May 21, 2012 8:21 P.M. Chief Justice Roberts’ Moment of Truth? By Carrie Severino Comments 0 Randy Barnett has written a couple of excellent blog posts responding to Jeff Rosen’s recent column about Chief Justice Roberts, the Obamacare litigation, and the revival of the so-called “Constitution in Exile” movement. I recommend . . . Tags:

May 21, 2012 5:08 P.M. Re: Lawsuits Seek to Vindicate Religious Freedom By Ed Whelan Comments 0 I’d like to join in law professor Rick Garnett’s celebration of the University of Notre Dame’s decision to challenge the HHS mandate and in his praise of the excellent statement . . . Tags:

May 21, 2012 4:08 P.M. Lawsuits Seek to Vindicate Religious Freedom By Richard Garnett Comments 0 Today, a large and diverse group of plaintiffs — including health-care providers, universities and schools, and social-welfare agencies — filed lawsuits in a dozen federal courts, challenging the administration’s rule . . . Tags:

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May 21, 2012 3:37 P.M. Intimidation Today, Leaks Tomorrow? By Ed Whelan Comments 0 As Randy Barnett observes, “Ever since the oral argument [in the Obamacare case], progressive commentators have been engaged in a series of rearguard litigation tactics designed to intimidate or threaten . . . Tags:

May 20, 2012 8:00 A.M. This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—May 20 By Ed Whelan Comments 0 1996—What’s one way to deal with unhelpful precedent? Just ignore it entirely, as Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion in Romer v. Evans does. In 1986 the Supreme Court ruled in Bowers . . . Tags:

May 18, 2012 8:00 A.M. This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—May 18 By Ed Whelan Comments 0 1991—The New York Times and the Washington Post report that in 1990 Charles E. Smith, a wealthy real-estate developer, made gifts to Justice William J. Brennan Jr. in the amount . . . Tags:

May 17, 2012 4:37 P.M. The Supreme Court’s Slippery Slope By Ammon Simon Comments 0 Richard Thaler’s NYT piece from a few days ago, Slippery-Slope Logic, Applied to Health Care, takes conservatives to task for relying on a “slippery slope” fallacy to argue that Obamacare’s individual . . . Tags:

May 17, 2012 10:26 A.M. More on Jeffrey Toobin’s “Money Unlimited” By Ed Whelan Comments 0 Some follow-up to my Part 1 and Part 2 posts on Jeffrey Toobin’s New Yorker essay on the Citizens United ruling: 1. On the Weekly Standard’s blog, Adam J. White demonstrates . . . Tags:

May 17, 2012 9:38 A.M. Why Common Cause Is Wrong About Filibusters By Ed Whelan Comments 0 Common Cause has filed a complaint in federal district court in D.C. seeking a declaratory judgment that the Senate rule authorizing filibusters (i.e., requiring a supermajority for cloture) is unconstitutional . . . Tags:

May 17, 2012 8:00 A.M. This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—May 17 By Ed Whelan Comments 0 1954—In Brown v. Board of Education, a unanimous Supreme Court abandons available originalist justifications for its ruling that state-segregated schools violate the Equal Protection Clause—justifications that would have been far . . . Tags:

May 16, 2012 10:41 A.M. Trial Lawyers for Diane Hathaway By Carrie Severino Comments 0 A reader has alerted me that just a few days before the Detroit ABC news affiliate ran its story concerning possible mortgage and bank fraud by Michigan Justice Diane Hathaway, . . . Tags:

May 16, 2012 9:57 A.M. Jeffrey Toobin’s “Money Unlimited”—Part 2 By Ed Whelan Comments 0 As I discussed in my Part 1 post, the evidence that Jeffrey Toobin presents in his New Yorker essay on the Citizens United ruling doesn’t actually support his core thesis. . . . Tags:

May 15, 2012 2:55 P.M. Jeffrey Toobin’s “Money Unlimited”—Part 1 By Ed Whelan Comments 0 The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin has a long essay purporting to establish, as the essay’s subtitle puts it, “how Chief Justice John Roberts orchestrated the Citizens United [v. FEC] decision”—the . . . Tags:

May 15, 2012 8:00 A.M. This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—May 15 By Ed Whelan Comments 0 2008—The California supreme court, by a vote of 4 to 3, invents a right to same-sex marriage under the state constitution. Chief justice Ronald M. George’s majority opinion offers the . . . Tags:

May 14, 2012 12:49 P.M. Michigan Justice Diane Hathaway Under Scrutiny By Carrie Severino Comments 0 Michigan Supreme Court justice Diane Hathaway is under scrutiny for a series of financial transactions that could subject her to investigation by ethical and law-enforcement authorities. As Ross Jones of . . . Tags:

May 14, 2012 9:39 A.M. Thanks, Senator McConnell By Ed Whelan Comments 0 In the course of a Breitbart News interview on new media, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell was asked about his favorite blogs. Among his several mentions, Senator McConnell cited Bench . . . Tags:

May 14, 2012 8:00 A.M. This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—May 14 By Ed Whelan Comments 0 1970—President Richard M. Nixon, in one of the misdeeds for which he most deserves infamy, appoints Harry A. Blackmun to the Supreme Court. Blackmun, a boyhood friend of Chief Justice . . . Tags:

May 13, 2012 8:00 A.M. This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—May 13 By Ed Whelan Comments 0 1993—In dissent in University of Miami v. Echarte, Florida chief justice Rosemary Barkett flouts U.S. Supreme Court precedent as she opines that a statutory cap on non-economic damages in medical . . . Tags: