Justice Stevens says he only regrets vote to uphold death penalty

Capital Punishment: The One Vote Justice Stevens Would Have Changed
Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images Justice Stevens says that his vote to uphold Capital Punishment in 1976, which overthrew a four-year "de facto Moratorium" on the death penalty, was "the one vote I would change" in his 35-year tenure. "I thought at the time ... that if the universe of defendants eligible for the death penalty is sufficiently narrow so that you can be confident that the defendant really merits that severe Punishment, that the death penalty was appropriate," he says. But as...

After Supreme Court, Stevens looks back -- and forward
WASHINGTON — As the Supreme Court opens its annual term today, one of its longest-serving members will be absent from the bench for the first time in nearly 35 years. Justice John Paul Stevens — the longtime leader of the Court's liberal wing — has retired, and new Justice Elena Kagan takes his place today. Yet Stevens is as willing to challenge the Court's Conservatives in Retirement as he was on the bench, while still showing affection for his former colleagues. PHOTOS:...

Justice Stevens, Capital Punishment, and Path Dependence
that upheld the death penalty as reconstituted by Georgia and other states to require states to narrow the category of execution-worthy defendants using aggravating and mitigating factors.   In the interview with Totenberg, Stevens says that he expected that the sorts of factors upheld in Gregg would mean that only the worst of the worst would be executed, so that a death sentence would not be the sort of random Lightning Strike that Furman condemned.  But, Stevens goes on to...

New Supreme Court term opens with new justice
Related Articles Washington (AP) The Supreme Court is starting its new Term with a new Justice, Elena Kagan, and bad news for hundreds of parties trying to get their cases heard at the nation’s highest Court. The Justices are expected to start work Monday by denying many of the nearly 2,000 appeals that piled up in recent months. The Court also is hearing argument in a Bankruptcy dispute and an appeal by criminal defendants seeking shorter Prison Terms. During the new Term, the Court...

Kagan jumps into Supreme Court work
Washington Justice Elena Kagan threw herself into her new job Monday with an aggressive performance during the Supreme Court's inaugural oral argument of the 2010 term. During the first hour of her judicial debut, Kagan asked more questions than Justice Clarence Thomas did all of last year. If first impressions hold true, Kagan, a former Harvard Law School dean, will be one of the Court's most active and engaged members. "Let's stay with this," Kagan told one attorney before she launched...

New Supreme Court term opens with new justice
Washington — The Supreme Court is starting its new Term with a new Justice, Elena Kagan, and bad news for hundreds of parties trying to get their cases heard at the nation's highest Court. The Justices are expected to start work Monday by denying many of the nearly 2,000 appeals that piled up in recent months. The Court also is hearing argument in a Bankruptcy dispute and an appeal by criminal defendants seeking shorter Prison Terms. During the new Term, the Court will look at...

The Evil Magick of Chief Justice John Roberts
Writing at Slate , legal commentator Dahlia Lithwick and New York University Law Professor Barry Friedman argue that under the stewardship of its boyish Chief Justice, John Roberts, the [Supreme Court] has taken the Law for a sharp turn to the ideological right, while at the same time masterfully concealing it. Their article is titled Watch as We Make This Law Disappear , and Lithwick and Friedman milk the image of Chief Justice Roberts as a master illusionist for all its worth...

Kagan Asks Questions at First High Court Argument
Monday, October 04, 2010 By Staff, Associated Press Washington (AP) - This time Elena Kagan got to ask the questions. With her Confirmation Hearings for the Supreme Court now a part of history, the Court's newest Justice - and third woman - took a direct role for the first time in a case before the Court. Less than 20 minutes into the Court's new term Monday, Kagan asked her first questions during a Supreme Court argument. In this case, the issue centered on a debtor's plan to get out of...

Biden, 5 Supreme Court justices attend controversial 'Red Mass'
CNN's Lauren Pratapas and Bill Mears filed this report from Washington: Vice President Joe Biden joined five Supreme Court Justices to attend Sunday's annual Red Mass, the Roman Catholic service for the Courts that has drawn criticism in recent years. Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, Stephen Breyer and Clarence Thomas attended the service, held at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, on the eve of the Court's new...

Red Mass Mandate: Archbishop Advises High Court Justices About Religion And Government
The fact that the mass goes on almost every year just as the High Court is coming back in session is no coincidence. Yesterday morning, I attended the Red Mass here in Washington along with five Supreme Court Justices and Vice President Joe Biden. Okay, we werent in the same pew they were in the front rows; I wasnt. But all of us heard Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia, an American who now works at the Vatican, give a homily that instructed those in attendance on how they should feel...

Red Mass: Red Mass attended by Biden and Supreme Court Justices
Washington (CNN) -- Vice President Joe Biden joined five Supreme Court Justices to attend Sunday's annual Red Mass, the Roman Catholic service for the Courts that has drawn criticism in recent years. Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, Stephen Breyer and Clarence Thomas attended the service, held at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, on the eve of the Court's new term. The Mass was started in 1952 by the John Carroll Society, a...

Justice Stevens: An Open Mind On A Changed Court
The U.S. Supreme Court opens its new term Monday, with new Justice Elena Kagan sitting in the junior justice's seat at the far end of the bench. For the First time in its history, a third of the nine-member Court is female, and all of its justices are either Catholic or Jewish — no Protestants. Also, for the First time in 35 years, Justice John Paul Stevens is not there. The 90-year-old justice retired in June; this summer, he sat for an interview in his chambers. During a lengthy and...

Elena Kagan begins work as Supreme Court justice
Reporting from Washington — As dramatic as the conflict over Elena Kagan 's nomination to the Supreme Court was this summer, her first day on the bench was mundane. The newly minted Justice Kagan joined her eight colleagues to hear the first oral argument of the term Monday, a case involving the Rights of a debtor under Bankruptcy Law. The Pedestrian issue was a Far cry from the questions of constitutional interpretation that marked her rancorous Confirmation Hearing. Before a packed...

"Leahy's Supreme Tie-Breakers"
What could possibly go wrong ? The Supreme Court begins its new term this morning, amid front-page media lamentations that the Justices have become too partisan under Chief Justice John Roberts. This is best understood as not-very-subtle lobbying of Justice Anthony Kennedy, the most frequent Swing Vote on what has been a largely Centrist Court. But never fear, Pat Leahy has an idea to create a liberal majority anywayat least on some cases. The Senate Judiciary Chairman wants Congress to...

New high court era: Kagan makes 3 women on bench (AP)
Washington – The Supreme Court began a new era Monday with three women serving together for the first time, Elena Kagan taking her place at the end of the bench and quickly joining in the give-and-take. In a scene that will repeat itself over the next few months, Kagan left the courtroom while the other Justices remained to hear a case in which she will take no part. She has taken herself out of 24 pending cases, including the second of the two argued Monday, because of her work as the...

VP Biden and 5 Supremes Attend 'Red Mass'
Cue the lefty outrage in 5 … 4 … 3 … ( LA Times ) — Vice President Joe Biden joined five Supreme Court Justices to attend Sunday’s annual Red Mass, the Roman Catholic service for the Courts that has drawn criticism in recent years. Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, Stephen Breyer and Clarence Thomas attended the service, held at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, on the eve of the Court’s...

What Can We Glean From Justice Kagan's First Day on the Bench?
By Ashby Jones Associated Press The Supreme Court’s newest Justice Elena Kagan stands for photographs after her formal investiture ceremony at the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, Oct. 1, 2010. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) The reviews are in on Justice Elena Kagan’s first day on the Supreme Court. While the sample size (one case) is ridiculously small, the reviews were good. Let’s make that very good. As Jess Bravin’s LB Post from Monday pointed out, Kagan didn’t...

Chief Justice Roberts - The Illusionist?
Trick 1: Stacking the Deck The Roberts Court has proven itself adept, brilliant even, at stacking the deck that is its annual docket. It does so by picking cases with facts so extreme that only one outcome seems possible. Then it uses those same reasonable-seeming decisions to push the law in conservative directions. The Supreme Court grants cert based on the so-called “Rule of 4.” It takes the votes of any 4 Justices to hear a case. The 4 liberal Justices can vote to grant cert on...

Illinois death penalty gains traction as Bill Brady surges, voters approve
(Chicago, IL) October 4, 2010 . With a growing likelihood that Illinois GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Bill Brady , a death penalty proponent who favors lifting the existing Moratorium, will win the November General Election over rival Governor Pat Quinn and that a recent poll shows that a majority of Illinois voters favor of maintaining Capital Punishment, the issue has been thrust into the electoral scrum. Jeremy Schroeder , Executive Director of the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the...

54% in Illinois Say No To Abolishing Death Penalty
Most Illinois Voters (54%) are against abolishing the death penalty in their state, according to a new Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters. One-in-three Illinois Voters (32%) is in favor of abolishing the death penalty, however. Another 15% are Undecided. On the national level, 62% of Americans favor the death penalty , while 26% are opposed to it. In 2000, then-Governor George Ryan issued a Moratorium on executions in Illinois to prevent the possibility of innocent...

High-court divide has a new dynamic
Sunday, October 3, 2010 The Supreme Court begins its new term Monday with unprecedented diversity among its members but also the potential for a split that would for the first time in decades reflect the partisan ideologies of the presidents who appointed them. The defining story of the new term may be twofold: the rapid evolution of the Court headed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. - the first of four new Justices in the past five years - and what the change in Justices means for the...

On first day, Kagan fills chamber with queries, comments
Washington — Justice Elena Kagan threw herself into her new job Monday with an aggressive performance during the Supreme Court's inaugural oral argument of the 2010 term. During the first hour of her judicial debut, Kagan asked infinitely more questions than Justice Clarence Thomas did during all of last year. If first impressions hold true, the former Harvard Law School dean will be one of the Court's most active and engaged members. "Let's stay with this," Kagan...

Kagan won't help Supreme Court decide many of this term's cases
Washington — The newest Supreme Court Justice will be missing in Action during much of the Court's historic term that starts Monday, Oct. 4. From Video violence to Immigration enforcement, the Court's 2010-2011 term will confront some of the nation's toughest controversies. For Justice Elena Kagan, however, the nine-month session will be a start-and-stop affair. For everyone else, this could prove consequential. Because of her work as the Obama Administration's former...

Supreme Court term has free-speech and immigration cases
Washington (Reuters) - The Supreme Court will consider important cases on Anti-gay Protests at Military Funerals, violent Video Games and Immigration Law during its new term that begins on Monday. The nine-member High Court will open its 2010-11 term with a new member on the bench, Justice Elena Kagan, who was appointed by President Barack Obama. Kagan succeeded Justice John Paul Stevens, who retired in June. She probably will not change the Court's balance of power, which is widely seen as...

Supreme Court Starts New Term With Key First Amendment Cases on the Docket
Monday, October 04, 2010 By Staff, Associated Press Elena Kagan is applauded during a ceremony with President Barack Obama to mark her confirmation to become the next Supreme Court Justice, in the East Room of the White House on Aug. 6, 2010. (AP File Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Washington (AP) - The Supreme Court is starting its new Term with a new Justice, Elena Kagan, and bad news for hundreds of parties trying to get their cases heard at the nation's highest Court. The Justices are...