It should be an interesting news day today if the United States Supreme Court renders all decisions expected:

WASHINGTON — The nine Supreme Court justices will enter through crimson velvet drapes this morning and take their seats at a mahogany bench to announce decisions in some of the most closely watched cases of their annual term.

Twenty-six cases await resolution, including disputes over Guantanamo detainees, Washington, D.C.’s handgun ban and damages arising from the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989.

The ritual today and on select days throughout this month — the last of the session — is long-standing. In June, anticipation in the courtroom is palpable. Rulings will be blared across the Internet, read on the radio and headlined in newspapers.

But the first word of how the court decides a case happens here.

“One sometimes gets a glimmer of emotion from the justices” when they read opinions, says Patricia Millett, a former assistant U.S. solicitor general now in private practice. “The justices’ words, their inflection, their body language and expressions … can have an impact that is lost on the cold page.”

The author of the opinion traditionally details the facts of the case and how the majority ruled. At these moments, the courtroom, already a place of strict decorum and hushed voices, is especially still.

Sometimes a dissenting justice reads portions of an opinion from the bench, rather than let the written dissent speak for itself. That happens when a justice is particularly riled by the majority’s decision. That is more apt to occur in June.

One of the most reliable sites I have visited in the past for an overview of the courts decisions is The Volokh Consipiracy. Links are available at the site to the first of today’s decisions.

Written by Sue

Comments are closed.