Hamblen v. Dugger, 492 U.S. 929 (decided July 18, 1989): Staying execution pending decision on certiorari, with the stay to dissolve if cert was denied. Cert was denied on 6/28/90, 497 U.S. 1031, with Brennan and Marshall as usual dissenting, “adhering to our views that the death penalty is in all circumstances cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments”. For some reason execution did not happen then; it happened the day after another ap

Rubin v. United States, 524 U.S. 1301 (decided July 17, 1998): Rehnquist denies motion to stay subpoenas for testimony of Secret Service officers as to what they overheard Clinton say in regard to the matters Kenneth Starr was investigating; Rehnquist concedes that “confidentiality” and “the physical safety of the President” are implicated, and assumes for the purpose of the motion that cert would be granted, but then denies the application on the grounds that the Circuit Cou

Travia v. Lomenzo, 86 S.Ct. 7 (decided July 16, 1965): In this order by Harlan refusing a stay of a District Court decision, we learn 1) that a federal trial court order, even when up for appeal, is “final and binding” on a state’s highest court; 2) how pissed off he was by the Supreme Court’s earlier decision in this case, which he dissented from; 3) how he is bound by Court’s earlier decision regarding a similar application (381 U.S. 431); and 4) how if the Court had explai

Campbell v. Florida, 400 U.S. 801 (decided July 15, 1970): denies cert in murder case where defendant argued it was error to exclude jurors who would impose death penalty only if recommendation for mercy was added (this was between Witherspoon v. Illinois, 1968, which struck a statute allowing peremptory excusals of jurors who generally opposed the death penalty, and Wainwright v. Witt, 1985, can exclude anti-death penalty jurors but not those who merely had reservations abou