Can you name all nine Justices of the United States Supreme Court? Take a moment and test yourself before you read on. How did you do? If you were able to name even one Justice, you are better informed about the Court than most Americans. According to a recent survey, two-thirds of us came up completely blank. Curious about which Justices are best known? About 20% of those surveyed were able to identify the Chief Justice, while Justices Scalia and Thomas were each named by 16% of participants. Only 3% named Justice Breyer – I struggled with him for a moment myself – while just 4% knew Justice Kagan. In other news: I wrote here about United States v. Simmons, a Fourth Circuit case holding that certain North Carolina felonies do not meet the federal definition of a felony because, for some defendants, they are not punishable by more than one year in prison. I noted that there were a number of federal inmates who had been convicted of, for example, possession of a firearm by a felon, based on a previous North Carolina felony that no longer counts as a felony post-Simmons. Many of these inmates have no clear procedural avenue for relief, as the time for direct appeal and collateral review have both expired. But according to this story, the government is no longer opposing relief for at least some of the inmates in question. A spokesperson stated that “the Department of Justice has decided to take a litigating [...]
Faculty Coordinators
