In today’s NYT, Adam Liptak reports on a new study by political scientists Lori Ringhand and Paul Collins Jr. analyzing the questions asked at Supreme Court confirmation hearings over the past 70 years. a new study, based on an analysis of every question asked and every answer given at Supreme Court confirmation hearings in the […]
Author Archive | Jonathan H. Adler
Are Civil Rights Groups Skeptical of Kagan?
By Jonathan H. Adler on June 27, 2010 10:14 am in Civil Rights, Judicial Nominations, Kagan Nomination
Today’s Washington Post reports that some civil rights organizations are still trying to determine whether (or how enthusiastically) to support Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court. It begins: On the eve of Elena Kagan’s Senate confirmation hearings, her record on race in the Clinton White House and at Harvard Law School is producing discomfort […]
Sunday Song Lyric
Following on Ken’s post below, I thought I’d highlight a lyric from Blows Against the Empire, the first album released by Paul Kantner, et al. as “Jefferson Starship” (as opposed to Jefferson Airplane; I like to pretend that the thing called “Starship” never existed), and it includes appearances by a wide range of folks, including […]
David Barron Leaving OLC
The New York Times reports that David Barron, acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, will step down next month to return to Harvard Law School. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Cedarbaum will replace him. Of note, OLC has not had a Senate-confirmed head in six years. More at Main Justice.
Kagan, Stevens and Brennan on Bork
By Jonathan H. Adler on June 24, 2010 12:23 pm in Judicial Nominations, Kagan Nomination, Supreme Court
Elena Kagan may have thought (in 1997) that the Bork confirmation hearings were “the best thing that happened, ever happened, to constitutional democracy,” and welcomed the defeat of his confirmation. The Justice she would replace, Justice John Paul Stevens, appears to have had a different view. As legal journalist Seth Stern notes, after Bork was […]
Seven Down, Four to Go
The Supreme Court issued seven decisions in argued cases this morning. SCOTUSBlog has the details. This leaves four big cases yet to be decided: Bilski v. Kappos (business method patents), McDonald v. Chicago (incorporation of Second Amendment), Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB (appointments clause challenge to Sarbanes-Oxley), and Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (state university […]
Today’s Interesting Line-Up
This morning the Supreme Court released another 5-4 opinion with an interesting line-up of justices. In Magwood v. Patterson, which considered whether a habeas petitioner’s challenge to resentencing after the grant of a habeas petition is an unreviewable “second or successive claim,” Justice Thomas wrote the opinion for the Court, siding with the habeas petitioner […]
Sec. Salazar to Reimpose Drilling Moratorium
In response to yesterday’s judicial decision granting a preliminary injunction against the Interior Department’s moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico at depths greater than 500 feet, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that in the next “few days” he would issue a new order, reimposing the moratorium and providing a more detailed explanation of […]
Judge Blocks Offshore Drilling Moratorium
A federal district court judge in Louisiana has issued a preliminary injunction blocking the six-month moratorium on deep water oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico imposed by the Interior Department. Judge Martin Feldman found that the plaintiffs were substantially likely to prevail on the merits in their legal challenge to the moratorium on the […]
Bainbridge v. Bebchuk
Harvard’s Lucian Bebchuk worries that House-Senate conferees will “gut” the proxy access provisions of the financial regulatory reform legislation and undermine efforts to enhance corporate democracy. UCLA’s Stephen Bainbridge responds, arguing that such changes would be a good thing.
Material Support Statute Upheld
This morning the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the federal law barring “material support” to designated terrorist organizations, at least as applied to the type of support the plaintiffs sought to provide in this case. Chief Justice Roberts wrote for the Court in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, joined by the Court’s conservatives and […]
Kagan and DeShaney
By Jonathan H. Adler on June 21, 2010 9:05 am in Judicial Nominations, Kagan Nomination, Supreme Court
Linda Greenhouse has an interesting column on then-Supreme Court clerk Elena Kagan’s cert memo for Justice Thurgood Marshall on whether to accept cert in DeShaney v. Winnebago County Social Services Department. UPDATE: I’m reminded that the WSJ‘s Jess Bravin has an earlier report on Kagan’s involvement with DeShaney in May.
Is Originalism for Progressives?
By Jonathan H. Adler on June 21, 2010 9:01 am in American Constitution Society, Constitutional Theory, Originalism, Uncategorized
In remarks at this weekend’s annual convention, American Constitution Society executive director Caroline Fredrickson reportedly characterized originalism as a “choking weed,” part of a “noxious brew” of ideology promoted by the Federalist Society. Was this remark a categorical rejection of originalism, or simply a rejection of those modes of originalism employed by conservatives? Her reported […]
Property Rights & Climate Change at AALS
By Jonathan H. Adler on June 20, 2010 11:29 pm in Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Property Rights
I presented on a plenary panel discussing the implications of global warming for property law at the AALS Mid-Year meeting earlier this month. My thesis, in short, was that concerns about global climate change do not justify abandoning or reconceiving traditional property norms. To the contrary, I suggested, environmental problems generally – and the threat […]
Climate Policy Panel at ACS
By Jonathan H. Adler on June 20, 2010 11:02 pm in American Constitution Society, Climate Change, Energy, Environment
On Saturday I participated in a panel on climate change policy, “Environmental Protection in a Climate of Change,” at the American Constitution Society’s National Convention in Washington, D.C. In addition to yours truly the panel featured Vicki Arroyo of the Georgetown Climate Center, Interior Department Deputy Solicitor Rachel Jacobson, and Andrew Light of the Center […]