There were a lot of high-profile cases argued at the Court this week, but one case that was argued was Walden v. Fiore, the personal-jurisdiction/venue dispute about a deputized DEA agent who seized a bunch of money from some professional gamblers. I’ve posted my assessment of the oral argument at SCOTUSBlog: As the first few […]
Archive | Supreme Court
Are Conservative Judges Better? Evidence from Geoff Stone
By Eugene Kontorovich on November 5, 2013 9:25 am in Apppellate Procedure, Conservatism, Judicial Conduct, Judicial Power, Supreme Court
Prof. Geoff Stone argues that conservative Supreme Court justices are more ideologically inflexible and less meritocratic than their liberal counterparts. His evidence for this is that Of the 20 law clerks appointed this Term by the five conservative Justices — Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito, 18 of the 20 — or an astonishing 90 […]
Chief Justice Roberts Cites a Law Review Article in Marek v. Lane
Remember all of the recent discussion about the uselessness of law review articles, and the way nay-sayers like to invoke Chief Justice Roberts’s remark about “the influence of Immanuel Kant on evidentiary approaches in 18th-century Bulgaria”? Today the Chief Justice issued an opinion respecting the cert denial in Marek v. Lane, a challenge to the […]
My SCOTUSBlog Argument Preview on Walden v. Fiore
I have just posted my first post as an occasional blogger on SCOTUSBlog — a preview of the argument next week in Walden v. Fiore. An excerpt: The facts sound like the beginning of one of the Court’s many constitutional tort cases. Gina Fiore and Keith Gipson are professional gamblers who were — like millions […]
Climate Change Goes Back to Court
This morning, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA concerning the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. This is quite significant. Although the grant is limited, it focuses on one of the most important legal questions raised by this litigation, and puts some of […]
Roberts Court Is Still a “Less Activist” Court
In today’s NYT, Adam Liptak explains why the Roberts Court is far less “activist” than its post-War predecessors, at least as measured by its willingness to strike down federal laws. “If it’s measured in terms of readiness to overturn legislation, this is one of the most activist courts in history,” Justice Ginsburg said in August […]
Professor Stephen Sachs and Atlantic Marine v. U.S. District Court
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Atlantic Marine v. U.S. District Court, a case about the proper procedure for enforcing a forum selection clause. As I’ve mentioned on this blog before, Professor Stephen Sachs (who is also a friend) filed an amicus brief arguing that both parties were wrong and that a […]
Public Opinion on the Court
Gallup reports that new poll results show the public remains “closely divided” about the Supreme Court. According to their most recent survey, 46 percent of Americans approve of the job the Court is doing, while 45 percent disapprove. Chief Justice John Roberts’ approval rating is somewhat higher than that of the Court. At 55 percent, […]
Supreme Court Discussion of Academic Amicus Brief
An academic amicus brief got heavy attention in the Supreme Court today (and no, it wasn’t Steve Sachs’s — that case will be argued Wednesday). As Lyle Denniston explains at SCOTUSBlog, in Madigan v. Levin, an age discrimination case from the Seventh Circuit, “a brief that had been filed by law professors who specialize in […]
SCOTUS Preview
It’s that time of year, so here’s a link to my annual SCOTUS term preview for NRO. Bottom line: There’s no single case that stands out, but this could be an extremely significant term.
Justice Scalia, on “Maybe The Only Heroic Opinion I Ever Issued”
This wasn’t sufficiently germane to mention in my previous post, but one other passage from the Justice Scalia interview that I particularly liked was his response after Jennifer Senior tried several times to get him to name his most “heroic” decision: I mean the most heroic opinion—maybe the only heroic opinion I ever issued— was […]
The New York Magazine Interview: Why Does Justice Scalia Write Forceful Dissents?
Justice Scalia recently gave a long and fascinating interview to New York Magazine, which I highly recommend anybody interested in the Court read. My favorite part is the extended exchange with the interviewer about Scalia’s belief in the devil (and the interviewer’s apparent shock at this), which I won’t try to excerpt here. But I […]
Justice Kennedy on Judicial Intervention
In remarks at the University of Pennsylvania, Justice Anthony Kennedy lamented the state of American democracy, according to this AP report. “Any society that relies on nine unelected judges to resolve the most serious issues of the day is not a functioning democracy,” Kennedy said Thursday at the University of Pennsylvania “I just don’t think […]
Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action: Forgetting the Narrative
By David Bernstein on October 2, 2013 9:39 am in Affirmative Action, Constitutional Law, Supreme Court
[See update below. This term, the Supreme Court will decide Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action. The Sixth Circuit, in an en banc 8-7 opinion, invalidated a Michigan constitutional amendment, passed by referendum, that forbids racial preferences by government institutions, including public universities The court held that the amendment violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal […]
The Long Conference Orders List, Part One
It’s one of my favorite days of Fall — the release of the orders list from the Supreme Court’s long conference — the day that cert petitions and other motions have been waiting for all summer. The Court has split the orders list into two, releasing grants (and a few other time-sensitive things) today, and […]