Chief Justice

On summer nights in the mid-1960s, while black-and-white television crackled elsewhere in his Staten Island home with news of Southern violence and Vietnam, Bobby Lasnik would stretch out in his bedroom to let the righteous soundtrack of the civil rights movement waft into his impressionable teenage soul. Tuned in to WBAI-FM, coming across the water from Manhattan, he heard baleful laments about injustice that he would carry with him for a lifetime. "Suddenly there was someone speaking a certain kind of truth to you. You'd say, 'Wow!

A federal appeals court in Washington has upheld a key part of the Voting Rights Act, one that requires states and localities with a history of discrimination against minorities to "pre-clear" changes in their election procedures with the Department of Justice or a federal court. The reasoning behind the 2-1 ruling is persuasive; Chief JusticeJohn G. Roberts Jr.and other members of the Supreme Court should exercise judicial restraint by refusing to reconsider it. In an earlier, 2009 decision, the chief justice recognized that Congress has the power to enforce the 15th Amendment's guarantee of a right to vote.

The Supreme Court has nine justices, but if the constitutional fight over same-sex marriage reaches them this year, the decision will probably come down to just one: a California Republican and Reagan-era conservative who has nonetheless written the court's two leading gay rights opinions. JusticeAnthony M. Kennedy, 75, often holds the court's deciding vote on the major issues that divide its liberals and conservatives. More often than not, that vote has swung the court to the right.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Supreme Court justices strongly suggested they would uphold a provision in Arizona's tough immigration law that tells police to check whether people they stop for some other reason are in this country legally. But several justices also suggested they were troubled by parts of the law that would make it a state crime for illegal immigrants to seek work or not to carry immigration documents. The hourlong oral arguments Wednesday pointed toward a possible split decision: a partial victory for Arizona that would revive its first-in-the-nation state crackdown on illegal immigrants but weaken the impact of its law. The Obama administration won lower court rulings that blocked Arizona's law on the grounds that it conflicted with the federal government's control over immigration.

Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, nominated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to become California's next chief justice, received the highest rating possible Monday from a state bar evaluations committee. The Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation rated Cantil-Sakauye, 50, a Republican, as "exceptionally well qualified" and declared that she has a "brilliant mind" and shows "exceptional objectivity. " "She is an extraordinarily hard worker," the panel said. "She takes her duties very seriously, but also brings a sense of joyful enthusiasm to the performance of them.

Walking side by side down a flag-lined hall to the soaring Capitol rotunda, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tani Cantil-Sakauye made their inaugural public appearance together Thursday, as she said she was "deeply honored" to be his choice as California's next chief justice. "I am humbled by the experience, I am grateful for the opportunity and I am mindful of the public trust," Cantil-Sakauye said. If approved by a confirmation panel and in November by voters, Cantil-Sakauye, 50, would be California's first Asian American chief justice and would give women a majority on the state's high court for the first time.

Tani Cantil-Sakauye, the first nonwhite nominee for California chief justice, has performed a same-sex wedding, points to Sandra Day O'Connor as a source of inspiration and said she wanted to be a public defender before she became a prosecutor.  In her first interview since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger nominated her to head the state's judiciary and the California Supreme Court, the Sacramento appellate court justice confided that she goes to bed at night worried into a "tizzy" about the myriad issues she will face but awakes each morning optimistic.

California's newly nominated candidate for chief justice has issued rulings over a 20-year career on the bench that reflect a no-nonsense jurist who applies the law with an even hand and a narrow focus. Though little known outside state judicial circles before her nomination Wednesday, Tani Cantil-Sakauye has issued rulings on important questions of constitutional rights and environmental protection, defining new limits and responsibilities while seldom stirring controversy or claims of bias.

I read with surprise Chauncey Alexander's letter (March 2) about my remarks in Huntington Beach two weeks ago. He suggests my topic, Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird, was inappropriate. I was asked to talk about law enforcement issues, and if he does not think the election of the chief justice is a law enforcement issue, we are certainly reading different newspapers. There is an unfortunate tendency evident among Rose Bird's defenders: name calling. So far, her supporters have called her opponents John Birchers, McCarthyites, right-wingers and a number of other inflammatory names.

MAYBE IF THERE HAD BEEN NO KATRINA, and if the Iraqi occupation were proceeding as Pentagon optimists had once envisioned -- with the few thousand remaining U.S. troops in the country lolling about in the dozens of Starbucks cafes popping up across Mesopotamia by now -- President Bush would have tried elevating Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas to serve as the chief justice of the United States. But under present conditions, Bush doesn't need any more trouble than he already has.

The Supreme Court has nine justices, but if the constitutional fight over same-sex marriage reaches them this year, the decision will probably come down to just one: a California Republican and Reagan-era conservative who has nonetheless written the court's two leading gay rights opinions. JusticeAnthony M. Kennedy, 75, often holds the court's deciding vote on the major issues that divide its liberals and conservatives. More often than not, that vote has swung the court to the right.

Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, who heads the state's judicial branch and its highest court, said in an interview that the death penalty is no longer effective in California and suggested she would welcome a public debate on its merits and costs. During an interview in her chambers, as she prepared to close up shop for the holidays, the Republican appointee and former prosecutor made her first public statements about capital punishment a year after she took the helm of the state's judiciary and at a time when petitions are being gathered for an initiative to abolish the death penalty.

Five Chiefs A Supreme Court Memoir John Paul Stevens Little Brown: 292 pp., $24.99 There is something about the dignity of the Supreme Court that apparently causes its justices to adjust its realities in their writings. Chief Justice Earl Warren, the first chief to write an autobiography (though he died before finishing it), insisted that there had never been any disagreement among his colleagues over Brown vs. Board of Education; that was quaint but false. Justice Stephen Breyer's most recent book held that the brethren "maintain good relations with one another" no matter how deep their differences; that too is a bit hard to believe.

Justice John Paul Stevens spent 35 years on the Supreme Court writing legal opinions. So it's not surprising his first book, "Five Chiefs," is chock-full of opinions — about where his fellow justices went wrong. For example, Stevens, 91 and retired, describes Bush vs. Gore — the decision that resolved the contentious 2000 presidential election — as the result of a "frivolous" appeal that shouldn't have been granted. That was a "low point" in his tenure on the court, he said in a recent interview.

South African President Jacob Zuma on Thursday brushed aside criticism from gay rights and women's groups and appointed a conservative Christian to head the high court, a move that will affect the country's judicial system for at least a decade. Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, who told a judicial panel last weekend that he believes God chose him to head the Constitutional Court, is a member of the Winners Chapel, which believes homosexuality is a disease that is "curable. " He has been widely criticized for several legal decisions that threw out jail sentences of men convicted of marital rape or assaulting their girlfriends and reduced the sentences of men convicted of raping children.

Reporting from Sacramento -- The top administrator for California's courts announced Tuesday that he would step down, a month after two state lawmakers urged that he be fired for his handling of a computer modernization project that has skyrocketed in cost from $260 million to $1.9 billion. William C. Vickrey said he would retire as administrative director of state courts effective Sept. 9. The announcement came a few months after the project manager on the troubled computer program was replaced.

Maine's chief justice said unexpectedly that he is resigning immediately to run for governor next year. Chief Justice Daniel Wathen, 61, would not provide details before a scheduled news conference today in Augusta but in a resignation letter to Gov. Angus King said the decision came after careful deliberation. Wathen, a registered Republican, left unclear which party, if any, he would align with in his run for governor. He has also served under Democratic and Republican governors.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist made a pitch today for more U.S. stamps depicting past Supreme Court members as he helped dedicate a stamp commemorating the court's 200th anniversary. The new stamp depicts John Marshall, the fourth chief justice, whose likeness has appeared on postage stamps three times previously.