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After the hubbub of the OFT case we thought it was time to look at some other recent Supreme Court news. Many of the recent stories have focussed on the case of Norris v Government of United States, previewed by us here. The Times links it to another high profile extradition case, under the headline “Last hope for Gary McKinnon as Court hears Ian Norris extradition appeal”. Mr Norris is quoted as telling the newspaper “This appeal is our last hope but I have always had every faith in British justice. It is a very tense time, as you can imagine.” The Telegraph reports the case under the headline “British businessman head to new Supreme Court in battle to avoid extradition”. This article also mentions the McKinnon case – although his appeal process has now been concluded. The story also features in Legal Week. The Law Central blog related it to the current “12th Justice Selection process”.
In relation to the OFT case – we would add to our round up of media comments a short informative piece in the Solicitors’ Journal, summarising the reasoning of the justices
Our attention has been drawn to an interview in the San Francisco Daily Journal, picked up here, Oxford educated US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer spoke about the UK Supreme Court opening ceremony and “Great Britain’s Constitutional Evolution”. His answers were cautious and guarded. In relation to the ceremony he was appropriately diplomatic: “It couldn’t have been nicer”. When asked whether he thought that the change to a Supreme Court “will make the courts more visible because it makes people more aware of the power of judges” he replied:
“I think it might. They have given the court additional power. And also, they [judges] enforce the European treaties, and that might make a difference.”
However, Justice Breyer would not be drawn on the appointment process in the UK and the question of confirmation hearings. Asked whether he thought the confirmation process was a positive thing, this was his answer:
” I was the person confirmed. I wasn’t the person who did the confirming. I wasn’t the person who did the appointment. So what I say in respect to that question often is that is that it’s like asking for the recipe for chicken a la king from the point of view of the chicken. I haven’t taken views publicly on whether it’s good, bad or indifferent as it’s presently conducted, and I don’t want to”.
From the Culture Wars blog, some interesting thoughts in a post called “Watching the Supreme Court”
As far as we are aware, none of the present Justices of the Supreme Court are blogging, however, their former colleagues in the House of Lords have not held back. Here is a post from the “Lords of the Blog” from the legislative branch of the House on the “New Justices”, along with various comments.