The top of the news today is that the Attorney General has removed and reassigned SBI director Robin Pendergraft and has at least temporarily stopped the work of "bloodstain pattern analysts" pending further review. The News and Observer has much more detail here. But even before this significant development, the week had been full of news: 1. The New York Times, looking back at the past five Supreme Court Terms, claims that the Roberts Court is "the most conservative one in living memory, based on an analysis of four sets of political science data." The full article, available here, notes that the shift is "modest," and not uniform. It contains several interesting comments from retired Justices Stevens and O'Connor, and argues that the key change was not the confirmation of Chief Justice Roberts, but the replacement of Justice O'Connor with Justice Alito. Well worth a read. 2. The Times also ran this article, highlighting the difficult task of prosecuting drivers who are impaired by prescription medications. The key problem, according to the Times, is that "there is no agreement on what level of drugs in the blood impairs driving." I'd be interested in folks' thoughts about how significant a difficulty that is. 3. Congress recently passed legislation that will narrow, but not eliminate, the disparate treatment of crack and powder cocaine under federal law. Sentencing Law and Policy is on top of this story -- see posts here and here. 4. It appears that one of the United States Attorneys who will [...]
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