http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/index.jsp Selected Supreme Court articles from the NLJ en-us 11/23/2009 Copyright 2009. Incisive Media US Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. http://www.law.com/service/terms_conditions.shtml http://www.law.com/img/newswire/nlj_rss.gif http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/index.jsp As Sotomayor wraps up her second full argument cycle as a Supreme Court justice, it has become clear that she is a prolific and fearless questioner. She can be tenacious and direct, bordering on harsh. She knows her stuff and clearly loves the give and take. All of which is to say, she fits right in. http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202435464482&rss=nlj For a corporation, the U.S. Supreme Court's axiom may soon be: Home is where the headquarters is. Oral arguments heard Tuesday raise a seemingly simple but vexing question crucial for corporations: For purposes of diversity jurisdiction, where is a company's principal place of business? The answer will be crucial in determining whether a corporation can be sued in federal court or in plaintiff-friendly state courts. http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202435331977&rss=nlj U.S. Supreme Court justices from across the spectrum voiced skepticism Monday in the long-awaited argument in Bilski v. Kappos, touted by some as the most important patent case in decades. http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202435299549&rss=nlj The U.S. Supreme Court appeared divided on Monday over whether states violate the Constitution by imposing a sentence of life without parole on juveniles who commit nonhomicide offenses. http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202435300965&rss=nlj Protect Marriage Washington has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to block the public release of the names and other personal information of 138,000 people who signed a petition the goal of which was to strip gay and lesbian couples of the same domestic partnership rights enjoyed by married heterosexual couples in Washington state. http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202435313480&rss=nlj Bernie Bilski and Rand Warsaw were just a couple of "math geeks for hire" from Pittsburgh when they applied for a patent in 1997. What they did not predict is that their patent application would be rejected and, on appeal, would make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court 13 years later. http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202435248336&rss=nlj The auto rental giant Hertz is incorporated in Delaware, has its headquarters in New Jersey and does its biggest volume of business in California. So where is Hertz's "principal place of business?" http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202435258273&rss=nlj U.S. Supreme Court justices appeared torn last week over whether prosecutors deserve total immunity from lawsuits for their official acts, even when they fabricate evidence in pursuit of a murder indictment and conviction. http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202435186936&rss=nlj A group of law schools will help expand an online U.S. Supreme Court database so that it reaches back to the court's first recorded decision in 1792. The schools received an $874,000 National Science Foundation grant in September to begin the four-year project, which will add 19,675 cases to a database that now extends from the Court's 1953 term through 2008, said Lee Epstein, a professor at Northwestern University School of Law. http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202435202311&rss=nlj The U.S. Supreme Court appeared wary Monday of second-guessing the fees that mutual funds pay to the investment advisers who run them during oral arguments in Jones v. Harris Associates, a closely watched case that could have major impact on the fee structure in the nation's $10 trillion mutual fund industry. http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202435120192&rss=nlj