The United States Supreme Court recently reversed a death penalty conviction in Foster v. Chatman, where the prosecutor clearly exercised peremptory challenges in order to eliminate blacks from the jury. While the case is an extreme example of a Batson violation, I agree with Justice Marshall’s concurring opinion in Batson the best way to eliminate inappropriate use of peremptory challenges is to eliminate peremptory challenges. The history of their use since Batson simply shows that Batson has done little to control misuses of such challenges. Peremptory challenges have a long history more closely related to justice by combat than to justice by equal protection of the law. In no area of twe
It is easy to pass over Harrington v. Freedom of Information Commission, officially decided by the Supreme Court on September 6, as of little general interest to the practice of law because it concerns review of an agency decision. But in fact it is of considerable general interest because the Supreme Court starts its decision by stating that, when a lawyer gives legal advice mixed with business or other nonlegal advice, the applicability of the attorney-client privilege is an issue of law. The usefulness of Harrington is that it helps us decide how far the client can go in asking for nonlegal advice, and how far lawyers can go in giving it, and still be within the attorney-client privilege.