APPELLATE COURTS BEGIN NEW TERMS

[Posted September 12, 2011] Today is the first day of the Supreme Court of Virginia’s 2011-12 term. The now fully constituted court (including brand-new Justices McClanahan and Powell) will convene this morning at 9:00 am to hear the first oral arguments of the September session, and later this week, on opinion day, we’ll get rulings from the cases argued in June. You know what I’ll be doing that day; check in here starting mid-morning Friday for analysis of the day’s opinions.

The Court of Appeals of Virginia got a jump on the folks upstairs this year, as that court has already heard its first arguments of the new term. It convened last Tuesday and Wednesday, acting temporarily shorthanded while new Judges McCullough and Huff get up to speed.

The Fourth Circuit’s new term begins next week, on September 20, with argument in 20 cases, including on appeal in a piracy prosecution and another apparently stemming from a Chinese drywall complaint.

Finally, the Supreme Court of the United States joins the fun on its traditional opening day, the First Monday in October (that’s October 3 this time around). The first argument on that Court’s calendar involves questions of Medicaid reimbursement rates and the Supremacy Clause.