I’ve sketched Chief Federal Public Defender A.J. Kramer many times over the years, but always in U.S. District Court where he defended those accused of highly publicized crimes in DC. Today was the first time I’ve seen him argue a case before the Supreme Court. He did a good job, but the cards are stacked against his client.

BTW, the case concerned the statute of limitations on a conspiracy charge and I just have to insert this bit of dialogue from Seinfeld episode #307, The Cafe.

Kramer: Anyway, it’s been two years. I mean isn’t there like statue of limitations on that?

Jerry: Statute.

Kramer: What?

Jerry: Statute of limitations. It’s not a statue.

Kramer: No, statue.

Jerry: Fine, it’s a sculpture of limitations.

Kramer: Just wait a minute…Elaine, Elaine! Now you’re smart, is it statue or statute of limitations?

Elaine: Statute.

Kramer: Oh, I really think you’re wrong.

The case is Smith v. United States

Above the Law‘s Matt Kaiser has the story here.

Conservative lawyer Miguel Estrada, whose nomination to the DC Circuit by President George W. Bush was succesfully fillibustered by Senate Democrats, went out of his way to support liberal Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan during her Senate confirmation. He called her  ”an impeccably qualified nominee”, and wrote, ”one of the prerogatives of the President under our Constitution is to nominate high federal officers, including judges, who share his (or her) governing philosophies”. Later, in a letter to Senator Lindsay Graham, Kagan said of Estrada, ”no one I know is a more faithful friend or a more fundamentally decent person”.

The above sketch shows Estrada during today’s arguments in a class action case, Comcast v. Behrend.

Yesterday’s arguments in two cases from Florida were devoted to man’s best friend, or more specifically his nose. At issue, does the use of drug-sniffing dogs sometimes violate the fourth Amendment’s right “against unreasonable searches and seizures”, or, as the State of Florida argues, are dogs 1. never intrusive, and 2. always reliable?

In the first case, Franky, a chocolate Labrador, was brought without a warrant to the porch of Joelis Jardines where he sniffed marijuana by the front door.

In the second case a German Shepherd named Aldo smelled methamphetamine on a truck driven by Clayton Harris. No privacy issue here, but Aldo’s certification had expired.

Jesse Holland has the story here.