Litigation

Wednesday Gavel Grab Briefs

By Peter Hardin

In these other dispatches about fair and impartial courts:

• The Michigan Supreme Court today picked Justice Robert Young Jr. (photo at right) as its chief justice, according to an Associated Press report. He is conservative, African American, and a nominee of the Republican Party who was re-elected in a tumultuous election last year (see Gavel Grab).

• A federal appeals court weighing a challenge to California’s ban on same-sex marriages has asked the California Supreme Court to take on a key legal question, of whether the ban’s backers have legal standing to defend it on appeal, the Washington Post reported.

• U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s assertion in an interview that the 14th Amendment doesn?t protect against gender or sexual orientation discrimination is stirring controversy. Women’s rights activists are “seething,” according to a Washington Post article, and a New York Times editorial blasted his “outlandish” view.

Full post as published by The Gavel on January 05, 2011 (boomark / email).