VERY interesting CRIMINAL day in SCOTUS

At 10 AM eastern, the Court released opinions in three criminal cases, Smith v. Texas, Abdul-Kabir v. Quaterman, and Brewer v. Quarterman. The opinions are here, (via SCOTUSblog--who else can keep up with that?).

The comments on Prof. Berman's SL&P are most interesting: in essence, the Court has no clue as to what it is doing, and a few justices (the "swingers") are at once principled and totally out in left field depending upon whether the right to abortion or the death penalty is in issue.

ALSO: The AP's Frederic J. Frommer reports here on this morning's oral argument in the campaign finance cases; Kristin Jensen and Greg Stohr have this article at Bloomberg; in the Washington Post, Robert Barnes reports here that a majority of the justices appeared skeptical about a key provision of the McCain- Feingold campaign finance act; and Rick Hasen has this post discussing his initial reactions to today's oral argument in FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life (No. 06-969) and Sen. John McCain, et al., v. Wisconsin Right to Life (No. 06-970) at the Election Law blog. (Thanks, SCOTUSblog! You may not be the greatest, but you come close).