The Heritage Foundation released the following statement yesterday by former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III concerning the announcement of Justice David Souter’s pending retirement from the Supreme Court. Meese is chairman of Heritage’s Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. “Justice Souter’s decision to retire presents President Obama and the U.S. Senate with a decision of great and lasting importance. Although no originalist, Justice Souter rejected a liberal, activist approach on a number of important cases, particularly in the areas of crime, punishment, and lawsuit abuse. Supreme Court appointments are …
President Barack Obama outlined his criteria for appointing a replacement for retiring-Justice David Souter today. In Obama’s world, justice should not blind, instead: I will seek …. someone who understands justice and isn’t about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a case book, it is also about how our laws affect the daily realities of people’s live whether they can make a living and care for their families whether they feel safe in their homes and welcome in their own nation, I view that quality of empathy of understanding …
Following the news that Justice Souter will be retiring this summer after the Supreme Court’s present term ends, President Obama dropped into the White House briefing room this afternoon and commented on how what he will be looking for in a replacement. Unfortunately, his remarks were in keeping with his prior statements during the campaign and when he voted against the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts. His words should upset Americans who overwhelmingly want justices who recognize their responsibility and duty to adhere to the Constitution and to apply …
Though certainly no originalist, Justice David Souter is not a complete judicial activist, either. On a number of cases and issues, he has rejected the activist “empathy” standard promoted by President Obama to instead cast votes and write opinions that are in accord with the demands of the Constitution and the rule of law. And in a number of cases, particularly in the areas of crime and punishment and lawsuit abuse, he has broken ranks with the Court’s more liberal wing to do so. Here is a sampling of some …
The news that Justice David Souter will be resigning from the Supreme Court has left some conservatives momentarily confused. It should not. As much as Justice Souter disappointed those faithful to the Constitution, and those disappointments are legion, he was reasonable or even sound in several key areas (more will be forthcoming from my colleagues on that). Any Supreme Court appointment is momentous, but what is at stake now is a potential shift from a center-left justice to a far-left justice. This is what all Americans have a right to …
Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the longest serving Senator in Pennsylvania history, has made some history today by switching from the Republican to the Democrat Party. Specter’s switch will have policy ramifications for conservatives. As of today, 59 Senators caucus with the Democrats, including Specter, socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Independent Democrat Senator Joe Lieberman. One Senate race is still in dispute, but comedian Al Franken seems to be close to securing the disputed Senate seat in Minnesota. If Franken is seated, then a caucus of Democrats would …
In light of Obama’s appointment of Judge David Hamilton to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday, Quin Hillyer’s article in DC Examiner is particularly timely, and worth a read. The article features advice offered to Obama by Clinton administration Acting Solicitor General Walter Dellinger, National Journal columnist Stuart Taylor, and Bench Memo’s own Jonathan Adler at an event hosted by former Attorney General Edwin Meese here at The Heritage Foundation. Despite their different political and jurisprudential philosophies, Quin notes that all three panelists agreed that Obama should follow President …
Those who remember the Warren Court recall imaginative renderings of the constitution to expand criminal’s rights coupled with outright judicial hostility to police. The result was a national crime wave only recently curbed by new police techniques and more favorable rulings from the Supreme Court. Now that Barack Obama has identified Earl Warren as a model judge, we could face a judicial flashback to the 1970s. Unfortunately, we have a preview of what that might look like from a recent Sixth Circuit case involving a drug arrest in Michigan. The …
For the first time this year the Senate acted on President Bush’s judicial nominees, confirming five yesterday, including one appellate court nominee, in what can best be described as a miracle given the glacial pace Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) are moving. Not since James Polk, our nation’s 11th president was in the White House has it taken this long to confirm judicial nominees in an election year. “The majority has stalled judicial confirmation votes longer this year than in any presidential election year …
