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With court's docket full, three cases to watch.

Article Excerpt
The docket for the Supreme Court's current term is almost complete, and it promises to be a memorable one, with several enormously important rulings to come. Before the Court adjourned last summer, it granted review in cases on such important topics as preemption, (1) the scope of the Confrontation Clause when prosecutors seek to introduce laboratory reports as evidence, (2) and the federal government's ability to regulate fleeting profanities over the broadcast media. (3)

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On the Court's October 2008 docket, three cases, all to be decided by the end of June, are especially noteworthy.

Voting rights

In January, the Court granted review in a blockbuster case about racial discrimination and federalism. In Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District v. Mukasey, the Court will decide whether it was constitutional for Congress to extend the Voting Rights Act for another 25 years. (4)

Northwest Austin focuses on a specific provision of the act, [section]5, which states that jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination in voting must get approval from the U.S. attorney general before changing any of their voting procedures. The provision was adopted in 1965 and has been extended four times, most recently in 2006. This would be the second 25-year extension.

Conservatives have long contended that [section]5 is an unconstitutional intrusion on the powers of state and local governments. Former Chief Justice William Rehnquist, in a dissenting opinion...