Author Archive | Orin Kerr

The en banc Eleventh Circuit has declined to review last night’s panel decision in the Schiavo case by a vote of 10-2 [see update here], meaning that the next stage is to file a petition with Justice Kennedy (the Circuit Justice for the Eleventh Circuit) asking the Supreme Court to intervene. Justice Kennedy will refer […]

Harvard lawprof and former Solicitor General Charles Fried has an op-ed in the New York Times today: In their intervention in the Terri Schiavo matter, Republicans in Congress and President Bush have, in a few brief legislative clauses, embraced the kind of free-floating judicial activism, disregard for orderly procedure and contempt for the integrity of […]

William Saletan, in Slate, has this set of quotes: “According to the teaching of Jesus, it is God who has joined man and woman together in the marital bond. Certainly this union takes place with the free consent of both parties, but this human consent concerns a plan that is divine. . . . To […]

Hugh Hewitt comments on the Eleventh Circuit decision declining to order the feeding tube restored in the Terri Schiavo case pending trial: Judicial contempt for the coordinate branches on this scale is simply staggering. Anyone defending this morning’s majority or yesterday’s ruling has to defend this disregard of Congressional action. Hewitt sees the ruling as […]

The 2-1 opinion is here, via How Appealing. The majority opinion ends with a bit of a lesson to the American public (and Congress) about the rule of law:   There is no denying the absolute tragedy that has befallen Mrs. Schiavo. We all have our own family, our own loved ones, and our own children. […]

I’m interested in finding instances in which former Supreme Court law clerks have taken credit (at least partially) for their role influencing the outcome or opinion in famous Supreme Court cases. I’m not interested in stories of clerks making private or off-the-record comments; my interest is in public comments such as those in speeches, books, […]

can have very different meanings. The goal of many emerging parliamentary democracies, I think, is for citizens to be able to say “The government has collapsed. Now, which movie do you want to go see tomorrow?,” rather than “The government has collapsed; what street are the tanks coming down?” (or even “The government has collapsed; […]

A blogger writes: Howard Dean, on why we lose elections to Republicans in spite of our undeniably superior positions: One major reason his party lost the 2004 race to the “brain-dead” Republicans is that it has a “tendency to explain every issue in half an hour of detail,” [Howard] Dean told the semi-annual meeting of […]

I’ve found the recent debates about punishment and retribution very interesting — I may actually see whether there’s anything left to write on the subject (despite the centuries of philosophy and legal thinking on the matter). This really is terribly important stuff. It’s important if we retributivists are right (regardless of whether the retribution should […]

The Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit in three cases today: Muehler v. Mena (handcuffing during warrant execution didn’t violate Fourth Amendment), Brown v. Payton (error in jury instructions in capital case survives deferential AEDPA review), and Rancho Palos Verdes v. Abrams (no private cause of action for permit denial under the Telecommunications Act of […]

The federal district court in the Schiavo case has denied the motion for a temporary restraining order. Thanks to How Appealing for posting the opinion. It seems likely that the Eleventh Circuit will affirm, and the Supreme Court will deny certiorari, taking us back to where we started before Congress became involved.

Tony Mauro has the report.

The Toronto Star reports (and I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of the report, though I realize that there’s always a danger of reporter error): One major reason his party lost the 2004 race to the “brain-dead” Republicans is that it has a “tendency to explain every issue in half an hour of […]

The ABC poll I linked to earlier has been appearing in lots of news stories today in support of the view that most Americans oppose the Schiavo law passed by Congress last night. Reader James Christiansen writes in to point out a major problem with the poll: according to Christiansen, the wording used by the […]

Here are the two lead stories up on CNN.com right now: 1) Schiavo family arrive for federal hearing2) Jackson sobs in court after late arrival All things considered, it seems to me that when a nation’s attention is focused on the arrival of various litigants at their respective courthourses it must mean that things are […]