Bench Memos - National Review Online: Federal Judiciary

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Federal Judiciary Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Federal Judiciary

Bench Memos - National Review Online

Covering The Supreme Court -- from National Review Online

Post Frequency: 91/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 05:00:54

Cynicism and Change -- By: Rich Lowry

Posted on April 20, 2010
Editor?s note: This column is available exclusively through King Features Syndicate. For permission to reprint or excerpt this copyrighted material, please contact kfsreprint@hearstsc.com or phone 800-708-7311, ext. 246.Barack Obama used to call himself a ?hopemonger,? mocking skeptics who thought the young presidential candidate was entirely too hopeful...

The Genesis Prediction -- By: Dennis Prager

Posted on April 20, 2010
Most observers, right or left, pro-Israel or anti-Israel, would agree that Israeli-American relations are the worst they have been in memory. Among the many indications is that only 9 percent of Jewish Israelis think Pres. Barack Obama?s administration is more pro-Israel than pro-Palestinian, according to a Smith Research poll taken during the last week of March on behalf of the Jerusalem Post...

SCUDs and Syria -- By: Elliott Abrams

Posted on April 19, 2010
According to recent news stories, Israel believes that Syria is supplying SCUD missiles to Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon. Should Israel bomb Syria to stop them? As the charges and threats from both sides multiply, the story of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 is worth recalling...

Charlie Crist's Moment in the Sun -- By: Neal B. Freeman

Posted on April 19, 2010
All in all, it was a Charlie Crist kind of week. In the span of five business days, the governor managed to sandbag his legislative allies, embarrass his predecessor, alienate his mentor, rile his campaign staff, solidify his new base in the teachers? union, and win oodles of media attention, much of it glowing with fresh esteem...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

A Phony 'Concession' -- By: The Editors

Posted on April 19, 2010
Senate Republicans have criticized Sen. Chris Dodd?s financial-reform bill on the grounds that it would preserve and enlarge the government?s power to bail out financial institutions. Now the Obama administration has asked Democrats to remove one of the provisions Republicans have criticized, but just removing this provision would not address GOP concerns...

A Treaty for Utopia -- By: John R. Bolton

Posted on April 19, 2010
On April 8, in Prague, the United States and Russia signed what they call the ?New START? bilateral arms-control agreement, important specifics of which, in hallmark Obama-administration fashion (see health care), were still being negotiated. Nonetheless, the president and his acolytes are calling for the treaty?s swift ratification...

Five Reasons Charlie Crist Shouldn't Go Independent -- By: Rich Lowry

Posted on April 19, 2010
In a few weeks, Charlie Crist has gone from telling Fox News that he ruled out running as an independent to saying last Friday that he?ll address the question of an independent run ?later on.? Crist has every reason to reconsider, because in his Senate run, he?s fallen and he can?t get up...

Evidence of Renewal -- By: Kathryn Jean Lopez

Posted on April 19, 2010
EDITOR?S NOTE: This column is available exclusively through United Media. For permission to reprint or excerpt this copyrighted material, please contact Carmen Puello at cpuello@unitedmedia.com.?Shock and awe? would be the best description of my response to this recent Associated Press headline: ?US Catholic church moving faster on abuse cases...

Thanks, I'll Do It Myself -- By: Michael Barone

Posted on April 19, 2010
?Do you realize,? CNN?s Susan Roesgen asked a man at the April 15, 2009, tea party in Chicago, ?that you?re eligible for a $400 credit?? When the man refused to put down his ?drop socialism? sign, she went on: ?Did you know that the state of Lincoln gets fifty billion out of the stimulus?? Roesgen is no longer with CNN, and CNN has only about half as many viewers as it did last year...

Nonproliferation? How Quaint! -- By: Mark Steyn

Posted on April 17, 2010
In years to come -- assuming, for the purposes of argument, there are any years to come -- scholars will look back at President Obama?s Nuclear Security Summit and marvel. For once, the cheap comparisons with 1930s appeasement barely suffice: To be sure, in 1933, the great powers were meeting in Geneva and holding utopian arms-control talks even as Hitler was taking office in Berlin...

The Kids Are Alright -- By: Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted on April 17, 2010
So now we know why the self-proclaimed ?most transparent administration in American history? continues to stonewall rather than reveal the official responsibilities of Justice Department lawyers who volunteered their services to America?s enemies during wartime...

A Smaller Tomorrow -- By: Robert Costa

Posted on April 16, 2010
Yesterday afternoon, in a speech at the Kennedy Space Center, President Obama detailed the facets of his new space policy -- more research, a few more dollars, and, eventually, some merry, low-orbit commercial flights. What he didn?t talk about is the moon, at least in any seriousness...

Don't START -- By: The Editors

Posted on April 16, 2010
The U.S. Senate should reject the new START treaty. It has no upside for the United States, is shot through with flaws, and will limit our defenses. The treaty represents international relations as gesture, and is based on President Obama?s naïve belief that if we are seen as limiting ourselves, other nations will more readily join us in persuading rogue states to abandon their nuclear ambitions...

Resolve to Reform -- By: Stephen Spruiell & Kevin Williamson

Posted on April 16, 2010
What was so bad about the bailouts? Everything, except that they sort of worked, at least as a short-term patch-up and a bid for time. But that time is running out, and we should now start thinking about the next crisis, and the next -- and how to mitigate what cannot be avoided in the post-TARP era...

Why We're Paranoid -- By: Rich Lowry

Posted on April 16, 2010
Editor?s note: This column is available exclusively through King Features Syndicate. For permission to reprint or excerpt this copyrighted material, please contact kfsreprint@hearstsc.com or phone 800-708-7311, ext. 246.Only an overcaffeinated tea partier would believe that the U...

Not Much of a Summit -- By: Charles Krauthammer

Posted on April 16, 2010
There was something oddly disproportionate about the just-concluded nuclear summit to which President Obama summoned 46 world leaders, the largest such gathering on American soil since 1945. That meeting was about the founding of the United Nations, which 65 years ago seemed an event of world-historical importance...

The Obamacare Inquisition Is on Hold … for Now -- By: Michelle Malkin

Posted on April 16, 2010
The House Democrats? Torquemada got cold feet. Self-styled ?chief inquisitor? Henry Waxman announced this week that he?s canceling a planned show trial of corporate executives who called public attention to the financial hit they?re taking as a result of President Obama?s health-care mandate...

Kill the Death Tax, Once and for All -- By: Deroy Murdock

Posted on April 16, 2010
The federal death tax today stands at zero percent, and it should stay there. Republicans and free-marketeers should kill the death tax once and for all before it roars back next January 1. If the Democratic Left defends the death tax, the Republican Right should beat them on it at the polls next November...

A Pathetic Response to an 'Unprecedented Threat' -- By: Mona Charen

Posted on April 16, 2010
Welcoming the leaders of 47 nations to Washington to discuss what he called ?an unprecedented threat,? President Obama described in ominous terms the potential for nuclear terrorism. ?Just the smallest amount of plutonium -- about the size of an apple -- could kill and injure hundreds of thousands of innocent people...

The Washington Post's Disgrace -- By: Hans A. von Spakovsky

Posted on April 15, 2010
In a patronizing and factually erroneous editorial, the Washington Post attacks Virginia governor Robert McDonnell for his proposal to require that nonviolent felons provide a letter about their lives after release from prison as part of a process to expedite the restoration of their right to vote...

Bennett Agonistes -- By: Duncan Currie

Posted on April 15, 2010
Some of his fiercest critics are tea-party activists. He is being grilled over his support for bank bailouts and health-care legislation. The free-market Club for Growth is urging his defeat. A prominent right-wing blogger has denounced him for casting ?scores and scores of bad votes throughout his tenure in Congress...

Waging War on Obamacare -- By: Michael G. Franc and Gary Andres

Posted on April 15, 2010
The cloud of Obamacare has a faint silver lining. Both the substance of the bill and the way it was passed have boosted the electoral prospects for right-leaning candidates in November. That?s a critical first step toward repealing the most consequential expansion of government?s role in our daily lives in many decades...

So What Happened to Iraq? -- By: Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on April 15, 2010
Six years ago, the conventional wisdom was that Ayad Allawi, then prime minister of the appointed Iraqi interim government, was a puppet of the United States.Last month, though, the Allawi-led Iraqiya alliance won, by a narrow margin, more parliamentary seats than any other coalition in national elections -- and he may become the country?s next prime minister...

The Obama Doctrine -- By: Clifford D. May

Posted on April 15, 2010
In recent days, the Obama administration has fired a salvo of national-security initiatives: a new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), a new National Security Strategy (NSS), and this week?s Nuclear Security Summit attended by more than 40 heads of state...

The weight of taxation, &c. -- By: Jay Nordlinger

Posted on April 15, 2010
Tax Day isn?t very fun, is it? I mean, we all want to pay taxes, or at least don?t mind doing so -- price of civilization and all. But we do mind when we think the taxes are too high and too numerous; when we think that they?re onerous and counterproductive...

Regulate Wall Street -- By: Michael Barone

Posted on April 15, 2010
It?s not hard to predict how the coming fight over financial-regulation legislation will be framed by most of the mainstream media. Democrats like Christopher Dodd -- the sponsor of the pending Senate bill -- will be portrayed as cracking down on greedy Wall Street operators...

Party Smartly -- By: Michael Graham

Posted on April 15, 2010
Welcome to Tax Day 2010, or as it?s known at the White House, Obama?s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.And if yesterday?s Boston tea party with Sarah Palin is any indication, it?s only going to get worse.The first question I got after walking off the stage on Boston Common yesterday was ?How big is the crowd?? The number -- somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 -- is irrelevant...

Warranted Pessimism -- By: Stephen Spruiell

Posted on April 15, 2010
Some smart conservatives are starting to caution their brethren about the dangers of being too pessimistic in the face of what might be a burgeoning recovery. If we overzealously predict that Obama?s economic policies will lead us to disaster, they warn, we risk a repeat of what happened in the early 1990s, when dire predictions about Clinton?s economic policies did not come to pass...

America's Constitutionalist Revolt -- By: Larry Kudlow

Posted on April 15, 2010
So much is being written in the mainstream media about who the tea partiers are, but very little is being recorded about what these folks are actually saying.We know that this is a decentralized grassroots movement, with many different voices hailing from many different towns across the country...

Signs of Hope -- By: Conrad Black

Posted on April 15, 2010
It may be that the cumulative hospitality of my genial hosts in the U.S. government, as I await the positive demonstration of the exceptionalism of the U.S. justice system, is clouding my vision. But I believe I see, amid the inexorably advancing Florida crabgrass that is a central part of my enfolding ecosystem here, the green shoots of positive movement in a couple of key national-policy areas...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

Relaxed Standard of Review Applies to Density Variances
The Appellate Division extended to applications for development se...

Review of Charles Fried
Here's my review, in Commonweal, of Charles Fried's recent book, M...

NSEERS - National Security Entry-Exit Registration System
NSEERS - NATIONAL SECURITY ENTRY-EXIT REGISTRATION SYSTEM Special ...

National Episcopal Church Gets Only Limited Intervention In Property Dispute
In Diocese of Central New York v. St. Andrews Episcopal Church, (N...