The Supreme Court released two decisions on January 23 to kick off its merits opinion releases for this term. One was a unanimous decision in Arellano v. McDonough, a case about the effective date of an award of disability compensation to a veteran of the United States military which was authored by Justice Barret while…
Tag: National Association of Manufacturers v. Department of Defense
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…
Major Players in the Lower Courts
Cases’ contours are primarily defined by the time they reach the Supreme Court. These contours take shape through litigation in lower courts. In the lower courts, judges make decisions that are by and large upheld as they are generally are left untouched. Even if appeals courts wanted to take a larger role in the universe…
Empirical SCOTUS 