Tony Mauro

March 18, 2008 | National Law Journal

At the Supreme Court on Monday, an unusually large number of veteran advocates could be seen watching oral arguments. But they were not there just to listen to the unusual discussion of how to compensate individuals for the thieving ways of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, at issue in the first argument. Many were there to mark a milestone for Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler. He was arguing in the 100th case of his career in the SG's office, more than any lawyer currently in practice.

By Tony Mauro

2 minute read

November 28, 2005 | Law.com

Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's recent speech to the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers was the talk of the meeting: a rip-snorting defense of judicial independence that criticized -- without naming names -- individual members of Congress and even the late president Franklin Delano Roosevelt. "We have the power to make the President or Congress really, really angry," O'Connor told the lawyers. "In fact, if we do not make them mad some of the time, we probably aren't doing our jobs."

By Tony Mauro

3 minute read

July 14, 2010 | National Law Journal

A memorandum from the late Justice Thurgood Marshall indicates how important the Supreme Court's private conferences are — and how angry a justice can get when one takes place without him.

By Tony Mauro

4 minute read

July 27, 2009 | Law.com

Ever since the Supreme Court ordered new arguments in a key campaign finance case, some lawyers and ethics experts have questioned whether former Solicitor General Theodore Olson, now with Gibson Dunn, should stay in the case. The Court said it wanted to consider a new question: whether part of the landmark 2003 ruling in McConnell v. Federal Election Commission should be overruled. As SG, Olson argued on behalf of the government in McConnell, so he would effectively be switching sides in the current case.

By Tony Mauro

3 minute read

April 18, 2005 | Law.com

The late Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun ceded so much authority to his law clerks that it amounted to "a scandalous abdication of judicial responsibility," historian David Garrow asserts in an article out today. Using his research on Blackmun's papers, Garrow recounts cases in which clerks' memoranda show what he describes as an assertive tone and partisan rhetoric. At least one former clerk says that, after the more liberal justices left, Blackmun "wanted us to turn up the rhetorical heat a notch."

By Tony Mauro

7 minute read

May 24, 2005 | The Recorder

The beef industry's marketing program and its slogan "Beef: It's What's for Dinner" withstood a First Amendment challenge Monday, with the Supreme Court ruling that it amounts to government speech that the government can control.

By Tony Mauro

4 minute read

August 15, 2007 | The Legal Intelligencer

In an emotional address to the American Bar Association, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy on Monday implored the nation's lawyers to constantly re-examine their conduct to be sure they exemplify principles of justice and fairness and advocate for the rule of law around the world.

By Tony Mauro

3 minute read

January 18, 2010 | National Law Journal

The U.S. Supreme Court returned to the bench with gusto last week, tackling issues ranging from the antitrust status of the National Football League and the power of the federal government to detain sexual predators, to the confrontation clause rights of defendants. The Court was also drawn into a major controversy over plans to broadcast the San Francisco trial on California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage.

By Tony Mauro and Marcia Coyle

4 minute read

January 16, 2008 | New York Law Journal

By Tony Mauro

7 minute read

November 11, 2008 | National Law Journal

Conventional wisdom, accelerated by Barack Obama's Nov. 4 victory, has Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Paul Stevens and David Souter, all on the moderate-liberal wing of the Court, heading for the exits during Obama's first term. As the theory goes, all three justices would be happier being replaced under a Democrat. But justices don't always follow political timetables for their departures. And Ginsburg, for one, has put the word out in no uncertain terms that she isn't looking to leave.

By Tony Mauro

5 minute read