Picture source: SupremeCourt.gov

NPR recently interviewed retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens who for the first time in 35 years was not on the bench on Monday, as the Supreme Court opened it's new term.

Several articles discuss the Court's first day: USA Today covers Monday's events as well as the Associated Press. The Wall Street Journal has musings about newly appointed Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. You can also check out SCOTUSblog which covers the arguments of the Supreme Court with more analysis.

Source: Morguefile.com

Want a quick update so that you can keep up with the latest news in your practice area?  Try the Law Professor Blog network to find blurbs about recent cases, legislation, and publications! This page has links to other Law Professor blogs that are updated frequently by legal scholars to keep you informed about a host of topics in a number of practice areas.  Click here for the landing page where you will find links to numerous law professor blogs indexed by practice area.

Real cases and crimes are adjudicated by the Teen Court system. Phoenix School of Law recently hosted a Teen Court Summit.

Teen Court is a diversion program for young people to avoid Juvenile Court by volunteering to go to a court of their peers for the purpose of not building up a criminal record, and steering clear of prison. Teens serve as advocates, bailiffs, as well as juries for the teen accused. Some teens achieve Advanced Attorney Training certification. Sometimes an adult judge is involved.

Teen Courts are closed to the public but parents and victims usually may attend. A guilty plea is often required.  The teen jury renders punishment that is enforceable.  Teen juries are often tougher than adults on the accused. The consequence of failure in Teen Court for the accused is being sent back to the juvenile justice system for proceedings.  Currently there are 81 Teen Courts in the state of Arizona.

The Arizona Teen Court Association has more information.

Picture source: MorgueFile

This just in... the Supreme Court announced today that they will soon be providing audio recordings of all oral arguments freely on their website. You will be able to download the recordings or simply listen through the court's website. This will begin with the October Term 2010, with audio recordings being available at the end of each argument week. The first arguments are heard on the first Monday in October, which for this year will be October 4th.

Read more here about how oral arguments are heard in the Supreme Court. View the Court's calendar of days they will hear arguments. Also, a Yahoo article explains about broadcasters requesting same-day release recordings in the past, which may provide some reasoning as to why the Supreme Court will be providing the recordings now.

If you're curious, you can currently hear audio recordings from the Supreme Court provided by the website Oyez.org. They have been providing audio from the Supreme Court since around 1993.

Picture source: MorgueFile

If you’re anything like me you take a look at TMZ once an hour... oh I mean day.  It’s a great way to take your mind off your next class and decompress.  Also, if you find that you still need your law fix you can find it there too.  Mixed among the stories of celebrity hookups and wardrobe malfunctions are the celebrity arrests.

A recent arrest involved heiress Paris Hilton.  Ms. Hilton was arrested on Friday, August 27 for possession of cocaine.  Take a look at the story that TMZ posted, with a link to criminal complaint.  There’s a popular belief that celebrities get softer sentences than your average citizen, I know you’re shocked to hear this.  With this in mind I was curious as to the sentencing guidelines for this charge and unfortunately my friends at TMZ didn’t do their due diligence (at least in this posting) so I had to do the research myself. 

I decided to look up Nevada Revised Statute 453.336 using Westlaw (Directory > U.S. State materials > Statutes & Legislative Services > Statutes Annotated - Individual States & U.S. Jurisdictions > Nevada Revised Statutes (State Version) - Annotated.)  I placed “NRS 453.336” in the natural language search box and selected the first result.  I would tell you my discovery but what would be the fun in that?  Wouldn’t you rather practice your research skills and conduct the search yourself?

On Monday, September 20, 2010 Ms. Hilton plead guilty to two misdemeanors in the cocaine possession case.  You may be asking yourself, how long will Ms. Hilton be behind bars?  The answer: she won’t spend a minute in jail, and instead she will pay $2,000 in fines, perform 200 hours of community service and complete an intensive substance abuse program.  So did Ms. Hilton get off easy? You be the judge.