Voting rights on docket for Supreme Court term

< Prev | 1 | 2

NBC Video: Politics

Pelosi's compromise too much for some Democrats
Nov. 9: Rachel Maddow is joined by Rep. Diana Degette, D-CO, who encouraging House Democrats oppose the health care reform bill if it contains restrictions on legal abortion rights.

Pro-life Roeder confesses to killing

Joe the obstructionist

Christian power nexus in action

Tea Party vs. Republican Party

CO-GOV: Penry steps aside fearing 527

Collins works on alternative; blasts D bill

Pro-choice Dems fire back

Slideshow

The Week in Political Cartoons
Msnbc.com’s political cartoonists take a look back at the past week.

more photos

Lethal injection to be reviewed
For the first time in more than 100 years, the Supreme Court has also agreed to review a specific method for carrying out the death penalty.

Two inmates on Kentucky's death row challenged the system for lethal injections, with its sequence of three chemicals consisting of a pain killer, a paralyzer and a drug to stop the heart. The same system is used in all but one of the nation's 38 death-penalty states.

Opponents have said the system is prone to widespread problems that can cause intense pain but makes it impossible to cry out.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

"This is a procedure that we don't use to put our pets to sleep in this country because of the high risk of excruciating pain," said Steve Shapiro, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

With many of the more than 3,000 inmates on death row already challenging lethal injections, the court's decision to accept the case for review may end up halting nearly all executions nationwide until the case is decided.

"The lower courts, and maybe even the executive branch of these states, may say, let's wait till we hear definitively from the U.S. Supreme Court before we rush forward with an execution," said Doug Merman, a law professor at Ohio State University.

'Securities law's Roe v. Wade'
A decision in the most important business case of the term may determine the fate of big financial fraud cases. The court has been asked to determine if investors can sue companies that play a minor role in a fraudulent scheme.

"This is securities law's Roe v. Wade," said David Langevoort, a professor at Georgetown University's law school.

Federal law allows an investor to sue firms that provide misleading information about their financial condition. This case should clarify if that liability extends to other companies that become involved in fraudulent activity but do not provide misleading information to investors.