On Monday April 1, 2019 the Supreme Court decided the case Bucklew v. Precythe with the five conservative justices in the majority and the four liberals in dissent. To some including legal scholar and CNN analyst Steve Vladeck, this ruling ushered in a new conservative Court without the moderating anchor of Justice Kennedy. Going even…
Tag: Murphy v. Smith
An Opinion is Worth at Least 1,000 Words
Supreme Court opinions come in all different shapes and sizes. Some are short and sweet, others are dense, long, and hard to follow. Some reasons behind relative opinion length are obvious. Even though the justices tend not to grant cases with facile solutions, certain cases are more complex and involve extensive fact patterns. Along with…
The Interpretive Dance
In the Supreme Court’s first decision of the term, Hamer v. Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg cited language from the court’s 2010 decision in Magwood v. Patterson stipulating that “[w]e cannot replace the actual text with speculation as to Congress’ intent.” Indeed, as Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the 2015 decision Ross…
Empirical SCOTUS 