Md. AG to Argue Miranda Delay Case Today, a Little Earlier than Planned
Maryland’s attorney general will argue before the U.S. Supreme Court today that a suspect’s decision to invoke his Miranda rights shouldn’t continue to shield statements he made almost three years later.
Arguments in the case begin at 10 a.m. Eastern Time, earlier than originally scheduled. The Miranda case was moved to the earlier time slot after arguments in another case were postponed due to family emergencies involving two lawyers, according to SCOTUSblog and The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.
In the Miranda case, Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler will argue for admission of a confession by a man suspected of child abuse, the Baltimore Sun reports. The suspect asked for a lawyer when he was originally questioned in 2003. The probe stalled, but when it resumed nearly three years later, the suspect confessed, the story says. A state appeals court threw out the confession because of the earlier request for a lawyer under the protections of Miranda v. Arizona.
Gansler appears to have one justice already on his side, the Sun says. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. had argued that Miranda rights must have limits in a case that reached the U.S. Supreme Court 17 years before he was chief justice. The present case is Maryland v. Shatzer.
A second case being argued today, Mohawk Industries v. Carpenter, involves the right to an immediate appeal of a ruling on attorney-client privilege. The suit was brought by a worker who claims he was fired from Mohawk Industries because he refused to recant a report that the company had hired undocumented aliens, the National Law Journal reports. The worker is seeking information from an interview he gave to the company’s general counsel. The issue before the Supreme Court is whether the company has a right to an immediate appeal of the privilege issue.
At issue in the postponed case is which parties may intervene in a water dispute between states in a case of original Supreme Court jurisdiction, the BLT reports. The father of lawyer Eric Miller, assistant to the U.S. Solicitor General, is seriously ill, according to the blog. Another lawyer, H. Christopher Bartolomucci of Hogan & Hartson, is grieving the recent death of his mother.
