When will SCOTUS vote on DC vs. Heller?

Will SCOTUS vote today or this week on D.C. vs. Heller? And then take until mid June to write their brief (or whatever you call it)?

Or will they wait a few months before they actually vote on it?

Does anyone know the answers?

....

Their decision will be out in June. Between now and then they will write their opinions for publication, etc. When they actually vote is anyone's guess since it is held private until the decision is actually released.

Seems I may be wrong. Edit

They will have their initial vote on Friday, but they can change their votes later and we will not know the result until the opinion comes out in June. This is from Findlaw:
After oral arguments, the Justices will vote. Sometimes more than one round of voting will take place because the Justices may switch sides during the process, often turning a minority into a majority and vice versa. The first vote on a case is taken during the week of oral arguments. For cases heard on Monday, the Justices will vote on it on Wednesday afternoon. For oral arguments heard on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Justices will vote on Friday. After the vote, the most senior Justice in the majority assigns the task of writing the majority opinion. Likewise, the most senior justice in the minority also decides who will write the dissenting opinion. In addition, each Justice may write his or her own statements if they wish, but the majority opinion speaks for the final decision of the court. Throughout this process, the clerks are intimately involved, researching past cases that may support a ruling and even strategizing to sway opinions in one direction or another.

Thanks grizzly.

Interesting. Why do I feel like I should already know this stuff. :blush:

I wonder how the vote is taken. Show of hands? Electronic?

Has the actual date already been set in June?

That Findlaw blurb is not completely accurate.

The Justices must text YAY or NAY to 83267 on their Sprint/Nextel phones in order to vote.

The "vote" will be soon, probably by the end of next week. That will not be made public. The majority side will then write the opinion, and the minority side will write the dissent. Those opinions are expected to be released in June.

Generally accurate. On Friday, the justices will meet in private conference to discuss the case and try to persuade others to their opinion. They will then vote.

Drafting of the opinion, any concurring opinions and any dissents will then begin. Drafts of these opinions will be circulated prior to being finalized and attempts will be made throughout to persuade the other side to join with them.

Final drafts will then be circulated and each judge will sign off on same. Only then will the opinion be announced.

From what I have read, legal commentators expect Roberts to either write the majority opinion himself or assign it to Kennedy.

Kharn

The Justices must text YAY or NAY to 83267 on their Sprint/Nextel phones in order to vote.

And regular text messaging charges will be applied.:rolleyes:

From what I have read, legal commentators expect Roberts to either write the majority opinion himself or assign it to Kennedy.

That's interesting, since Kennedy yesterday described the Miller opinion as "deficient". I have to wonder if Kennedy will make up for those deficiencies if he writes the Heller ruling.

If anybody is interested I believe the vote is done by public discussion (public to the justices not to us). Meaning no secret ballot.

If anybody is interested I believe the vote is done by public discussion (public to the justices not to us). Meaning no secret ballot.

This has to be true. Because of the fact that everyone knows how each justice voted and what their opinions are.

It's not like, the vote was 6-3, and no one knows who voted for what.

The voting is not formal. It's more of a discussion held strictly in camera with no clerks, law clerks, assistants, etc. anywhere in the room. The Justices argue and a vote is taken, based upon which they find out which side has apparently won and assign the majority opinion writing accordingly. That only tells them whether the court will reverse or affirm. The devil, esp in this case, will get hashed out in the details of the majority opinion. I would expect concurring opinions and multiple dissents given the various levels of scrutiny the justices are thinking about.