Preview of the 2008-09 U.S. Supreme Court Term

On October 6, when the U.S. Supreme Court‘s 2008-2009 term began, the Brookings Judicial Issues Forum hosted a panel discussion with leading legal scholars and practitioners who offered their insights on the upcoming Court term and discussed some of the biggest cases on the docket. Issues included the constitutionality of a key provision of the Voting Rights Act; the FCC’s ban on broadcasting “dirty words”; and an unusual petition to reconsider the June 25 ruling that the rape of a child cannot by punished by death, in which the justices made a glaring factual error.

Stuart Taylor, Jr., Brookings nonresident senior fellow, moderated the discussion with Thomas Hungar, former deputy solicitor general of the United States, and Alan Morrison, founder of Public Citizen Litigation Group and visiting professor, American University’s Washington College of Law.

The Judicial Issues Forum is a series of public discussions at Brookings on jurisprudence and the role of the courts. The Forum regularly hosts events that address the major legal and juridical debates and events of the day and weigh their potentially far-reaching implications.