The Supreme Court released its opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health on June 24, 2022. Within a little over a month of the release, a robust discussion developed within both Houses of Congress on whether there should be a legislative response to this decision. Congress is notorious for lots of discussion combined with little…
Category: Politics/News
Does the Supreme Court React to Congressional Preferences?
In the 2019 case United States v. Davis, Justice Gorsuch began with an important statement regarding constitutional statutes. Gorsuch wrote, “In our constitutional order, a vague law is no law at all. Only the people’s elected representatives in Congress have the power to write new federal criminal laws. And when Congress exercises that power, it…
How the Court’s Decisions Limit the National Electorate
This post looks at the Supreme Court’s election law jurisprudence under the Roberts Court. Supreme Court opinions and applications were searched from 2005 through the present for the term “election.” All cases were examined and any that related to elections or voting procedures were maintained in the dataset. Cases were broken down across several issues…
RBG’s Departure Might Look A Lot Like Thurgood Marshall’s
Justice Ginsburg has had quite a few health scares over the past little over a decade. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2009 and subsequently resisted pressure to retire from the Court under Obama’s administration. With multiple hospital stays this year and a recurrence of her pancreatic cancer, many question how long she will…
Something We Haven’t Seen in the Supreme Court Since the Civil War
The Civil War was fought between 1861 and 1865 and the Court was affected by the war like all national institutions. During the second year of the war in 1862 the Court decided 41 cases by signed decisions and in 1864 the Court decided 57 such cases. According to the United States Supreme Court Database,…
Supreme Court Justice T.V. News Coverage
Supreme Court Justices live dual lives. On one hand they predominately manage to stay out of the limelight while actually doing their jobs. Even with pressure to the contrary, the justices have managed to keep cameras out of the Court, and to limit the release of audio recordings of oral arguments to the Fridays after the…
Changes to the Federal Courts: Trump’s Most Significant and Lasting Legacy
The current presidency has been one of the biggest political roller coasters of modern times. Terms like “emoluments” that have not been bandied about in several hundreds of years have become verbatim. Seldom is there a time when the cover story in any major news media does not involve President Trump. While calls for impeachment…
A Whole New Ballgame: How Trump’s First Time Judges are Unlike Anything We’ve Seen Before
The President is transforming the federal courts in a flurry unlike anything we’ve seen in the past. Since he began his tenure in office, President Trump made revamping the courts a top priority. Even before elected he made this one of his most prominent campaign pledges. This started with his promise to fill Justice Scalia’s seat on the Supreme Court at the commencement of his presidency and has continued at a rapid pace ever since.
Where the Top Democratic Candidates Stand on the Supreme Court
[Wordcloud from the 3rd Democratic Debate Transcript] Here is a look at which Democratic candidates are on top of the polls from Real Clear Politics. The top candidates plans for the Supreme Court and other federal courts are described below. Biden: Plans to Keep the Supreme Court as is. No mention of plan for courts on main…
Justice Filtered: Plans to Manage Diversity in the Federal Judiciary
Since Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017, his administration has made major changes to the federal judiciary. This includes filling two Supreme Court seats along with a total of 146 confirmed Article III (federal district, appellate, Supreme Courts, and the court of international trade) judges. Democrats saw their last Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, fade away…
Comparing Cert Stage OSG Efforts Under Obama and Trump
The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) is involved in more Supreme Court litigation on a yearly basis than any other entity. The OSG also plays a unique role in this litigation as its team provides the Court with information, which is oftentimes related to the incumbent administration’s policy views. This singular position has been…
If Ginsburg Leaves it Could be the Left’s Biggest Loss Yet
The saga over Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s health seems to ebb and flow from the headlines almost daily. Part of the mystery relates to the amount of information shared with the public. We know Ginsburg broke ribs and while providing care for her ribs doctors found malignant lesions in her lungs that were promptly removed. She…
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