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The United States Supreme Court Monday tackles a sensitive legal issue that has taken on both great political and economic relevance this past year.

At a time when budget shortfalls are causing state and local bureaucrats to release prisoners early from over-crowded and expensive jails, the Justices have chosen to decide whether the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against "cruel and unusual punishment" precludes life sentences without parole for juvenile offenders who have not committed capital crimes.

Two Florida cases bring the topic to the High Court. In one, a 17-year-old was sentenced to life without parole after he was convicted for taking part in an armed home invasion while he was on parole for another crime. In the other, a 13-year-old was sentenced to life without parole after he was convicted for raping an elderly woman.

According to the Sentencing Project, an advocacy organization which tracks such things, of the 111 juveniles around the nation currently serving life sentences without parole for non-capital crimes, 77 are in Florida.

Terrance Jamar Graham and Joe Harris Sullivan, the two young men who are challenging the lengths of their sentences, argue simply that the punishment did not fit their crimes given their respective ages. Lawyers for Sullivan, only 13 when he was sentenced, state the core of his case this way: "Life imprisonment without parole sentences for children of 13 are so vanishingly rare as to make their repudiation by contemporary American society unmistakable." They are thus emphasizing the "unusual" in "cruel and unusual" punishment.

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The Supreme Court's 2009-2010 term is already shaping up to be an odd one.

First, it started four weeks before the first Monday in October, when the Justices in a September session took up federal campaign finance laws. Based upon the questions (and answers) during a rare summer oral argument, it is virtually a lock that a majority of the Justices will vote to overturn the Court's own precedent and dramatically reduce the impact and effect of the McCain-Feingold law. And if this occurs it will probably be the biggest decision of the term.

Meanwhile, the Court's work this fall, winter and spring is almost entirely devoid of "traditional" hot button cases. I can't remember the last time that occurred. At least at the moment, subject to the addition of new cases to be heard early in 2010, there is no grand abortion case, no Second Amendment tussle, no dynamic environmental law fights over owls or whales or snails, not even a resonant showdown between employee and employee a la Lily Ledbetter. Right now, there isn't even a good, solid, terror law case set for review, although that is likely to change as the Justices round out their calendar.

Sure, there will be decisions we'll all be talking about when they come down. There always are. In fact, one of the very first cases of the October term is one of those made-for-cable conflicts involving a series of dog-fighting videos and the first amendment. It's got lots of sound, lots of fury, but it's not likely to change your life or mine (unless you are into such things, in which case shame on you). Lucky for her, Justice Sonia Sotomayor's debut term sure doesn't figure to posses much of the political and partisan steam its recent predecessors have had.

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And so it comes to pass at the United States Supreme Court this week that the constitutionality of a movie about a woman who could easily be a Justice (and who one day may be) will be judged by a woman who actually is.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, sitting for your first oral argument since joining the Court last month? Meet Hillary Clinton, The Movie. Oh, wait. Perhaps you've already met!

Even though we are weeks away from the first Monday in October, the Court meets this Wednesday, in a rare September session, to evaluate the constitutionality of important campaign finance laws. The case is a big one, but the question at its core is simple: Does the First Amendment distinguish between campaign contributions from individuals and those of corporations?

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Sotomayor ends up with more votes than Samuel Alito and fewer votes than John Roberts and in the end no one is going to remember the margins. She'll now prepare to settle in to the Court, and to a new city, and I'm sure she's already had a peek at some of the briefs in cases she'll begin to help decide when the new term begins in a few weeks.

In some ways this was an easy one for the White House. The president's party controls the Senate by a filibuster-proof majority, the White House selected a nominee with great political symbolism for Hispanics, and Sotomayor had twice been vetted by the Congress over 17 years on the federal bench.

She's not likely to have a huge impact on the Court's ideological makeup because in some ways she's the same sort of moderate liberal that her predecessor, David Souter was. And you can even argue that she is likely to be MORE conservative than he was in certain kinds of cases, like business or law enforcement cases.

It takes brains, temperament and really good timing to become a Supreme Court Justice. The legal landscape is littered with the careers of brilliant jurists who weren't the right person in the right place at the right time. And the Supreme Court has been littered with yahoos who lucked out and squeaked through.

What it takes to "pass" modern-day, post-Bork confirmation hearings, however, is a completely different matter. You don't need candor. You don't need courage. You don't need to be right. You don't even have to pretend that you have all the answers. All you really need is patience, a large bladder, thick skin, and the unwavering strength to sit upright and awake, hour after hour, and speak at great length and in serious, sonorous tones without saying anything at all.

John G. Roberts, Jr. accomplished this arduous if fairly mindless feat in 2005 and is now chief justice of the United States. Samuel A. Alito, Jr. did it in 2006 and he's now an associate justice. And Sonia Sotomayor, a wise Latina woman if there ever were one, has just managed to match the boys. She is on her way to getting, oh, I'd say 70 or so votes for confirmation to become only the third woman in American history to land the law's big prize.

With the main part of the Sotomayor confirmation hearing now complete, with the judge finally off the hot seat, it's fair to say she did everything her compulsive White House handlers had hoped she would. She talked at length to her critics on the Senate Judiciary Committee about her "motivational" speeches. If some of her explanations didn't really make sense—and often they didn't—there isn't anything Senate can do about it anyway. What's left to say after you've said sorry about your many "rhetorical flourishes" that fell flat?

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We don’t know precisely where she stands on terror law issues, or abortion and gun rights, or even on business topics. But her lower court records shows a much more practical moderate tone than did the records of Roberts and Alito so that’s a good place to start with any prediction of how she’ll be as a Justice.

She took their best shots and at the end of two days was left standing, or left sitting anyway, leaving many of the senators of both parties frustrated with her failure or refusal to answer substantively on legitimate questions. But we learned from Roberts and Alito and Ginsburg and Breyer that that’s the pass to confirmation.

Although the senators asked her questions in a dozen different ways on dozens of different topics, she didn’t say much differently Wednesday than she did Tuesday. She was very very patient in saying the same things over and over again and that no doubt helps her candidacy—it’s more or less expected.

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The best exchange of the day occurred between Senator Kyl and the judge in talking about his concerns about her Wise Latina comment. Remember, he’s a Senator from Arizona with a large Hispanic population and I think he got about the best explanation we can hope to expect from her about why she said what she said.

It’s clear that the Republican members aren’t sold on the nominee’s explanation of her now famous “Wise Latina” comment—you can hear the skepticism in their voices and see it in her faces. But she has kept to her story—which is that she was encouraging young lawyers to be proud of their heritage but wasn’t telling them to put background above impartiality.

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She wouldn’t commit to lobbying her potential colleagues on the Court about cameras there, she refused to talk about whether she’ll recognize that the 2nd Amendment applies to the states, and she was very careful in answering questions about that takings case—I don’t prejudge cases, she said.


She’s touched upon almost all of the hot-button issues we expected, gun rights, abortion rights, the role of judges and empathy, her Wise Latina comments but mostly only scratching the surface. It’s clear Republicans on the Committee are going to return to those topics as the day wears on.

She hasn’t made any mistakes yet, hasn’t had the meltdown Sen. Graham talked about yesterday. She’s been very cautious and like her recent predecessors gave not a whiff of a hint of a scent of how she might rule in future abortion or gun rights cases.

So far she’s explained patiently her remarks about the role of empathy in decision making, on her Wise Latina comments and other controversial statements but when it comes to questions about how she might handle cases in the future she has been purposely vague and non-committal, just like nominees Roberts and Alito were.

Sotomayor Explains "Wise Latina" Comment

Live Video and Analysis of the hearing

Watch below for continuing live video of Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, along with live running minute-by-minute analysis and commentary from CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen and CBS News political consultant John Dickerson via Twitter. (after the jump)

Story: Sotomayor Explains "Wise Latina" Comment

Story: Sotomayor Promises "Fidelity to the Law"

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Editor's Note: On Monday, come back to CourtWatch to watch live video of the Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings, plus live running commentary from CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen via Twitter.

Barring an unlikely implosion inside the Hart Office building on Capitol Hill next week, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is virtually assured of getting enough votes from the Senate Judiciary Committee to guarantee her place on the Court next term. Even her conservative critics are talking now about "conceding" the fight against the nominee.

The only real mysteries going into Monday's confirmation kabuki dance are how well Sotomayor holds her famous temper in check, how windy the Senator's opening statements will be, and how many Republicans will vote for her in the end. The rest will be merely for show, a tradition handed down to us over the past few decades — ever since the Senate and the White House conspired to allow television networks to cover these events live.

But that's not to say that Sotomayor's historic appearance won't or can't generate some insight. She does have some work to do, some questions to answer — not because she needs to sway the already-swayed lawmakers, but because she has an obligation to the White House, her future colleagues on the Court, and the American people to be honest and candid and explanatory. And she must be as tough and thorough in answering questions from her Democratic supporters (who may fault her for being too far to the right) as she is with her Republican opponents (who will fault her for being too far left).

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