Category Archives: legislation and legislatures

“Academic highlight: Congressional overrides of Supreme Court decisions”

May 30, 2014, 4:40 pmlegislation and legislatures, statutory interpretation, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Amanda Frost writes at SCOTUSBlog about Christiansen and Eskridge, Congressional Overrides of Supreme Court Statutory Interpretation Decisions, 1967–2011 (Texas Law Review). My earlier coverage is here; and I will be writing a response with Jim Buatti for the Texas… Continue reading

“Gridlock in Congress? It’s probably even worse than you think”

May 29, 2014, 8:33 amlegislation and legislatures, political parties, political polarizationRick Hasen

Aaron Blake on Sarah Binder’s Polarized We Govern?

“Intertemporal Statutory Interpretation and the Evolution of Legislative Drafting”

May 23, 2014, 8:39 pmlegislation and legislatures, statutory interpretationRick Hasen

Jarrod Shobe has posted this draft on SSRN (Columbia Law Review). Here is the abstract: All theories of statutory interpretation rely on an idea of how Congress operates. A commonly held supposition among scholars is that the procedures used in… Continue reading

“The earmark end-around? Pork-barrel is out, reviews of military ladder options are in.”

May 13, 2014, 7:30 amlegislation and legislaturesRick Hasen

WaPo reports.

President Obama Earns Four Pinnocchios for Statements on Republican Senate Filibusters

May 11, 2014, 11:19 pmlegislation and legislaturesRick Hasen

WaPo‘s Fact Checker..

“The Polarized Court”

May 11, 2014, 11:00 pmlegislation and legislatures, political parties, political polarization, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Must-read Adam Liptak on the confluence of the ideological and partisan divide on the modern Supreme Court. At the end of my piece on congressional overrides of the Supreme Court’s statutory cases, I reflect on how perceived partisanship of the… Continue reading

As Predicted, Congressional Override of SCOTUS on Child Pornography Proceeds Full Speed Ahead

May 8, 2014, 7:50 amlegislation and legislatures, political parties, political polarization, statutory interpretation, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Back in April I explained why conditions were right, despite great political polarization, for Congress to override the Supreme Court’s statutory decision in Paroline v. US on the right of child pornography victims to obtain restitution. And very quickly now… Continue reading

“How Not to Pick Judges”

May 3, 2014, 11:33 amjudicial elections, legislation and legislaturesRick Hasen

Maya Sen in the NYT Sunday Review: RESEARCH has long shown that female judges vote differently from men on issues of sex discrimination, harassment and sentencing, while black judges vote differently from whites on issues involving civil rights and affirmative… Continue reading

“The Public Eye: Big business channels money to California’s moderate Democrats”

May 1, 2014, 1:03 pmcampaign finance, legislation and legislatures, lobbyingRick Hasen

Important SacBee report.

“The Court and Congress: The Child Pornography Case”

April 24, 2014, 4:01 pmlegislation and legislatures, statutory interpretationRick Hasen

Rick Pildes on Paroline and congressional overrides: Initially, the question is whether the Court should try to put Humpty Dumpty back together again: should the Court construct a version of the law that creates a rough approximation of what Congress… Continue reading

“House Lawyers Defend ‘Speech or Debate’ Protections”

April 16, 2014, 12:20 pmlegislation and legislatures, Speech or Debate ClauseRick Hasen

Legal Times: A bipartisan group of congressional leaders filed court papers Tuesday defending the constitutional shield that protects members of Congress and their staff from being forced to provide information about legislative activities. The Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of… Continue reading

“Congressional Overrides of Supreme Court Statutory Interpretation Decisions, 1967–2011”

April 11, 2014, 9:46 amlegislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Matthew Christiansen and Bill Eskridge have posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming Texas Law Review). Here is the abstract: In 1991, one of us published a groundbreaking study demonstrating that Congress frequently overrides Supreme Court statutory interpretation decisions. The intervening… Continue reading

“Congressional committee chairs have lost much of their prestige, allure”

April 6, 2014, 8:33 amlegislation and legislaturesRick Hasen

The Fix talks to Paul Kane.

“Corporate Lobbyists Assail Tax Overhaul They Once Cheered”

April 1, 2014, 7:19 amlegislation and legislatures, lobbyingRick Hasen

NYT: “The twist reflects how lobbying in Washington — and the millions of dollars in fees that lobbyists collect — are often about stopping action and preserving the status quo. Whenever Congress considers major changes to the tax code,… Continue reading