* At a summit in Vietnam President Bush confronts regional economic realities, North Korean diplomatic complexities, and some goofy, goofy pajamas. [NYT, Time]
* Supreme Court Justices Roberts and Alito do battle over whose mildly amusing dinner party quips are better. [WP]
* Pentagon internal review of Iraq war uses football metaphors for policy options. Typical. [WP]
* Gay-marriage ban may go to a ballot in Massachusetts. [WP]
* Charlie Rangel wants to make politicians “think twice” about starting wars and believes legislation to renew the military draft will do that. Plans to propose the legislation, “as soon as we start the new session.” [WP]
* New pointless coin to celebrate old pointless Presidents. [NYT]

Just this morning, the Supreme Court struck down the Bush Administration’s plan to try Guantanamo detainees before military commissions, as violative of both U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions. The decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld was 5-3, with the conservatives — Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito — in dissent. (Chief Justice Roberts was recused, since he had ruled on the case — in favor of the government — as a lower court judge.) MORE »

Today Wonkette took a field trip to the U.S. Supreme Court. We were all excited, ’cause we — like many others — thought it might be the last day of the Term.

The Court would hand down decisions in all its big-ticket cases — like the Texas redistricting case, and the Guantanamo Bay detainee case. Maybe a justice would announce his or her retirement. We might be present for the making of history.

As it turned out, the SCOTUS faked us out. Moving into overtime, they announced that tomorrow will be the last day of the Term. Perhaps their recent night at the movies caused the justices to fall behind in their work.

Nevertheless, our visit to the Court was worthwhile. Even though the decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld will have to wait until tomorrow, we did get to watch Justice Kennedy try to explain the confusing raft of opinions in the Texas redistricting case. And we swooned when the hunky Chief Justice started talkin’ dirty to us, about Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on “Consular Relations”…

After the jump, part one of our two-part photo essay on our day with the Supremes.

Update: Part Two is available here.

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Our Hill Intern Hotties contest is in full swing. Click here to vote on the women; click here to vote on the men. MORE »

Supreme Court justices are people too. And like all good Americans, they love going to the movies. From today’s Reliable Source:

So what if you have 25 cases to wrap up by the end of the month? No reason the whole office can’t bail out a little early one night to catch a movie together!

For the folks on the Supreme Court, a retirement was even more cause for a midweek treat. On Wednesday afternoon, all nine justices — plus recently retired colleague Sandra Day O’Connor and a handful of spouses — sneaked over to the Library of Congress for a private screening of the John Wayne classic “Red River.”

More details and commentary, after the jump.

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• White House strategists believe the midterm elections offer Bush an opportunity to “rewrite” and “recover” his presidency. Republicans plan to focus on immigration, tax cuts, and homeland security and will “frame the election as a contest with Democrats, confident that voters unhappy with the president will find the opposition even more distasteful.” [WP]
• The GOP is seeing losses “in morale, in fundraising and in early election contests.” [LAT]
• Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) was caught on tape accepting $100,000 from an investor-turned-informant. [WP, NYT]
• Alberto Gonzales says the government can legally prosecute journalists for publishing classified information. [NYT, WP]
• Patrick Fitzgerald is trying to prove that Scooter Libby lied based on his knowledge of Valerie Plame’s classified status. [WP]
• Laura Bush is “leveraging her popularity” to boost Republican candidates where her husband can’t. [USAT]
• Senators expect immigration compromise this year. [LAT]

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• Rep. Rahm Emanuel, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, hurls expletives at Dean over election strategy; Emanuel fears Dean is spending too much money too soon: “This is a historic opportunity, and we can’t squander it.” [WP, NYT]
• The NSA is “amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren’t suspected of any crime”; calls made by tens of millions of Americans are logged. [USAT]
• Bush is losing support among his base at a “rapid” clip; Gallup registers “a 13-percentage-point drop in Republican support for Bush in the past couple of weeks.” [WP]
• Republicans seek to gain upper-hand on energy issues with a “whole series” of measures. [WSJ]
• National issues are shaping local races this year; “Republicans are swimming against a national tide of voter unrest.” [WSJ]
• House passes $70B tax package mostly along party lines, 244 to 185. [WP, NYT, USAT]
• National Archives violated rules when White House lawyers looked at John Roberts‘ files; papers on affirmative action are missing. [WP]

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John G. Roberts’s metrosexual style was the subject of much comment during his confirmation hearings as Chief Justice. And now that he’s presiding over the Court as Chief Justice, he has brought a kinder and gentler sensibility to its proceedings.

Linda Greenhouse, doing her best impression of Elisabeth Bumiller (or maybe even Robin Givhan), reports:

This is the week that the Supreme Court, done with its regular argument sessions, enters the stretch run. While it is too soon for substantive appraisals of the first year of the Roberts court, it is not too soon for stylistic observations about what is clearly, in the view of lawyers who have appeared there this term, a different court…

In common with every other Supreme Court specialist contacted for this article, [Georgetown] Professor [Richard] Lazarus listed several obvious changes. “They’re not stepping on each other,” he said of the justices. “They take longer before someone asks the first question. They give the lawyers more time to answer.”

[A] different dynamic seems to prevail throughout entire arguments. With justices sitting back and allowing colleagues to ask follow-up questions, and with lawyers given an actual chance to answer, there is a new coherence and civility to the sessions.

Well isn’t that special. The justices are now so… polite!

“Oh goodness, Ruthie, I’m sorry I interrupted you!” “Not at all, Nino, I was pretty much done — you go right ahead!”

Additional reflections appear after the jump.

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* Republicans in Congress settle on $70B tax-cut package as proposal for $100 gas vouchers withers; Bush “implored lawmakers to deliver an agreement he could tout.” [WP, WP, NYT]
* Immigration rallies apparently made little influence on Congress. [NYT]
* Democrats aim to pick up House seats in the Northeast. [NYT]
* Bush may have sung a Spanish version of the national anthem at a campaign event. [WP]
* House votes on lobbying reform today. [USAT]
* Administration is testing “antisatellite weapons.” [NYT]
* Democrats threaten to filibuster one, maybe two, conservative judicial nominations. [WP]
* Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is on a one-man mission to eliminate earmarks from the emergency spending bill. [WP]
* The Supreme Court under John Roberts has become more contemplative and patient. [NYT]
* Blogosphere bloviates about Stephen Colbert’s performance. [NYT]

This morning the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Anna Nicole Smith, the luscious ex-Playmate seeking a fair share of her late husband’s estate. We’re not terribly surprised, having predicted this outcome; but we are pleased for her. (It seems the justices were unable to resist Smith’s audacious strategy of proceeding pro se before them.)

Okay, this is the paragraph where we’d block quote a key excerpt from the opinion. But we won’t do that, since it’s kinda boring. Yes, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the opinion, but this time it’s not her fault. Despite the high-profile parties, the subject matter of the litigation — the extent of the “probate exception” to federal jurisdiction — is less-than-scintillating. We’ll spare you the details, and you can thank us later. (If you’d like some actual legal analysis of the decision, check out SCOTUSblog, among many other fine blawgs.)

With a widely expected outcome and a soporific, technical legal issue, we don’t have much to say. Two quick observations about the case appear after the jump.

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People seem to be having a good time these days. This week in Wonk’d brings us Judy Miller, savoring her freedom; Chief Justice John Roberts, taking in the cherry blossoms; and James Carville, enjoying a springtime run. Also spotted: Hillary Clinton, hopping into her pimped-out town car; Rep. James Sensenbrenner, buying a small fortune in lottery tickets; and Cynthia McKinney pal Danny Glover, asking for directions. You can check them out, along with several other celebrity sightings, after the jump.

Please continue to keep us well-stocked in sightings, via email, with “Wonk’d” or “Sighting” in the subject line (along with the name of the spotted celeb). Thanks!

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