DailyWrit

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the role clerks play and how they influence the way cases are accepted and decided. Obviously they play a huge role in Cert. Pool (which Justices Stevens and Alito forgo) as well as writing the opinions once they are ready to be distributed.
In today’s order’s list (here), […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Apparently Arlen Specter isn’t particularly happy with the recent Stare Decisis-related performances of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito. I’m not exactly sure what he wants to do about it, but it looks like he just wants to take a look at past decisions and remarks from the two Justices and decide whether or not […]

Supreme Court Justices always seem to graze in pairs. Justices Roberts and Alito almost seem like the same person, Scalia and Thomas have been swapping mating calls for years, and Justices Breyer and Ginsburg are trying to fight the (conservative) man(men) for years. I was prompted to think more about some of these dynamic duos […]

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 […]

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 […]

Well, I’m getting a little bored with the latest opinions to come down from the Court, so lets look at one that is coming up. In Morse v. Fredrick the Court is asked to rule on whether or not Fredrick’s right to hold up a sign that reads BONG HITS 4 JESUS is deserving of […]

In a 6-3 decision, the Court reaffirmed dormant commerce clause behaviors on monday in United Hualers Association v. Onieda-Herkimer Solid Waste Authority. The Court holds that local acts that favor certain local governments is not a violation of interstate commerce because the benefit to the local community outweighs any potential restrictions on interstate commerce. […]