Second Chances by Greenhouse
The Supreme Court’s decision last week giving an Alabama death-row inmate who was abandoned by his lawyers a second chance at an appeal has been justly celebrated. The 7-to-2 decision in Maples v. Thomas was a welcome display of compassion by a substantial majority of the Roberts court – for which compassion (dare I say empathy?) is not a descriptor that often springs to mind. . .
In any event, whatever happened behind the scenes, the puzzle of this welcome decision remains. With redistricting, immigration, and the Affordable Care Act on its docket against the backdrop of a presidential election, the Supreme Court is laboring under the brightest public spotlight in many years – perhaps even bright enough to have made a William Rehnquist cast an occasional glance over his shoulder. If the Roberts court of 2012 is no longer quite the Roberts court of the cold spring of 2007, that can only be a good thing, whatever the reason.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/second-chances/?hp
