Seeking to overturn a major setback in its power to punish the trading of stocks based on insider tips, the Obama administration today asked the U.S. Supreme Court to revive one of the highest profile Wall Street prosecutions in years, SCOTUSblog reports. The case grew out of federal prosecutors’ broad investigation into suspected insider trading at hedge funds. In the specific case at issue, two hedge fund managers were convicted of securities fraud after their trades in technology company stocks -- allegedly based on a chain of tips containing insider information -- resulted in gains close to $72 million. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals previously overturned the convictions.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has affirmed a 180-day suspension of Memphis attorney Homer L. Cody. The court agreed with the Board of Professional Responsibility that Cody failed to cease representation of two parties with conflicting interests – even after the board brought charges against him. Cody appealed the board’s recommendation of a suspension to the Shelby County Circuit Court and then the Supreme Court. Neither court found merits to his claims. Read the court's press release.

Public support for life tenure for U.S. Supreme Court justices is decreasing, while the notion of allowing cameras in the court is more popular than ever, according to a new poll sponsored by C¬SPAN that was released Tuesday. Only 40 percent of adults agree with the Constitution’s requirement of lifetime appointments according to the poll, compared to 48 percent in 2010. Seventy-nine percent favor 18-year terms for justices, with the possibility of reappointment. A Reuters poll also released this week found 66 percent of respondents favoring 10-year limits for justices. The National Law Journal has more (sub. req.).

The public approval rating for the U.S. Supreme Court has become more polarized along party lines than at any point in 15 years of Gallup polling, the ABA Journal reports. The approval rating among Republicans plummeted to a 15-year low of 18 percent, a drop of 33 percentage points since last summer, according to Gallup.com. The approval rating among Democrats, meanwhile, rose to 76 percent, a gain of 29 percentage points since last September and the highest in 15 years. Among all Americans, 49 percent approve of the job the Supreme Court is doing. The Wall Street Journal Law Blog notes the findings. 

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be in the audience on Saturday for the premiere of "Scalia/Ginsburg," the opera based on her ideological differences and friendship with Justice Antonin Scalia, the ABA Journal reports. Scalia is in Rome and won’t be able to attend the opera by Derrick Wang, Ginsburg tells the Washington Post in an interview. The opera uses words from the justices’ opinions and sets them to music.

Justice Antonin Scalia’s nasty barbs are a bad influence on law students, according to an op-ed by University of California at Irvine law dean Erwin Chemerinsky. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Chemerinsky says he has always taught students in debate and law that nastiness is a crutch for those who can’t win using reason or legal precedent. “But lately my students have been turning in legal briefs laced with derision and ad hominem barbs,” he writes. “For this trend, I largely blame Scalia. My students read his work, find it amusing and imitate his truculent style.” The ABA Journal has more.

New personal financial disclosures from the Supreme Court show that Chief Justice John Roberts and two other justices are maintaining significant investments in individual companies' stock. The details of investments held by Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Stephen Breyer are in annual financial reports released today by the federal judiciary. Federal law allows judges to defer taxes on any money they make when they sell a stock in order to avoid a conflict of interest. WSMV has the story from the AP.

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday granted Mississippi’s request to file a new lawsuit claiming Memphis is stealing its water, keeping alive a legal battle now in its 11th year. Four years ago, the court denied a similar request, the Commercial Appeal reports. The proposed complaint seeks at least $615 million in damages from Memphis, the city-owned Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division, and the state of Tennessee. The court’s order gives defendants 30 days to respond.

The U.S. Supreme Court will take up a Texas affirmative action case when it returns in the fall. It also may hear challenges to a Texas law requiring certain abortion clinics to close, but gave the clinics a reprieve -- allowing them to stay open -- until a final decision is made. In addition, the justices rejected a number of cases, including a copyright dispute between Google with Oracle, an appeal of Clean Water Act fines imposed on BP and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill and two public corruption cases. WDEF News 12 and Knoxnews have more on those decisions.

Before departing Washington, D.C., for its summer recess, Supreme Court justices gathered for one final conference today, which yielded three opinions, all decided by 5-4 votes. In the first opinion, the majority found that use of the execution drug midazolam does not violate the Eighth Amendment, while two dissenting justices said for the first time they think it is "highly likely" the death penalty itself is unconstitutional, the Associated Press reports. In the other cases, the majority found that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should have considered costs in the regulation of toxic air pollution from coal- and oil-fired power and that the state of Arizona may use a independent commission to draw congressional districts. The ABA Journal has more on those decisions.