Hot button SCOTUS cases subject of HLR analyses

In case you're short on holiday reading over the Thanksgiving weekend, via Doc Berman the just-published Harvard Law Review has several analyses of recent US Supreme Court cases from the last term, including notable topics we've discussed here on Grits:

• Eighth Amendment — Death Penalty — Lethal Injection Drug Protocol: Baze v. Rees
• Eighth Amendment — Death Penalty — Punishment for Child Rape: Kennedy v. Louisiana
• Sixth Amendment — Attachment of Right to Counsel: Rothgery v. Gillespie County
• Sixth Amendment — Competency Standard for Self-Representation at Trial: Indiana v. Edwards
• Jury Selection — Batson Challenges: Snyder v. Louisiana
• Status of International Law — Self-Execution of Treaties: Medellín v. Texas
• Money Laundering — Rule of Lenity: United States v. Santos

Several of the main articles deal with the recent Heller case interpreting the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms. I've only read the ones on Rothgery and Money Laundering so far, but both were quite thorough (and not too painful to read for law review fodder).

Just as an example of something that jumped out at me, we've discussed how the Rothgery ruling impacts Texas, but HLR informs us how the ruling will affect the handful of other states that didn't already provide counsel after a bail hearing. There were:

seven states that, prior to Rothgery, did not reliably recognize the attachment of the right to counsel before, at, or just after an initial appearance: Kansas, Oklahoma, Virginia, Alabama, South Carolina, Texas, and Colorado. In the first five states, which had exceptions, delays, or deviations from this rule, Rothgery will bring consistency. In Texas, Rothgery will protect a subset of defendants — those charged and released on bail — who currently do not have their right to counsel activated when the prosecutor is unaware of their charges. In Colorado, Rothgery will significantly alter the current practice: misdemeanor defendants’ right to counsel will no longer be conditioned on the defendant first speaking directly with the prosecutor to discuss a potential plea.

For anyone with a particular interest in any of these cutting edge topics, these analyses are worth a read.