On this day in 1953, Earl Warren was sworn in as the 14th Chief Justice of the United States. Warren replaced Chief Justice Fred Vinson, who had died of a heart attack on September 8, 1953. When President Dwight Eisenhower nominated the Republican governor of California to become the next Chief Justice, he praised Warren … Continue reading This Day in Supreme Court History: October 5, 1953
The trial of Justice Ginsburg for violations of judicial propriety has concluded, the jury has deliberated, and the defendant has been found guilty. The Justice was wrong to publicly and repeatedly attack Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. The Justice has her defenders of course. Some simply believe Ginsburg can do no wrong. Some argue normal … Continue reading How to Think About Justice Ginsburg’s Trump Comments
Post by Steven Heyman, Professor of Law at IIT Chicago-Kent School of Law. Antonin Scalia served on the federal bench for over three decades, first on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1982-86) and then on the U.S. Supreme Court (1986-2016). This period coincided with a remarkable shift in our … Continue reading Justice Scalia and the Transformation of First Amendment Jurisprudence
Post by Vinay Harpalani, J.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Law at Savannah Law School. Follow him on twitter at @VinayHarpalani. With Justice Antonin Scalia’s passing on February 13, the U.S. Supreme Court is at a crossroads. America is also currently in the midst of a contentious Presidential primary season, particularly on the Republican side. In the coming months … Continue reading The Supreme Court Vacancy: Constitutional and Political Issues
The following opinion piece by Carolyn Shapiro, “How Scalia played with fire,” was posted February 16, 2016, on cnn.com. The late Justice Antonin Scalia has been justly praised for his tremendous intellect, his resounding influence on the law and his supremely accessible opinions. And since his death Saturday, many commentators have noted his sincere, long friendship with liberal … Continue reading How Scalia Played With Fire
Justice Scalia made news last week for his remarks during an appearance at Rhodes College. In addition to expressing in his characteristically blunt way his frustration with the Court’s same-sex marriage opinion from last term, he predicted that the Court was on its way to striking down the death penalty. The prediction got a good … Continue reading Scalia, the Court, and the End of the Death Penalty
Most of Justice Breyer’s newly released book, The Court and the World, deals with cases in which the Court is required to engage with foreign nations and foreign law. These cases, Breyer writes, “show how routinely American interests extend beyond the water’s edge, obliging the Court, in turn, to extend its range of legal and … Continue reading Justice Breyer’s New Book on the Controversy over Citing Foreign Law
In SCOTUS news, this is Justice Breyer week. Everywhere one looks, there he is—NPR, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Colbert’s new late show. The cerebral justice has a new book out, titled The Court and the World. It is Breyer’s third book aimed at a general audience and he wants to talk … Continue reading Justice Breyer’s Big Week
Last month, in her dissent in Yates v. U.S., Justice Kagan reminded us again of why she has earned a reputation for her readable, engaging, even entertaining opinions. Yates involved a prosecution of a fisherman under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. After a federal agent found that the fisherman had some undersized red grouper in violation of … Continue reading Are You Talking To Me? The Justices and Their Audience
So now that we’ve had (if not yet heard) oral arguments in King v. Burwell, the Affordable Care Act’s second round at the Supreme Court, what have we learned about where the justices stand on this stunningly consequential case? Not all that much, I would say. Court watchers have developed a relatively predictable script for … Continue reading Following the Script: The ACA at the Supreme Court, Round 2