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Posts Tagged ‘judicial nominations’

  • Meese Weighs in on Souter’s Retirement and What’s Next

    Posted May 2nd, 2009 at 3:48pm in Ongoing Priorities, Rule of Law 13

    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 [...] More

  • Obama’s Empathy Standard

    Posted May 1st, 2009 at 4:59pm in Rule of Law 18

    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 [...] More

  • Obama’s Outcome Based Jurisprudence

    Posted May 1st, 2009 at 4:58pm in Rule of Law 5

    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 [...] More

  • Not a Zero-Sum Game: Replacing Justice Souter Risks a More Activist Court

    Posted May 1st, 2009 at 3:08pm in Rule of Law 5

    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 [...] More

  • A Supreme Court Vacancy: What’s at Stake, What’s Required

    Posted May 1st, 2009 at 11:36am in Rule of Law 1

    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 [...] More

  • The Specter Defection Policy Ramifications

    Posted April 28th, 2009 at 4:04pm in Ongoing Priorities 29

    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 [...] More

  • Advice for Obama on Picking Judges

    Posted March 18th, 2009 at 8:40am in Rule of Law 0

    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 [...] More

  • The Tweety Bird Defense

    Posted December 31st, 2008 at 3:27pm in Rule of Law 10

    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 [...] More

  • The Senate’s Glacial Pace of Judicial Confirmations

    Posted April 11th, 2008 at 12:28pm in Rule of Law 0

    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 [...] More