Climate Standstill: The mystery surrounding the very brief, per curiam panel decision in the New Haven firefighters' discrimination case is not the only mystery involving Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. Marcia Coyle of The National Law Journal reports on a major climate change lawsuit brought by eight states against five utilities that has been pending decision for nearly three years before an appellate panel on which Sotomayor is the presiding judge.
Hotter Bench?: If there is a Supreme Court nominee who could rival Justice Antonin Scalia's intensity in questioning advocates, then President Barack Obama may have found her. The New York Times examines Sotomayor's reputation for interrupting lawyers and challenging them to defend positions from their written briefs. Jonathan Cohn, formerly of the Justice Department and now a partner at Sidley Austin, says he didn't mind: "I thought her questions and demeanor were reasonable and fine."
New Bank Regs: Obama administration officials are debating whether to pare some of their more ambitious ideas to revamp oversight of financial markets, in a nod to the political difficulties of pushing through sweeping changes, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the process. A final decision on a plan to present to Congress is expected in several weeks, the newspaper says, and Obama administration officials are still hopeful that lawmakers could approve a package by the end of the year.
Detainee Pushback: The Washington Post reports that the administration's push to resettle at least 50 Guantanamo Bay prisoners in Europe is meeting fresh resistance as officials there demand that the United States first give asylum to some inmates before they will do the same. "If the U.S. refuses to take these people, why should we?" said Thomas Silberhorn, a member of the German Parliament from Bavaria, where the White House wants to relocate nine Chinese Uighur prisoners.
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