Post-argument predictions will continue to pour out regarding Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Sebelius, cases in which business owners (the Green and Hahn families) have voiced religious objections to being forced to pay for certain types of contraceptives. The . . . . Continue Reading »
The cover story on National Review is by Jonathan Adler and Nathaniel Stewart, who are insisting there were Positive Steps, Silver Linings in the Supreme Courts ruling in NFIB v. Sebelius ruling. Since I am expecting stormy weather over the next few years in the matter of . . . . Continue Reading »
The Supreme Court just overruled multiple democratically elected legislatures to impose its policy preferences on the country by a narrow 5-4 majority. Keep that in mind tomorrow if (IF!) the Supreme Court strikes down the Obamacare individual health insurance purchase mandate. Just . . . . Continue Reading »
Wow. The oral argument defense of Obamacare’s constitutionality so far has not just been bad, as has been reported, but has been stunningly bad. And the incompetence displayed goes beyond that of Solicitor General Verrilli, but extends to several of the meaning-to-help-his-case comments . . . . Continue Reading »
What is black and white but leaves law-literate liberals shrieking and gibbering with fright? The anti-Obamacare brief from the public interest law arm of the Claremont Institute! I.e., for liberals, the ultimate CLAREMONSTER!!! . . . . Continue Reading »
When Samuel Alito replaced Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court in 2006, observers predicted that Anthony Kennedy would quickly become the key figure in the nation’s jurisprudence. And recent terms have confirmed those predictions: Across a wide range of controversial constitutional issues, . . . . Continue Reading »
These days, if you announce that the Supreme Court is doing politics rather than law you will provoke more yawns than protests. But what sort of politics is the Court doing? Justice Antonin Scalia frequently charges the Court with stepping out of its judicial role and taking sides in the culture . . . . Continue Reading »
After the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education ordering the desegregation of public schools in Topeka, Kansas, lawsuits promptly were brought to dismantle legally sanctioned segregation in other states. One of these was Arkansas. There, Governor Orville Faubus and . . . . Continue Reading »
Nathan Schlueter Readers of First Things should by now be well-acquainted with the heated national debate-in part inspired by these very pages-over the role and legitimacy of the modern Supreme Court, armed with the power of judicial review, in a country that proclaims itself to be self-governing. . . . . Continue Reading »