Tony Mauro

March 12, 2009 | The Legal Intelligencer

Robert Bork once said serving on the Supreme Court would be "an intellectual feast." On Monday night, by contrast, Justice David Souter said he undergoes a "sort of annual intellectual lobotomy" when the Supreme Court term begins in October, a condition that he said lasts until the end of the term the following summer.

By Tony Mauro

4 minute read

May 12, 2005 | National Law Journal

As a law student, Sarah Shullman observed 10 Supreme Court arguments and tallied the number and tenor of justices' questions. In a new study, she reports her system to be a surprisingly simple and accurate way of predicting high court outcomes. In all the cases, the justices in aggregate asked more questions, and more hostile questions, of the party that ultimately lost. Though Shullman's sample was small, her methodology has already been tested since the study -- and found accurate in 86 percent of cases.

By Tony Mauro

7 minute read

April 17, 2006 | National Law Journal

Any self-respecting lawyer has probably said it, or at least thought it: "No one can represent my client better than I can." On Tuesday the Supreme Court takes up a case that could enshrine that conceit in constitutional law, considering whether and to what extent a paying defendant has an enforceable Sixth Amendment right to the lawyer of his or her choice. The briefs on the defendant's side praise the special quality of individual lawyers -- insisting they are not fungible like eggs or oranges.

By Tony Mauro

9 minute read

May 11, 2005 | Law.com

The narrative of death row inmate William Kelley's Supreme Court appeal, which reads like a crime thriller, complete with love triangles and alleged misconduct by prosecutors and defense lawyers, isn't the only thing apt to catch justices' attention at their conference Thursday. Among the lawyers arrayed on Kelley's side are two political opposites: former Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe, in his first capital case before the high court.

By Tony Mauro

9 minute read

March 03, 2004 | Law.com

In cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, solicitors general almost always defend all acts of Congress that they can. But on Monday, no one from the SG's office spoke up for a code at the core of a closely watched case involving a woman's attempt to discharge her student loan debt with a filing in Tennessee. The state responded that, based on its sovereign immunity, it could not be sued in Bankruptcy Court.

By Tony Mauro

2 minute read

May 16, 2007 | National Law Journal

A long tradition of father-daughter pairings among Supreme Court law clerks is about to be carried on by a Northwestern University law school graduate. Jessica Phillips, daughter of veteran Supreme Court advocate and onetime Warren Burger clerk Carter Phillips, begins this summer as a law clerk to Justice Samuel Alito Jr. Alito said through a Court spokeswoman that Jessica Phillips will have no involvement in cases in which her father's firm, Sidley Austin, participates.

By Tony Mauro

4 minute read

January 18, 2002 | New Jersey Law Journal

After giving its blessing to arbitration in a series of cases in recent years, the Supreme Court on Tuesday slowed that momentum by ruling that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission can step into disputes covered by arbitration agreements.

By Tony Mauro

5 minute read

November 16, 2009 | Corporate Counsel

The Supreme Court handed a big pre-emption defeat to business when it ruled 6-3 in Wyeth v. Levine that state litigation over drug labeling is not pre-empted by federal law.

By Tony Mauro

3 minute read

June 03, 2008 | National Law Journal

Before the Supreme Court bid the traditional farewell to departing Solicitor General Paul Clement on Monday, the justices announced three opinions -- all of them losses for Clement as the government's top advocate before the Court. And two of those were pro-defendant decisions that will make money-laundering prosecutions more difficult -- proving, if any proof was needed, that a conservative Supreme Court does not always favor the government in criminal cases.

By Tony Mauro

4 minute read

March 26, 2003 | New York Law Journal

By Tony Mauro

5 minute read