Kathleen Sullivan’s name is being mentioned more and more frequently as a potential nominee to replace Justice Souter. For the sake of full disclosure, I’ll admit that she would be my ideal choice, but I wouldn’t bet-the-house on her chances. Name: Kathleen Marie Sullivan DOB: August 20, 1955 Age: 53 Undergraduate: Cornell ’76 Graduate: Oxford [...]

The Supreme Court handed down an opinion today in Wyeth v. Levine (here). (29) Wyeth v. Levine Docket Filing | Questions Presented Case Number: 06-1249 On Appeal From: SC-VT Date Argued: November 3, 2008 Date Decided: March 4, 2009 6-3; Affirmed Majority: Stevens(m), Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer(c), Thomas(c) Dissent: Alito(d), Roberts, Scalia Days between argument [...]

Justice O’Connor went on The Daily Show last night to talk about her new civics project, www.OurCourts.org. Its a pretty entertaining interview for anyone interested in the Court, and she mentions at various points how she was upset at the backlash from Bush v. Gore and how she hates being called a “swing” justice. Part [...]

Tony Mauro has a

Once again, I’ve conjured up some charts marking how often each Justice spoke during oral arguments in the first half of the term. You can find a detailed look into my methodology here but to summarize, these numbers represent the number of times ‘JUSTICE ______’ is mentioned in the oral argument transcripts posted on the [...]

The future is bleak for democrats and judicial liberals. The average age of the four conservatives is 60.75 years (Roberts(53), Scalia (72), Thomas(60), Alito(58)). The average age of the four liberals, however, is 75.7 years (Stevens(88), Souter(69), Ginsburg(75), Breyer(70)). Justice Stevens, an active octogenarian and avid tennis player who frequently reads briefs on the beach [...]

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!]). [...]

Justice O’Connor may have retired from the Court in 2005, but her judicial career is still alive and well. She recently sat on a case in the Second Circuit and wrote the majority opinion (here)! The case centered around a defendant, Scott Holyoke, who was notified that his call was subject to monitoring and proceeded [...]

I’ve updated my chart with laughter references on the Court. You can find the up-to-date iteration of the full chart here and you can read about my methodology here. Justice Total Roberts 13 Stevens 6 Scalia 51 Kennedy 6 Souter 10 Thomas 0 Ginsburg 1 Breyer 12 Alito 3

Bryan Garner from LawProse.com has posted interviews (here) with 8 of the 9 members of the Court (Justice Souter did not participate.) I haven’t listened to all of them yet, but they seem to be chock-full of information for Supreme Court junkies. I for one will be referring to the comments made in these videos [...]