Category: Commentary

Event Recap: Impeachment 101

Impeachment Trial 101 flyerOn January 23, our American Constitution Society hosted a panel of three Chicago-Kent Constitutional Law professors to provide context and history about the current impeachment trial.

Professor Schmidt began the event with video clips of the opening statements from senators that quoted from the framers of the constitution before opening it up for more discussion and student questions.

Thanks to our student leaders for providing notes from the discussion and livetweeting the event, this recap is edited from their contributions.

ACS Leaders with Chicago-Kent Constitutional Law Professors
Chicago-Kent Constitutional Law professors Carolyn Shapiro, Christopher Schmidt, and Steven Heyman with ACS student leaders

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Professor Shapiro discusses the prospect of SCOTUS reviewing President Trump’s EO on immigration on “Chicago Tonight”

Professor Carolyn Shapiro was a guest panelist on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” on May 30, 2017, to discuss the prospect of the U.S. Supreme Court reviewing president Trump’s second executive order on immigration. The executive order, which would temporarily ban travelers from six predominantly Muslim countries, is blocked by an injunction recently upheld by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Professor Shapiro also commented on cases on the Supreme Court docket related to gerrymandering and whether religious institutions have a right to receive government funds.

Gaming Out the Nuclear Option

By Professor Carolyn Shapiro

Going nuclear may serve Republicans today, but in the long term, it may do more for Democrats. Today, in response to a Democratic filibuster of Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court, the Republicans voted to eliminate the 60-vote threshold to end debate on a Supreme Court nomination. The Republicans have an immediate victory here: Justice Gorsuch will be sitting on the Supreme Court before its oral arguments scheduled for later this month. But in the long run, the elimination of the filibuster may help Democrats more than Republicans when it comes to Supreme Court appointments. (I’m not alone in thinking about unintended consequences here. Nate Silver of 538.com has an extensive piece today about how Republicans have generally used the filibuster more effectively than Democrats to block legislation and arguing that eroding its power may thus advantage Democrats in areas beyond the Supreme Court.)

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Should Democrats Filibuster the Gorsuch Nomination? Pro & Con

By Professor Christopher Schmidt

Here are the arguments for why Senate Democrats should filibuster:

  1. They need to protest what Republicans did to Judge Garland’s nomination last year. Democrats need to take extraordinary action to make it clear the extreme wrong of the Republican refusal to hold hearings.
  2. Judge Gorsuch will be such a conservative justice that Democrats need to do all they can to try to stop his nomination.
  3. The Base. The progressive base and liberal pressure groups are energized and are demanding that Democratic senators do all they can to stop the nomination. Even if a filibuster is unlikely to prevent Gorsuch from taking his seat, it could be seen as a partial victory and might further energize the base for future battles.
  4. Long Game. The most likely consequence of a filibuster—i.e., the “nuclear option” of a Senate rules change that eliminates the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations—is not as bad as it sounds. A straight majority vote process might even allow a future Democratic-controlled Senate to get a more liberal justice onto the Court.

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The Gorsuch Report—Going Nuclear?

By Professor Christopher Schmidt

It’s showdown week for the Gorsuch nomination. Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee debates and votes on the nominee. Democratic committee members scored a minor victory after the hearings had concluded when they were able to head off the effort of Republican committee members to have a quick vote on Gorsuch. The Democrats asked for more time so they could receive and review written responses to questions posed by the senators. The Committee vote on Gorsuch today is expected to fall along party lines (11 Republicans in support; 9 Democrats opposed).

Then the real fireworks are expected when the nomination comes to the full Senate.

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Why the Democrats Lost the Gorsuch Hearings

By Professor Christopher Schmidt

Judge Neil Gorsuch is headed toward Senate confirmation. Ever since the President made the nomination, it has been hard to imagine another outcome. Short of some scandalous skeletons emerging from Judge Gorsuch’s closet—a closet that, by all accounts, appears safely devoid of anything of much interest—this is a loss Democrats expected. The Republicans have the votes to put Gorsuch on the Court (although they may need to invoke the “nuclear option” and eliminate the filibuster to do so). Gorsuch’s strong performance in the hearings only gave them more reasons to support him.

Knowing this was a loss they were going to have to absorb, Democrats still hoped to at least score some political points during the hearings. It was a highly visible opportunity to advance their concerns with the politics surrounding the nomination process and the nominee’s conservative jurisprudence. Yet here too, I think the Democratic efforts should be judged a loss. They were unable to take advantage of the hearings to advance their agenda in any meaningful way.

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The Gorsuch Report—Confirmation Hearings, Day 3

By Professor Christopher Schmidt

It was another long day for Judge Neil Gorsuch. Yesterday, day three of his Supreme Court confirmation hearings, was the second round of questions from senators on the Judiciary Committee. In the first round, senators had thirty minutes each to question the nominee; for the second round, senators had twenty minutes each. The headlines were largely the same as the day before: Gorsuch was composed and articulate, if perhaps a bit overly scripted at times; he gave precious little in the way of specific views on key legal issues or precedents, seemingly even less than other recent nominees; and things generally are looking good for the judge to become the next associate justice of the US Supreme Court.

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Professor Shapiro discusses Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch on “Chicago Tonight”

Professor Carolyn Shapiro was a guest panelist on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” on March 22, 2017, to discuss Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch’s responses to the intense questioning from Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee as the hearings continued into the second day. Michael Scodro, a former Chicago-Kent professor, also appeared on the program.

The Gorsuch Report—Confirmation Hearings (Halftime Report)

By Professor Christopher Schmidt

It was a long day for Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. For over eleven hours yesterday, the 10th Circuit judge answered questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee. Each senator had thirty minutes to question Judge Gorsuch (or, as was often the case, to deliver monologues with question marks at the end). The second day of the confirmation hearings concluded after the dinner hour on a rather strange note, with a senator suggesting that Judge Gorsuch stay away from vodka for the night and the nominee saying he was ready to “hit the hay.”

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The Gorsuch Report—Confirmation Hearings Day 1

By Professor Christopher Schmidt

It’s finally here. Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee begins its confirmation hearing for Judge Neil Gorsuch to become the next associate justice of the Supreme Court.

Judge Gorsuch has been busy during the seven weeks since President Trump nominated him. He has met with 72 senators. He has been studying, going over his own opinions and reviewing major Supreme Court decisions that are likely to be discussed at the hearings. And he has been sharpening his answers by participating in simulated confirmation hearing sessions. (NPR’s Nina Totenberg notes that Robert Bork, who the Senate refused to confirm in 1987, “refused to submit himself to these practice sessions, and paid dearly with a performance that made him sometimes sound arrogant and less than fully candid.” The New York Times just posted a video documentary looking back at the Bork nomination. )

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