First Monday

Ah, it's that time of the year again. The days are growing shorter, the air has that crisp chill of fall . . . and the Supreme Court is back in action. I won't go so far as to start singing "It's the most wonderful time of the year . . ." - I'll leave that for the end of the term when all the big opinions come down - but it's still pretty exciting. If you're a law geek like me, I mean.

Along those lines, the New York Times had a good overview of what's coming up yesterday. One of the interesting big ticket cases involves the FCC and so-called "fleeting expletives," although the Court may dodge the constitutional issue and send it back to the Second Circuit for a do over. Another interesting civil case:

considers whether adherents of a faith called Summum may place a monument to the 'Seven Aphorisms' of their faith in a Utah park that already contains a monument devoted to the Ten Commandments.

As for criminal cases, there are several interesting cases, but none likely to draw a lot of public attention. Two cases from Arizona address issues of police searches of people in/around/near cars, while another pair continue to examine the fallout from the blockbuster Blakely and Crawford decisions from a few years back.

West Virginia court watchers may take a particular interest in US v. Hayes, a case that originated in the Northern District and is being argued by Charleston lawyer Troy Giatras. Troy is in the unusual position of defending a defendant-friendly Fourth Circuit decision on appeal in a situation where (as the dissenting appellate judge put it) "we are not in the minority on this issue, we are the minority." Sometimes the minority gets it right, so let's hope that's the case here. Good luck, Troy!