On Monday, October 6, the U.S. Supreme Court will open its annual October Term, with its first oral argument scheduled for 10 am. The "First Monday in October" has marked the start of the Supreme Court's new year of work since 1916. The first case of the new Term, Villarreal v. Texas , concerns a criminal defendant's right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment; a live-stream of oral argument audio will be provided on the Court's website . Other petitions already granted for the Term address a number of hot-button topics, such as state prohibitions on transgender athletes on girls' sports teams ; LGBTQ "conversion therapy" bans ; the death penalty for inmates with intellectual disabilities ; campaign finance spending limits ; and potential liability by internet service providers for piracy of digital music by users . To learn more about individual cases on the Court's docket this year, SCOTUSblog offers quick access to case information and filin...
Wednesday, September 17 is Constitution Day , commemorating the 1787 signing of the United States Constitution in Philadelphia. The National Archives and Records Administration, which houses the original document, maintains a page for America's Founding Documents: The Constitution of the United States with a transcription and historical background about the document and its signing. The full text of the U.S. Constitution, along with extensive commentary, can also be found in the government publication Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation (CONAN) , which is linked from Congress.gov. This version of the Constitution made headlines in early August, when eagle-eyed readers noticed the omission of several key sections in both the document text and the accompanying annotations , which included discussion of habeas corpus, emoluments, and tariffs. The Library of Congress quickly restored the missing sections, blaming a website coding error. As the P...