One of the more difficult questions facing Supreme Court scholars is trying to decipher the impact of the litigants. Given the secrecy with which the Supreme Court conducts the majority of its business, any effort towards understanding the decision making process is inevitably met with frustration. The most recent insight we have into any of…
Tag: Sessions v. Morales-Santana
An Uphill Battle for the Court’s Liberals
“[I]f a law be in opposition to the Constitution, if both the law and the Constitution apply to a particular case, so that the Court must either decide that case conformably to the law, disregarding the Constitution, or conformably to the Constitution, disregarding the law, the Court must determine which of these conflicting rules governs…
Will the Trump Administration Receive Another Legal Blow When The Court Decides on the Travel Ban’s Constitutionality?
The Supreme Court already agreed to hear many significant cases in the fall 2017 term. Among these is one of the most important tests of executive power the Court has ever heard. This case, consolidated as Trump. v. International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), involves the administration’s travel ban – specifically Executive Order No. 13780 –…
Developing the Court’s Precedent 2016
Through the course of a single term, the Supreme Court went from a “boring” eight member body to one apparently itching to take on polarizing political issues. This transformation took place in the Court’s first full term without Justice Scalia since 1986. Some (including Justice Breyer) speculated that Scalia’s absence would have a large impact…
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