Times previews Court term

Linda Greenhouse of The New York Times previews the upcoming Supreme Court term in this story. I thought perhaps President Bush would announce his next nominee today, but so far it hasn't happened. Thus, as Greenhouse mentions, the Court is in a transition period in which Justice O'Connor will sit for oral arguments and decide cases until her successor is named. But the possibility looms of some 4-4 Court splits if Justice O'Connor's successor is confirmed by the Senate in the middle of the term.

Miller freed

New York Times reporter Judith Miller left jail this morning after securing a waiver from her confidential source -- Lewis Libby. As detailed in this Times story, Libby tried to communicate the waiver about a year ago but Miller did not accept it until now, when she says it was given to her personally and unequivocally. Perhaps she should have clarified that before and she could have avoided spending 12 weeks in jail. My question is this: Did the Times pay her salary all that time she sat in the slammer? After all, she got jailed on company business.

Speaking of the Times, I am reading a fascinating book about the newspaper by Seth Mnookin. It's called Hard News, and it details the rocky tenure of Howell Raines as executive editor. (Maybe Miller can write a book called Hard Time.)

Late Night Listenings

Before I go to sleep, I often lay in bed and listen to music; whether it's flipping through some radio stations or a CD. As a single college student that can sometimes end up being later that it should be. Last night as I was flipping through the stations I passed by KSL's new simulcast FM station at 102.7 FM. It's in the middle of some of the stations I like to listen to music on and it's easy for me to get a little sucked in.

Last night I heard them mention that Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war demonstrator, had be arrested. The radio host said that he wished she could be left in prison for a long time. My first thought when I heard she was in prison was that even though I don't agree with the things she said this could bring up some major First Amendment issues with further name calling on both sides of the argument. I didn't hear why she had be arrested, so I decided to look up the story today and saw that she was arrested with about 50 other protesters who are going to be charged with the misdemeanor charge of demonstrating without a permit. The protestors knew they'd be arrested when they sat down rather than continuing to move and the police warned them as much 3 times before they were taken in.

I guess the thing that interests me the most about it was that she was smiling as she was arrested and others sang/chanted "The whole world is watching." As an advertising major, which does have close ties with public relations, I'm not surprised by what they did or why they did it. It's all about getting more attention.

The situation in Iraq is one of great debate. People like Cindy Sheehan yell that people's children are being killed without a real cause. Others respond that those "children" are adults and have chosen to enter the military and are there to fight for those who can't do it themselves. It's the right of both sides, granted by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, to each have their expression. I claim my right to dislike the contentious way that it's being expressed.

ABA Forum presentation

If anyone is going to be in or near La Quinta, California, on January 12, 2006, please stop by the ABA Forum on Communications Law annual meeting to hear yours truly and two other media law teachers talk about Hosty v. Carter.

Judge Lindberg on Judge Roberts

Earlier today Judge Denise Posse-Blanco Lindberg of Utah's Third District Court testified in favor of the confirmation of John G. Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States. She said she enjoyed working with him at Hogan & Hartson. She called him "John" throughout her testimony, while some other witnesses -- even former colleagues -- referred to him as "Judge Roberts." In any case, she said that "John" would "bring consensus to a divided court." Reminds me of candidate Bush saying he would be a uniter, not a divider. I'm not sure I would characterize the Supreme Court as divided, except on certain issues that arise in certain cases. But that's a case-by-case division, not by and large a political one.

After Judge Lindberg's testimony, Senator Orrin Hatch bragged about her background and credentials (she has two master's degrees, a Ph.D. and a law degree from BYU) that I thought she -- not Judge Roberts -- was up for consideration to be on the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Hatch provided a transcript of his softball questioning of Roberts.

First Amendment and Judge Roberts

Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts was confronted with a line of questioning today by Ohio Senator Mike DeWine about First Amendment speech issues. DeWine said, correctly in my view, that our society is seeing a shrinking of the "public square." He talked about how we live in gated communities (some of the other half does, at least), drive to strip malls and, basically, live our lives on private property. We don't hang out in the town plaza engaging in First Amendment activities. Senator DeWine also complained about local governments prohibiting people from putting signs on their own lawns. Many of those regulations, DeWine said, have been held constitutional as content-neutral time, place and manner regulations.

Judge Roberts agreed and said technology has something to do with the shrinking public square, but Judge Roberts did not indicate whether he, as a Supreme Court justice, would take that into consideration in deciding First Amendment cases.

Judge Roberts did, however, refer to United States v. Kokinda, 497 U.S. 720 (1990), which he argued before the Court when he worked for the federal government. Judge Roberts said he recalled that much of public forum doctrine at that time was confusing and unsettled, and, he said, it remains so even today.

More Rehnquist, Part II

In my previous post about Chief Justice Rehnquist, I noted that I had been interviewed about his legacy but that the story was not yet available online. Well, now it is. Unfortunately, the writer misspelled Rehnquist throughout much of the story and an editor failed to catch the error.

Tolerance

For a powerful and hilarious film about tolerance, check out the three-minute clip called "Tolerance" available here. A news story about the making of the short silent film, which was accomplished in 24 hours, is here.

BYU No. 1!

We all know BYU has been voted the most stone-cold sober school in the country for a million years now (2004, 2003, 2002), but now BYU also has been named the fittest school in the country by Men's Health magazine. Pardon me for cutting this short, but I have to go work out.

More Rehnquist

Today's Deseret Morning News contains an article headlined "2 Utahns who clerked for Rehnquist mourn him." I don't know University of Utah President Michael Young, but I do know the other source quoted in this story, Steve Sargent, and I must say he is one of the best attorneys, nicest guys and most highly accomplished Renaissance men around. Nice story.

The Chief

Thanks to a loyal reader who pointed out my lack of commentary on the death of Chief Justice Rehnquist, I am getting back on track today. Yesterday I was interviewed at length by a college newspaper reporter about Justice Rehnquist's legacy. After a 20-minute interview, my insights were reduced to this statement (I enter it here because the Daily Universe content for today is, strangely, not yet available online):

"He did incredibly well when he presided over the impeachment trial of President Clinton," said Ed Carter, a communications professor at BYU. "He was a voice for calm and resolve and kept a cool head."

My other observations about the Chief's passing are these: first, we have to remember that he was the Chief Justice of the United States, not just the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. So he had administrative responsibilities over the entire federal judiciary. He was leading efforts to make inroads on issues of pay for judges as well as judicial workloads. Also, the Chief had responsibilities to keep the work of the Supreme Court moving along, and Justice Rehnquist did that very efficiently. He was known for sometimes cutting off other Justices during conferences, and running the Court that efficiently is not easy to do. Certainly, it is easy to speculate that 50-year-old John Roberts might have a hard time ordering octagenarians like Justice John Paul Stevens to shut up.

Beyond that, it was interesting to see how quickly President Bush acted to renominate Roberts as Chief. I think it was a wise political move because Roberts should be easier to get confirmed in the Senate that Justice Scalia or Justice Thomas would have been. My guess is the President will wait until after Roberts is confirmed (and, likely, after the Supreme Court term begins in October) to nominate someone to replace Justice O'Connor.

Nice Trib story on journalism

I don't say this just because I am quoted, but I thought today's story in The Salt Lake Tribune on a new online publication was excellent. The story, by Mark Eddington, is not only written well but also reflective of and proportional to the news in question. Among other things, Eddington wrote:

While he is not familiar with Monitor organizers' plans, BYU journalism professor Ed Carter says alternative publications meet needs not met by traditional news sources. "Blogs and the rise of the Internet as alternative mass-communications mediums serve a positive function in the democratic marketplace of ideas by maximizing the number of voices," Carter said. "Generally speaking, more speech is a good thing."