more recently, a personnel change or two. Rarely is there a chance to step back and look at the court�s history or its evolving role in the life of the nation.

By Tony Mauro ALM

4 minute read

August 30, 2010 | National Law Journal

A campaign is under way to win the hearts and minds of state attorneys general in the run-up to a major Supreme Court case testing the constitutionality of limits on the sale of violent video games.

By Tony Mauro and Carrie Levine

8 minute read

February 06, 2009 | New York Law Journal

By Tony Mauro

6 minute read

July 10, 2006 | Texas Lawyer

A U.S. Surpeme Court term that began with hope and at least limited evidence that a new era of consensus had begun dissolved in its final weeks into a blizzard of quarrelsome writing that clarified little and robbed some decisions of their precedential force.

By Tony Mauro

8 minute read

July 07, 2003 | Texas Lawyer

In his angry dissent in the June 26 gay rights case Lawrence v. Texas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia reserved some of his sharpest words not for the court majority or for homosexuals, but for what he called a "law-profession culture that has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda."

By Tony Mauro

7 minute read

September 25, 2008 | National Law Journal

J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a judge on the 4th Circuit and one of the top candidates to replace Chief Justice William Rehnquist when he died in 2005, proved last week that the Supreme Court might have experienced a major doctrinal change if he had gotten the job. Wilkinson has authored a powerful essay in which he challenges the Court's decision in D.C. v. Heller and draws negative parallels between that case and Roe v. Wade that will almost certainly upset fellow conservatives.

By Tony Mauro

3 minute read

November 23, 2004 | The Legal Intelligencer

The already-intense debate over the role of international law in Supreme Court decision-making shifts into high gear this week when the justices consider the case of Jose Medellin, a Mexican citizen on death row in Texas.

By Tony Mauro

9 minute read

June 14, 2005 | Law.com

After nearly 20 years of appeals, a Texas death row inmate has persuaded the Supreme Court to overturn his conviction because of racial bias that tainted jury selection in his trial. The ruling was one of two decisions Monday that amounted to a powerful affirmation of the Court's disdain for racial discrimination in the use of peremptory challenges. "The right to a jury free of discriminatory taint is constitutionally protected," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote. "The right to use peremptory challenges is not."

By Tony Mauro

4 minute read

June 26, 2008 | Texas Lawyer

Indigent defendants released from custody in Texas can get court-appointed attorneys much sooner than in the past under a June 23 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. The court ruled that a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches at his first appearance before a magistrate, whether or not the prosecutor is also on hand.

By Tony Mauro and Mary Alice Robbins

7 minute read

November 02, 2009 | Law.com

A high-level gathering at the Supreme Court last week paid tribute to Giovanni Falcone, an iconic Italian judge who was assassinated in 1992 as he waged legal war against the Mafia. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito Jr., and federal law enforcement officials spoke at the event. Falcone is remembered for developing the "follow the money" strategy that helped expose Mafia operations.

By Tony Mauro

1 minute read