Today the Senate confirmed Elena Kagan to the United States Supreme Court. Yet the vote breakdown is telling. Even with a Democrat stronghold in the Senate, Kagan received more “no” votes [37] than any Democrat Supreme Court nominee in 100 years, and with bipartisan opposition to top it off. With liberals expected to loose seats in the Senate this November, the number of senators who are likely to seriously scrutinize Obama judicial nominees will only increase. This should send a resounding message to President Obama, who may well have one …
Many who advocate for the appointment of originalist judges believe that the Court will not be worse off when Justice John Paul Stevens is replaced. After all, who could possibly be more of a liberal activist than the leader of the Court’s liberal bloc, Justice Stevens? This mode of thinking is grossly mistaken. Though Justice Stevens was certainly no originalist, there were some areas where his legal analysis was reasonable: certain elements of criminal law and election law, for example. While Stevens was disappointing in Eighth Amendment cases, he could …
It is difficult to imagine the Ninth Circuit as any more radically liberal than it already is. Despite a few stellar judges, the Court is full of liberal activists who have earned it the reputation of having the highest Supreme Court reversal rate of any court in the nation. But, with his latest judicial nominee, President Obama just may do what seemed impossible. There are many red flags in the judicial record of Ninth Circuit nominee Goodwin Liu, who is Associate Dean at the University of California Berkeley Law School. …
Last week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance (PDF). Judge Carlos Bea, the author of the majority opinion, finely exhibited what it means to be a constitutionalist judge. His opinion considered the words “under God” not in isolation, but within their proper context and according to an honest analysis of the relevant history. In contrast, Judge Reinhardt’s dissenting opinion displays judicial activism at its best. Reinhardt used his opinion as a vessel through which to advance his own political views: attacking politicians …
President Obama has received criticism from yet another Supreme Court justice concerning his inappropriate and unprecedented chastisement of the Court during the State of the Union address. Obama criticized the Court’s recent campaign finance opinion while six of the justices sat before him, obviously unable to respond to the criticism during the address. Tuesday, Chief Justice John Roberts told a group of University of Alabama law students that the State of the Union has “degenerated into a political pep rally” and, like his colleague Justice Thomas did just days after …
The false alarm concerning the possible resignation of Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr. sent shockwaves throughout the blogosphere and media outlets yesterday afternoon. Those of us who respect the Chief’s service to our country and fidelity to the Constitution were relieved when the rumors were false. But this fire drill served as a reminder of the importance of the judiciary in our society—an importance bloated by the Supreme Court’s usurpation of the proper policymaking functions of the other branches of the national government and of the states. The Supreme Court …
This morning, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in McDonald v. Chicago, a landmark case addressing whether states can deny the rights of their citizens to keep and bear arms. This question was left open by the Supreme Court’s groundbreaking yet common sense decision in Heller v. District of Columbia, in which the Court concluded, yes, the Second Amendment does actually protect an individual right to keep and bear arms. The successful lawyer for Heller, Alan Gura, will be the lead counsel in McDonald as well. Inevitably, all eyes …
The American Founders recognized that federalism is essential to maintaining individual liberty in the United States. The Constitution therefore grants the federal government only certain limited powers which were specifically enumerated in the document, and thus requires the different sovereigns (state and federal) to compete for the affection of the people. It also allows the people to seek support from one level of government if the other begins to act in a tyrannical way. Those safeguards to liberty in constitutional federalism cease to exist if one sovereign becomes the vassal …
The New York Times highlighted a speech that Justice Clarence Thomas delivered at a Florida law school in which he defended the Supreme Court’s recent campaign finance decision in Citizens United v. FEC. In that speech, Thomas also addressed why he chose to forgo the president’s state of the union address: “I don’t go because it has become so partisan and it’s very uncomfortable for a judge to sit there,” he said, adding that “there’s a lot that you don’t hear on TV — the catcalls, the whooping and hollering …
Today, the Senate may vote to limit debate on the nomination of Judge David Hamilton to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, a significant federal court which covers Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, and whose opinions are more often than not the final word in cases. By limiting debate, Senators will barely have time to scratch the surface of Hamilton’s record of radicalism before considering whether to confirm him for this important, lifetime position. Judge Hamilton, currently a federal trial court judge in Indiana, has a long career of liberal political …
