Law professor Paul Bender reviews high-court cases

<p><img src="/files/images/Bender%2035cropped.preview.jpg" align="left" height="339" hspace="5" vspace="5" width="254">Professor and Dean Emeritus <a href="http://www.law.asu.edu/Apps/Faculty/Faculty.aspx?individual_id=23">Paul Bender</a> of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law discussed a wide range of U.S. Supreme Court cases with Arizona ties during a recent interview with Steve Goldstein of KJZZ.</p><p>With President Obama about to make his first appointment to the nation's highest court, due to the planned retirement of Justice David Souter, Bender said he agrees that an individual with no prior judicial experience would be a good choice.</p><p>"Think about all the really well known U.S. Supreme Court justices who were not judges before they got on the court, Earl Warren, for one, Felix Frankfurter, for another, Hugo Black," he said.</p><p>Former Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, now Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security, has been mentioned as a possible appointee, but Bender thinks that, while well qualified, Napolitano is a long shot.</p><p>"And whoever gets nominated won't reshape the court's philosophy," he said.</p><p>Bender also talked about a recent Arizona case heard by the high court about a Safford teenager who was strip-searched by school officials who thought she was in possession of prescription-strength ibuprofen.</p><p>"To a lot of people that seems like overkill," Bender said of the search. "On the other hand, it's very hard for the courts to tell school officials `You can't do this,' or "You can't do that'."</p><p>The courts generally give school districts plenty of leeway on such actions, because every situation is so different, he said.</p><p>The U.S. Supreme Court also recently heard a case that challenges the manner in which Arizona prepares children who don't speak English to attend school. A federal court determined the state doesn't do an adequate job and issued orders requiring them to do so.</p><p>The state alleges it does adequately fund an English-language-learner program now, but the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest maintains that isn't the case. Bender said he expects the high court to be split on the issue, and that a decision could come by late June, ending a 17-year battle in Arizona.</p><p>"A surprisingly large portion of them (appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court) come from Arizona, given its relatively small population," Bender said. "I have no way of explaining that, but Arizona frequently is in the middle of their decisions."</p><p><span lang="EN">Janie Magruder, <a href="mailto:Jane.Magruder@asu.edu">Jane.Magruder@asu.edu</a><br&gt;(480) 727-9052<br>Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law</span></p>Article source: KJZZ