Amy Howe chats with the 538 crew. … Continue reading
Category Archives: Supreme Court
Plaintiffs have filed this unusual motion in the Supreme Court asking for the Court to send the case back to the district court to engage in factfinding over whether government officials lied about why Secretary Ross decided to include the … Continue reading
From Dale Ho, who argued the census case for plaintiffs in the Supreme Court: Anyone else think it’s weird that Justices Thomas & Gorsuch think that the VRA doesn’t prohibit vote dilution (see Abbott v Perez), but may vote to … Continue reading
Greg Stohr for Bloomberg. The U.S. Supreme Court enters the homestretch of its term with looming decisions that could affect the 2020 election and thrust the court even deeper into the nation’s political wars.Between now and the end of June, … Continue reading
AP reports. … Continue reading
From the speech: “Speculators about the outcome note that last year, in Trump v. Hawaii, the Court upheld the so-called “travel ban,” in an opinion granting great deference to the Executive. Respondents in the census case have argued that a … Continue reading
WaPo deep dive. … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy: A few weeks ago, the Supreme Court delivered a surprising rebuke to those who think corporations just don’t have enough influence on U.S. elections. In declining to hear the case of 1A Auto, Inc. vs. Sullivan, the court essentially guaranteed … Continue reading
Linda Greenhouse in the NYT: What changed my mind about writing about this issue again was the administration’s response to the request by the plaintiffs, a coalition of immigrant rights groups, to Judge Furman for “sanctions or other appropriate relief” against a Justice Department … Continue reading
These developments make it much harder for plaintiffs to get any new factual findings before the Supreme Court rules in the census case. 16. Judge Furman says he sees "no reason to rush this process" before #SCOTUS reaches it decision … Continue reading
Letter: The link will bring you to the rest of the letter. … Continue reading
Michael Kang has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Boston College Law Review). Here is the abstract: We live in hyperpartisan times. Democrats and Republicans have not been so bitterly divided along partisan lines since Reconstruction, nor so aggressively hostile … Continue reading
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Assembly Speaker Robin Vos won’t have to sit for a deposition in Wisconsin’s gerrymandering case in the short term — and might escape having to testify entirely. A panel of appeals judges blocked a lower court order Tuesday for the Rochester … Continue reading
The other day I tweeted this: This is a key point and shows that whether or not DOJ borrowed from Hoefeller, the motivation was to allow states to engage in redistricting based on voter eligible persons, which would dilute the … Continue reading
Read the thread, starting here: Needless to say, I am outraged that my work is being misrepresented by the DOJ in its most recent filing in the census case before the SDNY.— nathaniel persily (@persily) June 4, 2019 … Continue reading
CNN reports. … Continue reading
Here is the letter, painting a starkly different picture of both the facts and legal relevance of the Hofeller materials. This will no doubt have to be hashed out by the district court, while the Supreme Court drafts its opinion … Continue reading
Hope to see many of you there (and the event will be live webcast. Registration opens today. Details: 9th Annual Supreme Court Term in Review Monday, July 8 at 10:30am to 12:00pm Irvine Barclay Theatre & Cheng Hall 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine, CA … Continue reading
David Leonhardt for NYT Opinion. … Continue reading
Here. … Continue reading
You can listen here. … Continue reading
I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: If we had a fair Supreme Court not driven by partisanship in its most political cases, Thursday’s blockbuster revelation in the census case would lead the court to unanimously rule in Department of Commerce … Continue reading
The case is Feehan v. Marcone and the cert petition is here. … Continue reading
WaPo: When President Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in 2016, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) refused to consider him, blocking the nominee until after the year’s presidential election.He said then that “the American people should have a … Continue reading
Miriam Galston has posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: If you read Supreme Court campaign finance cases, you will be struck by the disconnect between the lofty rhetoric used to justify the constitutional protections afforded political speech … Continue reading
The following is a guest post from Wendy Tam Cho: The Court has issued a stay in the Ohio and Michigan partisan gerrymandering cases, and we await their rulings in North Carolina and Maryland. I was an expert witness in … Continue reading
Today’s orders are no surprise. Indeed, the Court often fails to give preliminary relief in redistricting cases even when the plaintiffs eventually win on the merits. Indeed, if the Court did allow the remaps to take place while the Maryland … Continue reading
Really sharp Anita Krishnakumar piece at SCOTUSBlog. … Continue reading
Bloomberg: The U.S. Supreme Court declined an opportunity to give businesses broader rights to contribute money to political candidates and causes.The justices, without comment Monday, refused to question a Massachusetts law that bars for-profit corporations from making campaign donations. … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy blogs. … Continue reading
Roll Call: The Supreme Court on Monday gave the challengers of congressional maps in Ohio and Michigan until May 20 to respond to requests from state officials to stop court-ordered redrawing of district lines. Lower courts found the maps were … Continue reading
SCOTUSBlog: At the end of March, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in two cases challenging federal congressional districts in North Carolina and Maryland as the product of unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering. A key question in both cases was whether courts should review partisan-gerrymandering claims … Continue reading
Here at The Economist. … Continue reading
Linda Greenhouse NYT column: But if the plaintiff states are going to lose, it seems to me that it matters greatly how they lose. What was depressing and even scary about the April 23 argument was the disingenuous lengths to which the … Continue reading
Mike Parsons: In the past two weeks, federal district courts have struck down partisan gerrymanders in both Michigan and Ohio. As a matter of legal doctrine, these decisions are important. As Nick Stephanopoulos states, they reveal an emerging consensus among lower courts on the standards … Continue reading
Mark Joseph Stern for Slate. … Continue reading
You can find the opinion at this link. From the introduction: We join the other federal courts that have held partisan gerrymandering unconstitutional and developed substantially similar standards for adjudicating such claims. We are convinced by the evidence that this … Continue reading
Steve Mazie for the Economist. Yet the difficulty of replicating Michigan’s transition in most other states is a hard reality. And the Wolverine state’s success is allowing some justices to believe that the courts can sit back and let democracy … Continue reading
You can find the 23-page review of my book, The Justice of Contradictions: Antonin Scalia and the Politics of Disruption, at this link. Although Samuel has much to disagree with, the former Scalia clerk says this: “Hasen’s book ought to … Continue reading
Detroit News: Michigan legislative and congressional Republicans are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a blockbuster ruling that the state’s political maps must be redrawn because of an unconstitutional gerrymander of “historical proportions.” Attorneys for GOP lawmakers on Tuesday filed notices … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy on the census litigation. … Continue reading
Adam Liptak NYT Sidebar column: Two years ago, at his confirmation hearings, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch said that what happens abroad should not influence American judges in constitutional cases.“We have our own tradition and our own history,” he said, “and I … Continue reading
Here at Oyez. … Continue reading
WaPo oped. … Continue reading
Eric Muller in Slate. … Continue reading
Cristian Farias in the NYT: For all his talk about judges not being political actors beholden to a president, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and his conservative colleagues on the Supreme Court may hand President Trump one of the biggest political victories of … Continue reading
WaPo column: Our nation faces a constitutional conflagration, and President Trump is not the only actor willing to put personal and partisan interests above the preservation of our system of self-rule.Five conservative justices on the Supreme Court signaled clearly on … Continue reading
David Gans for Slate. … Continue reading
Mark Joseph Stern: What’s startling about Roberts, Kavanaugh, and Gorsuch’s questions in particular is that they seem to betray fundamental principles of the court’s conservative bloc. Gorsuch has disclaimed reliance on international law, proclaiming: “We have our own tradition and our own … Continue reading
Howard’s got it. … Continue reading