DailyWrit

Barack Obama has chosen a running mate that shares his views on fiscal policy, healthcare, education, the war on terror, and…Clarence Thomas? It seems that the presumptive Democratic nominee, fresh off his remarks at Saddleback, has selected Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) as his VP. Biden is widely-respected as the Chair of the Senate Committee on […]

Earlier tonight, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama joined Pastor Rick Warren at his California megachurch for an event pegged as “The Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency.” The interviews, each an hour in length, were separated by thirty-six tense seconds in which the presumptive nominees shared the stage (and an awkward hug [video here!]). […]

I’ve been a little surprised by how scarcely the Supreme Court is being mentioned during this election cycle. Especially as the dust was settling from Heller, I expected more talk about the role our next president may play in determining the trajectory of the Court. Recently, however, I’ve noticed that some smaller conservative blogs have […]

Randy Newman sang a rather interesting song at the conclusion of the Macworld Keynote Speech. Here was the relevant portion of his song:
Its pissing me off a little that the Supreme Court is going to outlive me. Couple young Italian fellas and a brother on the Court now, too. But I defy you to find […]

Oral Arguments took place this morning in Boumediene v. Bush and its sister case, Al-Odah v. US. Because of the heightened interest in the case, the Supreme Court opted to expedite the delivery of the audio recording and it was broadcast on C-Span by 11:50EST, less than an hour after the arguments concluded.
The arguments went […]

After finding the most talkative Justice, I was interested in finding the funniest Justice. According to my calculations, there were 51 total references to (Laughter.) in the court’s first two months of arguements. Here is the breakdown:

Case
JR
JPS
AS
AK
DS
CT
RBG
SB
SA
COUNSEL
TOTAL

Washington
1

2
3

Tom F.

0

Gall

1

2
3

Kimbrough

1

1

2

Torres
3

1

4

Santos

1

1

Watson

1
1

1

3

Stoneridge

1

1

Medellin

1
1

1

3

Klein

0

Ali

1

1

Williams

1

1

1
3

Logan

0

Danforth
1
2
3

6

CSX

2

1

3

Davis
2
1
1

1

1

6

John R.
1
1
1

1
4

Fed. Ex.

4

1
5

Hall

1
1

1
3

TOTAL
8
6
17
2
4
0
0
5
1
8
51

No surprises here. Scalia talks almost twice as much as everyone else. […]

Two months into the term, the Supreme Court has held oral arguments in 19 different cases. After reading a few of the transcripts, I thought it would be interesting to see which Justices spoke most often during oral arguments.
I found transcripts from the usual place and I copied the text into TextMate. From there, I […]

The WSJ Law Blog predicted that Justice Thomas would speak this morning during oral arguments. Unfortunately, they were wrong. I expected him to speak last year during one of the school board cases or during Morse.
As my avid readers will know, Justice Thomas hasn’t spoken during oral arguments in quite some time. The last time […]

UK’s The Telegraph created lists of the 100 most influential conservatives and the most influential liberals leading into the 2008 elections. John Roberts made number #8 on the conservative list, Antonin Scalia came in at #62, and Clarence Thomas came in at #85. John Paul Stevens, despite claiming to be a conservative, came in at […]

C-Span followed Clarence Thomas around his book release party at the home of Armstrong Williams. Its a rather amusing video with cameos from David Souter, Antonin Scalia, John Roberts, Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito, the ever-lovely Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Arlen Specter, Lindsey Graham, Dick Cheney and a plethora of mid-major political stars and their spouses. Here […]

The New York Times features an editorial today about Clarence Thomas today entitled “The Angriest Justice.” The author argues that because Justice Thomas wrote a book that may not be “consistent with the dignity of the court,” he could be an impartial jurist.
The problem with Justice Thomas’s book, “My Grandfather’s Son,” is that it nurses […]

As a person who was only 2-years old when Clarence Thomas when through the confirmation process and 3-years old when he took his seat on the bench, I was shocked to see Clarence speak so much during his interview on 60-minutes.
Part I:

Part II:

Part III:

Though I’ve always heard the rhetoric he used during his hearing, […]

Although my friends and family would call me argumentative to fault, I try to make a point of admitting when I’m wrong. I’ve been watching this spectacular debate between Justices Breyer and Scalia and it looks like I might have seriously underrated the value of originalism. If you have 90 minutes to spare, I suggest […]

Ann Althouse has a rather interesting article about Justice Steven’s recent speech at the Ninth Circuit’s Judicial Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii. Its obvious from the location of this judicial conference that congressmen aren’t the only ones who take junkets. Regardless, this is the most interesting part of her recap:
I think, after all — he’s talking […]

The Washington Post had a article recently about the way in which more and more American’s are viewing the court as too conservative. 33% of Americans feel that the Court is too conservative and only 47% believe that the court is balanced. 55% of Americans agree with the court’s ruling in Carhart but 70% disagree […]