Marks v. United States, 430 U.S. 188 (1977), establishes the test for determining what the “holding” of the Court is when the votes are splintered: When a fragmented Court decides a case and no single rationale explaining the result enjoys the assent of five Justices, the holding of the Court may be viewed as that […]
Archive | July, 2012
Group Turns in Broken Guns to “Gun Buyback” Program, Raises Money for NRA Youth Shooting Camp
The Chicago Sun-Times reports: The city collected 5,500 guns last Saturday in the annual buyback. The city gave out $100 MasterCard gift cards for each gun and $10 cards for BB guns and replicas. Sixty of the guns and several BB guns were turned in by the Champaign-based Guns Save Life [yielding $6,240]…. Most of […]
Homeland Security Takes a Regulatory Turn
The Department of Homeland Security is a settled part of the federal landscape now, and Osama bin Laden is dead. So DHS is finding budget increases harder to come by. And as funds grow tighter, it’s inevitable that the Department will begin to look for less expensive ways to achieve its security goals. Up to now, DHS […]
Podcast of Bob Zadek Show on the 17th Amendment
Those who still care about quaint historical notions like federalism and enumerated powers might enjoy the podcast of my radio interview with Bob Zadek last week, “Repeal the 17th Amendment.” We discuss, among other issues, a certain Supreme Court case that has recently been somewhat in the news, whether that law would have been enacted […]
Ninth Circuit En Banc Argument in United States v. Cotterman
Back in 2009, I first blogged about an interesting Fourth Amendment case, United States v. Cotterman, applying the border search exception to the Fourth Amendment to the search and seizure of computers. In the case, agents seized a computer at the Mexico-Arizona border and wanted to search it under the border search exception to the […]
My Politico Post Assessing the Individual Mandate Decision
By Ilya Somin on July 1, 2012 11:36 pm in Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Supreme Court
The Politico Arena recently noted that some “conservative activists” have turned against Chief Justice John Roberts and asked contributors whether last week’s health care decision can be considered a “victory” for conservatives. My answer is here: Last week’s Supreme Court decision upholding the individual health insurance mandate was a painful defeat for those who wanted […]
Dicta on the Commerce Clause
Fellow-blogger Randy Barnett writes, in today’s Washington Post Outlook Section, that the healthcare decision shows that the Court is prepared to enforce limits on Congress’ powers: Lawmakers argued that this mandate was justified by the Constitution’s commerce and “necessary and proper” clauses. Had we not contested this power grab, Congress’s regulatory powers would have been […]
The Mandate Decision and Public Perception of the Court
Before the Supreme Court’s decision in NFIB v. Sebelius, many predicted the decision would influence public perceptions of the Court and its legitimacy. If a new Rasmussen poll is to believed, the decision has had some such effect already. From the poll summary: A week ago, 36% said the court was doing a good or […]
Who Leaked?
Jan Crawford’s remarkable story on the Chief Justice’s vote prompts a bunch of questions. I’ll start with one: Who leaked the details to Crawford so soon after the case was handed down? If you stop and think about it, the leak is pretty incredible. It offers the details of the Justices’ deliberations in the highest […]
Did the Supreme Court’s Deliberations on Healthcare Leak?
As Randy has noted, recent news reports purport to tell the story of the Chief Justice switching his vote while drafting what began as an opinion striking down Obamacare. CBS News says it has inside details from two sources: There were countless news articles in May warning of damage to the Court – and to […]
CBS: Roberts Switched His Vote From Invalidating the Mandate to Upholding It
Reported by Jan Crawford on CBS Face the Nation: Transcript: O’DONNELL: We’ll start first Jan because you’ve done some reporting. The big question was why did Chief Justice John Roberts do what he did? You’ve learned new details. CRAWFORD: That’s right, what was striking about this was that it was the conservative chief decisive vote, […]
Quote of the Week
Much ink has been spilled on the meaning and significance of the Supreme Court’s decision in NFIB v. Sebelius — much of it by me in the Washington Post, Washington Examiner, Daily Beast, and SCOTUSBlog. But, for me, the “Quote of the Week” is from from Part IIIC, pp. 41-42, of Chief Justice Roberts’ opinion for the […]