DailyWrit

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 […]

Justice Ginsburg let her true feelings about drug companies slip during oral arguments in Warner-Lambert Co. v. Kent:
JUSTICE GINSBURG: And so the State of Michigan has said: Drug dealers — I’m sorry — drug sellers —
(Laughter.)
That is her first ‘joke’ of the term (per my calculations.)

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

All of the law blogs on the internet are exploding with analysis about how the 2006 term is the sign of a major revolution in Constitutional Theory that will undo a lot of the moderate-conservative work of the Rhenquist Court (1985-2005). Balkanization, SCOTUSblog, The New York Times here and here, Washington Post, Prawfsblawg, Georgetown […]

My new favorite picture ever. Ruth Bader (Justice Ginsburg?) looks wonderfully uncomfortable in front of what looks like a 7th grade science fair project. Click on the picture for a high-res version and click here to see the website the picture comes from.

Justice Ginsburg has been one of this term’s most prolific dissenters. Ginsburg penned the caustic dissent in Carhart and again more recently in Ledbetter. While Ginsburg has always been a vocal advocate of women’s rights, the Court’s present state is perfect for Ginsburg to voice her opinion in a way we’ve almost never seen before. […]

The court today handed down a ruling in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.. With Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito making up a majority, the Court held 5-4 that pay raises made outside of the statute of limitations were not protected under the Civil Rights Act. The decision makes […]

After yesterday’s dense post, this one is much, much lighter. About 2,200 words lighter.
During oral arugments in Office of Senator Mark Dayton v. Hanson one of the arguing attorney’s calling Justice Souter by the wrong name. Ownage ensued.
MS. MANNING: No Justice Ginsburg, there has
been no waiver —
JUSTICE SOUTER: I’m Justice Souter.
MS. MANNING: I’m sorry. […]