Here‘s Bob Egelko’s review “Originalism on Trial,” in the LA Review of Books, reviewing my book, The Justice of Contradictions: Antonin Scalia and the Politics of Disruption. … Continue reading
Category Archives: Supreme Court
Manu Raju and Joan Biskupic report for CNN. A few of my earlier Slate pieces: The Only Thing That Might Stop Trump From Replacing Kennedy With a Scalia Clone How Justice Kennedy’s Successor Will Wreak Havoc on Voting Rights and … Continue reading
Listen here. (Link to buy the book, The Justice of Contradictions: Antonin Scalia and the Politics of Disruption.) … Continue reading
Guy Charles and Luis Fuentes-Rohwer for the HLR Blog. … Continue reading
Daniel Weiner blogs. … Continue reading
Peter Overby reports for NPR. … Continue reading
WaPo: Liberal activists, who were dramatically outspent in their last fight to fend off President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, are embracing a tactic that has been a mainstay of the conservative political playbook: tapping a war chest financed by unidentified … Continue reading
Michael Morley at The Conversation. … Continue reading
Adam Liptak for the NYT: Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh has a favorite sentence. It explains why he is likely to reaffirm and build on the Citizens United decision if he is confirmed to the Supreme Court. The sentence appeared in a 1976 … Continue reading
I sat down with Dahlia Lithwick for Slate’s Amicus Podcast. Listen: In the first of a series of deep dives into great legal reads this summer, Dahlia Lithwick talks with Rick Hasen, author of The Justice of Contradictions: Antonin Scalia and the … Continue reading
Every Voice: A Russian company indicted earlier this year as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into foreign interference in our elections is using a decision written by none other than Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to … Continue reading
NYT, CouldWouldaShoulda Dept: “Now, as the Senate faces another court vacancy — one that could tilt the court’s ideological balance and cement a conservative majority — the Democrats have few tools to fight the nomination. A different outcome last year … Continue reading
Charles Davis on SCOTUSBlog: Kavanaugh’s opinion showed hostility towards the Supreme Court’s views in McConnell. It questioned the theory that these [soft money] limits could be justified simply by the close connection between political parties and candidates or officeholders, and more … Continue reading
NYT op-ed: “The threat of voter disenfranchisement will get worse if Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed to the court. His opinion in the South Carolina [voter ID preclearance] case and his record in civil rights matters suggests that he will join … Continue reading
From Politico, here are some excerpts on how his confirmation would affect election law and democracy: Geof Stone: “Across the entire spectrum of critical constitutional issues – ranging from abortion to gay rights to affirmative action to gerrymandering to campaign … Continue reading
Fact sheet available here. Their conclusion: “Judge Kavanaugh’s record raises serious concerns that he would expand the power of big money in politics, weaken voter protections, and insulate the president from the rule of law. Senators must press Kavanaugh and … Continue reading
Ken White writes that Judge Kavanaugh’s opinions “are consistent with the Supreme Court’s strong protection of free speech rights this century,” and that he has “voted to strike down campaign financing laws and regulations under the First Amendment.” Jonathan Adler agrees: “Justice … Continue reading
[Bumped to top] NYT calls Judge Kavanaugh a “Conservative Stalwart,” noting his involvement in an “extraordinary number of political controversies” since early in his legal career, including Ken Starr’s investigation of President Clinton and the 2000 Florida recount litigation. It … Continue reading
President Trump is scheduled to announce his nominee in prime time tonight, with Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, Raymond Kethledge, and Thomas Hardiman the four reported finalists. Coverage and analysis from 538, NYT, Politico, RCP, WSJ, WaPo. … Continue reading
[Bumping to the top.] Can’t wait for this, coming on the day of the expected announcement of President Trump’s nominee to replace Justice Kennedy: Livestream > This exciting and entertaining program reviews the Supreme Court’s key cases decided in the … Continue reading
Ezra Klein at Vox: [T]he Supreme Court’s conservative bloc doesn’t just reflect the outcomes of America’s undemocratic electoral rules; it is writing and, in some cases, rewriting them, to favor the Republican Party — making it easier to suppress votes, … Continue reading
Deep, insightful post from Ned at SCOTUSBlog: Justice Anthony Kennedy’s jurisprudence on voting rights must be understood in the context of his overall constitutional philosophy. While certainly appreciative of the role that democratic elections play as part of the republican … Continue reading
Tweet thread. … Continue reading
Here at Twitter. … Continue reading
Here’s an interview I did on NPR’s Morning Edition. … Continue reading
NYT: Judicial Crisis Network, an organization that promotes conservative judicial nominees, announced last week that it would spend more than $1 million to support Mr. Trump’s nominee. So far, the group has spent as much as $140,000 on a series of nearly … Continue reading
The National Law Journal has an interesting article on Jim Bopp sending a letter to President Trump and VP Pence arguing against Judge Brett Kavanaugh for SCOTUS on grounds that he’s not deregulatory enough when it comes to campaign finance … Continue reading
Here’s the order. There’s not much left to do after the Supreme Court killed most of the plaintiffs’ case in Abbott v. Perez. My take at Slate: Suppression of Minority Voting Rights Is About to Get Way Worse. … Continue reading
I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement from the Supreme Court last week, was certainly the “swing justice” in key cases on major issues from abortion to gay rights. But when … Continue reading
NYT: The Supreme Court decision striking down mandatory union fees for government workers was not only a blow to unions. It will also hit hard at a vast network of groups dedicated to advancing liberal policies and candidates. Some of these groups … Continue reading
WaPo: “This president had a vision,” Leo said. “He did something entrepreneurial and different. He had a very clear sense of what he wanted, he spent a lot of time asking questions about [the late] Justice [Antonin] Scalia and Justice … Continue reading
NYT: On the final day of the Supreme Court term last week, Justice Elena Kagan sounded an alarm. The court’s five conservative members, citing the First Amendment, had just dealt public unions a devastating blow. The day before, the same majority … Continue reading
Nina Totenberg analysis for NPR. … Continue reading
Michael Wines for the NY Times: For 14 years, as partisan gerrymanders across the country grew more extreme, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy came to symbolize hopes that the Supreme Court would eventually rein them in. His retirement this week did … Continue reading
Adam Liptak and Maggie Haberman at the NYT with some scintillating details of the effort to butter up Justice Kennedy. Unfortunately it has led to some nutty conspiracy theories about Justice Kennedy deciding cases to help Trump for corrupt reasons. … Continue reading
It was great to be part of this very interesting (albeit depressing) discussion. … Continue reading
Scroll down to page 18 of the orders and you will find a per curiam opinion in the Covington case. No big surprise here. The Court agrees that the district court had the power to cure racial gerrymanders it found, … Continue reading
Breaking: Supreme Court affirms without opinion lower court order rejecting partisan gerrrymandering claim in North Carolina https://t.co/GDhucsNWGM But two other cases remain pending and will work their way back to Court next term. This is somewhat of a surprise /1 … Continue reading
With the Kennedy retirement (my thoughts here and here), this should be a doozy of an event. C-SPAN is scheduled to cover. The 2017-2018 Supreme Court Review June 28, 2018 12:00 PM – 02:00 PM Event Location: National Press … Continue reading
You can find a link to listen here. … Continue reading
I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: Buckle up, folks. If you did not like what the Supreme Court has done in the last few weeks on voting rights, public-sector unions, and Trump’s travel ban, things are going … Continue reading
Following my prediction of a Kennedy retirement yesterday over at Slate, I’m adding my early thoughts to this tweet thread. More later. … Continue reading
As I expected, the 3 judge court in the North Carolina partisan gerrymandering case has set a quick schedule to consider standing issues under Gill following a Supreme Court remand. Briefs are due July 11. Assuming the lower court issues an … Continue reading
James Lucas for National Review. … Continue reading
Michael Li reminds us: Side note: There actually is a third North Carolina partisan gerrymandering case – Harris v. Cooper – that still is awaiting some action by SCOTUS. It also had been set for conference last week, but no … Continue reading
You can find it here. You can also read my Slate piece on the decision, “Suppression of Minority Voting Rights Is About to Get Way Worse; The Supreme Court has put its thumb on the scales in favor of discriminatory states. … Continue reading
Mark Joseph Stern for Slate: What may be most remarkable about Monday’s decision in Abbott v. Perez, however, is Justice Neil Gorsuch’s effort to position himself as a fierce opponent of the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court already gutted a … Continue reading
WaPo: The Supreme Court signaled Monday that it is in no hurry to decide two important questions it sidestepped earlier this term: whether a business owner’s religious beliefs can justify refusing wedding services to same-sex couples, and how courts should … Continue reading
Great opening quoting Justin Levitt and Rick Pildes in this well-done NPR report by Nina Totenberg on today’s Texas redistricting decision. … Continue reading