Constitutional Law

Ronald Dworkin on Justice Sotomayor

Posted on September 09, 2009
Ronald Dworkin on Justice Sotomayor at her confirmation hearings (one of his frequent New York Review of Books screeds -- this magazine publishes excellent essays, plus many by Prof. Dworkin):She demonstrated her clarity and technical skill in correcting several senators' misunderstandings of constitutional issues and explaining the facts of a large number of her own lower court and recent

Lyle Denniston at ScotusBlog on

Posted on September 09, 2009
Lyle Denniston at ScotusBlog on CJ Roberts and Justice Alito at the Citizens United oral argument:While both have been skeptical in the past about campaign finance laws, supporters of such laws had fashioned an array of arguments they hoped would lead Roberts and Alito to shy away from casting their votes to create a majority to free corporations to spend their own treasury money to influence

EDWARD KENNEDY: American GracchusThe

Posted on August 26, 2009
EDWARD KENNEDY: American GracchusThe Roman Republic lasted for about 400 years, with an unsystematic, jerry-rigged constitution, resting on a foundation of political tradition, by which I mean a well-known but not externally enforceable rules about what one simply did or did not do in politics...

Prof. Colin Miller, of John Marshall

Posted on August 19, 2009
Prof. Colin Miller, of John Marshall Law School (Chicago) and EvidenceProfBlog, maintains a list of blogging law professors. This splendid service may be accessed as follows, alphabetized by law-school affiliation: A-M, and N-Z.

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Robert Novak, RIP. A master of

Posted on August 18, 2009
Robert Novak, RIP. A master of finding things out that people didn't want him to know. A Washington insider who always related the "inside baseball" to issues that mattered to everybody. And a convert to Catholicism.

Conan O'Brien sez:Sonia Sotomayor

Posted on August 11, 2009
Conan O'Brien sez:Sonia Sotomayor is now a Supreme Court Justice. Now that she has joined the Court, one third of the Justices are now from New York City. This explains why the customary opening of a Court session has changed from "All rise" to "Hey ? I?m judgin? over here!?

I'm about to set out to teach a

Posted on July 13, 2009
I'm about to set out to teach a nine-session unit on Comparative Constitutional Law in our summer program in Strasbourg, France. I expect I will be able to update this blog from there, but if I do, it is more likely to be with reflections on that course and on my travels than on the Sotomayor hearings or the Court's end-of-term cases...

Did Sotomayor violate a well-established

Posted on July 07, 2009
Did Sotomayor violate a well-established bar rule in calling her solo practice in 1983-6 "Sotomayor & Associates" when evidence suggests it was just herself helping family and friends via a home practice? Nothing wrong with a home-based solo practice, but apparently it's a rule agreed-upon by all state bars that a lawyer may not imply that he/she has other lawyers working with him/her when he/she

Haven't been commenting on the

Posted on July 07, 2009
Haven't been commenting on the Court's last week of output b/c I've been finishing a (draft of an) article on home-schooling's place in con law, and preparing my course on Comparative Constitutional Law, for our Strasbourg summer program.

Well, as a colleague and supporter

Posted on June 25, 2009
Well, as a colleague and supporter of the American Center for Law and Justice, I probably shouldn't say much about today's decision concerning the 4th Amendment and school "strip searches"; nor about my doubts about expanding an already unwieldy rule-of-reason (really, rule-of-what-we-like-or-don't-like) 4th Am regime; nor about my firm agreement with Prof...

Northwest Austin: ThomasManiaAfter

Posted on June 22, 2009
Northwest Austin: ThomasManiaAfter today's Northwest Austin decision on the constitutionality of the Sec. 5 of the Voting Right's Act under the enforcement provision of the 15th Amendment -- or rather, not on the constitutionality of the Sec. 5 of the Voting Right's Act under the enforcement provision of the 15th Amendment, since the Court decided 8-1 to shrink from going there -- I open Blogger

A Talmudic maxim instructs with

Posted on June 08, 2009
A Talmudic maxim instructs with respect to the Scripture: ?Turn it over, and turn it over, for all is therein.? The Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Aboth, Ch. V, Mishnah 22 (I. Epstein ed. 1935). Divinely inspired text may contain the answers to all earthly questions, but the Due Process Clause most assuredly does not...

This would be huge it were a Republican

Posted on June 05, 2009
This would be huge it were a Republican administration and nominee -- not the memo itself, which is defensible and is counterbalanced by other items in the nominee's record, but holding it back, regardless of who precisely was responsible for that. "Clerical error," yeah right.

Sotomayor v. Darlingsweety. Advantage:

Posted on May 28, 2009
Sotomayor v. Darlingsweety. Advantage: Sotomayor.While much of the right gears up against Judge Sotomayor, I myself (am I a little corner of "the right"? I blog: you decide) keep finding reasons to find her a remarkably friendly nominee, considering the President whose constitutional job it is to choose the Justice this time around...

A remarkable piece of New York

Posted on May 27, 2009
A remarkable piece of New York Times-NARAL teamwork"Abortions rights backers," the moribund paper of record would have us believe, are experiencing "unease" about Judge Sotomayor. She might even, they allegedly fear, be that fifth vote to strike down Roe...

Bill Donohue of the Catholic League

Posted on May 26, 2009
Bill Donohue of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights makes a point: assuming that Judge Sotomayor, as a New York Puerto Rican, has a background (at least) as a Catholic, then her confirmation would give use a 2/3 RC Court! There was a certain amount of caterwauling about this factor when it was Roberts and Alito, but nothing so far this time, while the Court's supposed "Catholic

California Prop 8 decision: While

Posted on May 26, 2009
California Prop 8 decision: While waiting for the text, a little background:The legal issue on Prop 8 was which side of a unique California line it falls on.It seems that when the California Constitution was written, its drafters, like constitution drafters in many other western states, wanted to include a plebiscitary amendment process...

Sotomay-even-moreDavid Lat tweats

Posted on May 26, 2009
Sotomay-even-moreDavid Lat tweats that Judge Sotomayor should "thank" Jeff Rosen. Could he be referring to this column, for which my own hat-tip must go to Jordan Sekulow? Rosen's May 4 anti-Sotomayor piece concludes (nearly):Not all the former clerks for other judges I talked to were skeptical about Sotomayor...

SotomayorSo, with rubber-stamp

Posted on May 26, 2009
SotomayorSo, with rubber-stamp strength in the Senate, he goes for a nominee with high enough ethnic oomph and low enough radical negatives to have gotten through even if the opposition were in control.Hmm. Maybe he knows/thinks he'll get another slot next year (off-year-election politics be darned)...

New bloglinks: Redeeming Law, by

Posted on May 20, 2009
New bloglinks: Redeeming Law, by colleague Mike Schutt, and (related) Cross & Gavel Resources Blog.

Day after Notre Dame speech, Obama

Posted on May 18, 2009
Day after Notre Dame speech, Obama interviews prominent pro-abortion Catholic, MI Gov. Jennifer Granholm, at White House. For SCOTUS slot, some think.Fwiw, I think David Lat makes a good predictive case for Judge Diana Wood. Whether she would be a "WW III" pick is another question...

Did I just refer to Kathleen "Sibelius"

Posted on May 01, 2009
Did I just refer to Kathleen "Sibelius" in the post below? Ach, musical me. I meant "Sebelius," of course.

Fox is out with a substantial and

Posted on May 01, 2009
Fox is out with a substantial and credible-looking list of possible Souter replacements.First, the obvious: Obama is not going to appoint someone who will make me happy, and one should avoid, for the sake of not looking like idiots, the kind of press-release bilge that the Nan Arons of the world routinely put out when a Republican president has a vacancy to fill, demanding a liberal nominee under

Totenburg says Souter retiring

Posted on May 01, 2009
Totenburg says Souter retiring.

Justice Scalia, asked for comment

Posted on April 29, 2009
Justice Scalia, asked for comment by Above the Law's David Lat:It is not a rare phenomenon that what is legal may also be quite irresponsible. That appears in the First Amendment context all the time. What can be said often should not be said. Prof. Reidenberg's exercise is an example of perfectly legal, abominably poor judgment...

Thoughtcrime by legal analysisVery

Posted on April 21, 2009
Thoughtcrime by legal analysisVery oily: first, send out Rahm Emanuel to say, no, prosecuting ex-DOJ officials for the legal memos they wrote is a bad idea. Then, say well maybe we'll do it after all, but it's up to the AG, and maybe Congress will want to do a bunch of stuff here, but we're not sure yet...

SOUTER TO RESIGN IN JUNE? The re-launched

Posted on April 20, 2009
SOUTER TO RESIGN IN JUNE? The re-launched Underneath their Robes details the grounds for speculation.

Stephen Colbert skewers a liberal

Posted on April 14, 2009
Stephen Colbert skewers a liberal Biblical critic. (Hat tip: Mark Shea)

And now for something completely

Posted on April 14, 2009
And now for something completely different (or not): a lady who has married the Eiffel Tower, but who is considering an affair with the Golden Gate Bridge. (Hat-tip: Never Yet Melted)

AP Exclusive: Dolan to fight anti-Catholic

Posted on April 13, 2009
AP Exclusive: Dolan to fight anti-Catholic bias By RACHEL ZOLL ? 3 hours ago NEW YORK (AP) ? The incoming archbishop of New York says he will challenge any suggestion that Roman Catholics are unenlightened because they oppose gay marriage and abortion...

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