I'm Baaa-aack! And so is SCOTUS

It's been a wild ride with the new job. I love it. I love every minute of it... It's a dream job for someone with ADD. I can bounce from task-to-task and put out fires and when I need distraction from the paper-working, I can usually find some physical labor that needs to be done. It's a good fit for me. And, I do quite a bit of work that relates to immigration, which is an issue near to my heart and my home.

In the near future, I'll have quite a bit to say about VAWA and the U-Visa... And the things that are being done to gut them... Grr.

But, for now, SCOTUS is starting a new term, and I'm anxious to hear what's going to happen. The court is pretty evenly divided, making Justice Kennedy's swing-vote even more critical. I can't say I was overly impressed with either Roberts or Alito and their contributions to last term's decisions. Not that I expected to be. I just hope that Bush doesn't have the opportunity to appoint another justice.

On the upcoming docket are three death-penalty cases (well, two so far, and one predicted...)
as well as a case restricting gun-rights, sentencing disparities in crack versus cocaine cases, child-pornography and the say of federal courts on how military courts try individuals overseas on charges of terrorism.

So, with a passel of high-value cases coming up, an evenly split court and Justice Kennedy providing the swing-vote, this term should be an interesting one...

Oral arguments start tomorrow with Washington State Grange v. Washington State Republican Party and Washington v. Washington State Republican Party (consolidated) and New York City Board of Education v. Tom F. (NOTE: Yeah, I was late getting a post up yesterday with the links to the transcripts of the oral arguments for the first day. What can I say? Customs and Border Enforcement thought I was interesting enough to question yesterday when I was crossing back from Mexico...Apparently the best way to avoid claims of racial profiling is to question the *least* likely people. Middle-aged Semitic women crossing on foot wearing the ID badge of a humanitarian group and carrying nothing but a 3-ring-binder apparently fit the bill...)

Tuesday will kick off with Gall v. United States, which considers sentencing guidelines and what constitutes abuse of discretion, and Kimbrough v. United States, which considers the disparity in sentencing for offenses involving crack cocaine and those involving powder cocaine.

Stay tuned!