I’m sad to see Justice Stevens leave the Court for a variety of reasons that have been well documented by people smarter than me. I’m also excited to some change on the Court because the liberal wing needs a change of pace after it’s dismal performance thus far in OT09. The biggest problem, at least [...]

A lot of people have been asking me over the last few days whether or not I think President Obama will go for a bold nominee or select a safe person who can be easily confirmed. Frankly, I’m not sure but if I had to bet my house it would be on Elena Kagan. If [...]

Adam Liptak provides some new information on Justice Stevens’ retirement decision here. In short: he hasn’t decided yet.

Honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about the healthcare reform bill that will be signed into law in the coming days. A more interesting question, and one more relevant to this blog, is what effect its passage might have on a potential Supreme Court vacancy this summer. Because of his victory yesterday, the President [...]

The Supreme Court will hand down the final three opinions of the term tomorrow when it holds its last public session before its summer recess. The Court will also bid farewell to Justice Souter, as it will likely be his last time being seen publicly as a sitting justice. The three cases are Ricci v. [...]

The Congressional Research Service has published an interesting collection of Judge Sotomayor’s past opinions from the Second Circuit. They come to the conclusion that she is hard to categorize but that she generally has fairly rigid adherence to precedent. [h/t How Appealing]

President Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace Justice David Souter is the type of decision we have come to expect from the Obama administration. It involved important political considerations and will likely prove to be good enough for liberals but not off-putting for conservatives. Let me start off with the assumption that she [...]

Most news sources are now reporting that President Obama is narrowing in on his nominee for the Supreme Court and will likely announce his decision next week, just before leaving on a lengthy foreign trip in early June. More specifically, Fox News is hypothesizing that the pick will be announced either Tuesday morning or Friday [...]

President Obama gave the commencement speech at Notre Dame earlier today and spoke primarily about abortion and other social issues. You can find a full recap from the New York Times here. I don’t ordinarily take note of political speeches coming from the White House, but I have to think about whether or not the [...]

The Court will be holding conference for the next seven consecutive Thursdays (as opposed to the normal friday conference meeting). We will likely see at least a few opinions and accepted cases every week from now until the Court breaks at the end of June. In the short-term, the Court’s opinion hotline also tells us [...]