STEP RIGHT UP, PLACE YOUR BETS | LAT Says Justices Got It Right, Lawyers Can’t Overrule Clients
May 15, 2018
TODAY IN HISTORY
|On this day one year ago, the Supreme Court shut the door on North Carolina Republicans’ effort to revive a state law that mandated voter identification and scaled back early voting, provisions that a lower court said improperly targeted minority voters.
IT'S A RICH MAN'S WORLD
|ICYMI, the Supreme Court yesterday handed down a decision that will pave the way for sports betting to become legal nationwide. The justices voted to strike down a 1992 federal law that prohibited most states from authorizing the practice. But Reuters reports that sports fan aren’t all that worried about the ruling’s implications on the sports world. Fans say it likely will have little impact on baseball, basketball and football games already subject to off-the-books gambling.
TELL ME WHO YOU'RE LOYAL TO
|Yesterday the justices also ruled to protect a death row inmate whose lawyer disobeyed his client’s wish to maintain his innocence at trial. JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG, writing for the majority in the 6-to-3 decision, said the lawyer was not entitled to disregard his client’s instructions. His disloyalty, she wrote, required a new trial for the inmate.
COUNTING TO FIVE
|Of the five decisions handed down yesterday, there were two important criminal justice and personal rights cases the justices weighed in on. NPR’s Nina Totenberg , Lee Sheehan and Domenico Montanaro report on the decisions in McCoy v. Louisiana and Byrd v. U.S.
DAS RIGHT
|The Editorial Board of the Los Angeles Times said SCOTUS got it right when they ruled that lawyers can’t override their clients. The Ed Board writes, “But the fact that defendants are entitled to effective legal representation doesn’t mean that a lawyer gets to make the big, substantive decisions on behalf of his client. For instance, a lawyer should not be able to tell a jury that his client committed a crime when that client is determined to maintain his innocence — even if the lawyer thinks a guilty plea would be the defendant’s best legal strategy.”
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MUST BE FUNNY
|Now that it’s officially official that sports betting has a legal place in America, the Internet reacted with all the memes, tweets and jokes we need to get us through our Tuesday. Read the round-up of social media posts USA Today’s Nina Mandell shared yesterday. My personal favorite: “honestly who can even afford gambling.”
SCOTUS VIEWS
Liberals Can't Have Their Cake And Eat It Too In Supreme Court Case
The Hill“What the recent New York cases show is that liberals cannot have their cake and eat it too in decisions like Masterpiece Cakeshop. You either protect free speech for everyone or give the government the power to determine what speech is permitted and what is proscribed, from coffee shops to cake shops.”
SCOTUS Decision Creates A 'Wild West' For Sports Gambling
The Hill“While appearing innocuous to the uninitiated, the Murphy case will quickly generate ubiquitous and unregulated “Wild West” sports gambling. It is academically well-documented that this type of gambling is poised to explode with local and strategic economic impacts negatively affecting the U.S. economy. While unlikely, immediate congressional actions regulating the practical impacts of the Murphy case are necessary.”