Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Pending cert petitions seeking clarification of Williams

An anonymous reader has pointed out that the second petition for certiorari in Turner v.  United States, No. 13-127, one of the cases that was GVRed (grant, vacate, remand) in light of Williams v. Illinois, came before the Supreme Court's conference on Friday but the Court did not take any action.  (The case was originally distributed for the conference of September 30, but before hen the Court requested a response form the Government, so the case was relisted.)  It may well be that the Court realizes that it needs to do something in light of the confusion created by the fractured decision in Williams, but it has not yet decided which case to take.  There are several others pending.  The Court has already requested a response from the State in Brewington v. North Carolina, No. 13-504, filed in October, and the State's response is not due until February 3.  Derr v. Maryland, No. 13-637, was filed on Nov. 20, Ortiz-Zape v. North Carolina, No. 13-633, on Nov. 21, and Cooper v. Maryland, No. 13-644,  on Nov. 22.  If readers know of other cases, I'd be glad to learn of them.  It looks like something might be brewing.  Comments welcome! (And I am hoping to post more on this blog in the next several months than I have in the last several!)