Mass v. EPA Reconsidered: Our Duplicitous Court
Among the Supreme Court’s most lamentable habits is a lack of candor in cases of grave political, economic, and social import. By “lack of candor,” I don’t mean the shading or the strategic deployment...
View ArticleTakings Cases This Term
For some reason Supreme Court cases seem to come in packs, when this or that issue captures the justices’ attention. On deck this Term: civil rights cases (over affirmative action and the Voting...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Is the Roberts Court the Least Activist Court in History?
Chief Justice Earl Warren Chief Justice John Roberts A few months ago, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg explained why she needed to stay on the Court in part by claiming “if it’s measured in terms of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
One of the “Most Activist Judges We Have Right Now”
When Justice John Paul Stevens retired from the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy complained that “We have right now a very, very activist, conservative activist,...
View ArticleDebating Advisory Capacity for Courts
High courts in nineteen U.S. states provided advisory opinions in response to requests from coordinate branches of government at one time or another. Some states authorize the practice in their...
View ArticleThe Secular Fallacy and the War on Common Law
This is the last in a series of essays exploring the origins and implications of the Supreme Court’s inability to deal with religion in a reasonable manner. The Court’s actions themselves are...
View ArticleThe Least Democratic Branch Is Neither the Senate nor the Courts
With Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation and the Senate staying in Republican hands, complaints abound about the “undemocratic” Senate. The thing is, there is a much more undemocratic branch of the...
View ArticleCan Blaine’s Descendants Block School Choice?
Last Wednesday, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. The case has many moving parts, but at its core, it requires justices to determine...
View ArticleThe Faithful Justice
On Faith: Lessons from an American Believer is more than a collection of Justice Antonin Scalia’s speeches on religion and American public life. Edited by son Christopher Scalia and former law clerk...
View ArticleVirtual Democracy: An Institutional Plague
Over the weekend, Jonathan Turley opined at The Hill that the coronavirus pandemic necessitates the adoption of “virtual democracy.” The virus has already put Supreme Court arguments on hold, and it...
View Article
