Papers in three of the cases mentioned in my post of February 27 – Derr v. Maryland, No. 13-637, Galloway v. Mississippi, No. 13-761, and Edwards v. California, No. 13-8618 – have been
distributed for this Friday’s conference. Derr, incidentally, was Petition of the Day on SCOTUSBlog on Monday – but Medina v. Arizona was previously Petition of the Day, and that got denied. (It’s still four Justices, not designation by SCOTUSBlog, required for a grant.) Two other petitions filed since that post that raise Williams-related issues, Bolus v. Pennsylvania, No. 13-1078, and Marino v. North Carolina, No. 13-1081, are also on for this conference. (In each of these cases, the state waived its right to respond and the Court has not requested a response.)
Two other Williams-related cases, James v. United States, No. 13-632, and Johnson v. California, No. 13-8705, have been distributed for the following conference, on April 25.
All this activity is worthy of attention; something might happen soon. But it does not necessarily mean the Court will soon grant one of the petitions. It doesn’t even necessarily mean that it will soon decide whether to grant one of the petitions. Turner v. United States, No. 13-127, and Ortiz-Zape v. North Carolina, No. 13-633, have been held for months. Yohe v. Pennsylvania, No. 13-885, was distributed for the conference of March 28 and is still being held. And there are other cases in the pipeline. All the papers are now filed in Brewington v. North Carolina, No. 13-504, but it has not been redistributed. And in Cooper v. Maryland, No. 13-644, the Court recently requested a response from the state, due May 9. Also, another petition filed since my post of Feb. 27, in Alger v. California, No. 13-1102, is pending. I invite readers to tell me about other cases presented to the Court raising Williams-related issues.
