Posted by Fuzzy Slippers
on January 01, 202045 Comments
Another year has passed—and what a year it's been! Our very own Kemberlee started a New Year LI tradition of our authors making predictions for the coming year, and I'm honored to compile the post for her while she tends to her preciousmiracle, Baby Walt.
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on August 23, 201976 Comments
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has had numerous health issues in recent years, which is not surprising considering she is 86-years-old.
In July 2018, Ginsburg promised to hang on at least 5 more years, i.e., until after Trump's first term in the hope a Democrat would replace him in 2020.
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on January 20, 201925 Comments
I'm so old, I remember when Republicans were ramming judicial nominations through the Senate, and Democrats were squealing like stuck pigs about it.
Then came Jeff Flake's attempt to disrupt the process unless a bill were passed protecting Mueller, and then the congressional term ran out with Democrats refusing to carry over the nominations. That left 13 nominees for appeals courts and 60 nominees for District and other lower courts hung out to dry.
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on January 10, 201959 Comments
85-year-old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has suffered multiple health setbacks in recent months.
She fell and broke some ribs, and then had cancerous tumors removed from her lungs. Recovery from the lung surgery caused Ginsburg to miss three days of oral arguments this week, the first time she has missed an oral argument since joining the high court:
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on September 07, 201855 Comments
The lesson of nominating Mitt Romney for president is that it doesn't matter how objectively nice a Republican presidential candidate is, the media and Democrats will portray the person as a monster.
Romney was portrayed as someone whose main attributes were that he gave a woman cancer and kept women in binders. His decency on the campaign trail was not rewarded. The media swarmed to ensure his defeat.
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on July 09, 201891 Comments
So this is my quick take on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.
My overwhelming focus as the drama unfolded tonight was not Kavanaugh's record. I'm not sufficiently familiar with Kavanaugh's record to reach an independent judgment on him. But Kavanaugh has passed muster with a wide range of conservatives who are familiar with his record and background, particularly Leonard Leo of The Federalist Society. I'll rely on, and accept, their judgment on future Justice Kavanaugh.
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on July 05, 201836 Comments
As the July 9 date for Trump to announce his pick to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy nears, there is a vicious multi-front war evolving.
Of course, Democrats are attacking every likely nominee, with the anti-Catholic bigotry against Amy Coney Barrett the most prominent. Barrett would be the most finger-in-the-liberals-eye pick, and not just because of her Catholicism. She has seven (7) children -- that is a provocation in the minds of liberal feminists and the people who love them that cannot be abided.
Posted by Mary Chastain
on July 04, 201814 Comments
Amy Coney Barrett faced the wrath of anti-Catholics during her confirmation hearings for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
The same anti-Catholic rhetoric has emerged once again as her name is rumored to be on the short list to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Democrat Senate candidate and conspiracy theorist Richard Painter insists Barrett belongs to a cult called People of Praise.
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on July 02, 201888 Comments
Neil Gorsuch was an incredibly safe pick for Trump. Despite the plaintive wails of Democrats about a "stolen" seat, they didn't have much with which to go after Gorsuch on the merits.
Nonetheless Democrats filibustered Gorsuch, forcing Republican's to play the nuclear option for a SCOTUS nominee (as Democrats did in 2013 for all lower courts and made clear they would do if Hillary won and they regained the Senate).
Posted by Jared Samilow
on January 07, 201817 Comments
Year One of President Trump's much-vaunted "judge story" was far more successful than anyone could have expected.
Trump nominated and confirmed more appellate circuit court judges in his first year than any modern president. His judges were, on average, just 50 years old and all of them were well-credentialed conservatives. Several are potential SCOTUS nominees.
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on November 17, 201721 Comments
I noted yesterday that Chuck Grassley finally appears ready to clear the backlog in Judiciary Committee hearings on Appeals and District court judicial nominees, by preventing withholding of "blue slips" from becoming de facto filibusters, Chuck Grassley rips up “blue slip” stall, Al Franken left groping for alternative delay tactic.
It then will be up to Mitch McConnell to get nominees floor votes, and to overcome Democrat stalling tactics to draw out each nominee, even the ones they don't oppose. The goal has to be:
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on September 29, 201719 Comments
Notre Dame law professor Amy Barrett has been nominated to the Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. Barrett is a former Scalia law clerk.
Barrett's nomination hearing in early September generated a lot of attention when Democrat Senators attacked her for being a religious Christian. The National Review reported at the time:
Posted by Mary Chastain
on August 31, 201765 Comments
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray to inform him that the committee found in unredacted parts in transcripts that former FBI Director James Comey decided to write a statement to exonerate then-presumptive Democrat presidential candidate before the FBI finished its investigation into her emails.
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on June 07, 201732 Comments
It's understandable why everyone is focused on The Greatest Show on Earth, the appearance of James Comey before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, June 8, 2017.
But barring some surprise testimony not in Comey's prepared statement, the hearing will merely confirm "bad" news for Trump already leaked to the press - none of which rises to the level of criminality. And there are some good aspects of the testimony, including that Trump was not personally under investigation and never asserted any type of interference in the Russia probe.
While everyone was focused on Comey's prepared statement, Trump went about his business filling vacancies in the federal judiciary.
Posted by edgeofthesandbox
on January 27, 201611 Comments
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, we revisit the story of Anatoly Shapiro.
Major Anatoly Shapiro was a Jewish officer in the Red Army who led his troupes to liberate Auschwitz concentration camp on January 27, 1945. He enlisted in the Red Army at the onset of Operation Barbarossa in 1941, was wounded in Kursk in 1943, but it's what he saw 71 years ago at Auschwitz that left the most indelible mark.
Shapiro recalled additional details of the day of the liberation in this remarkable interview given shortly before his death in 2005 at the age of 94 to an Israeli radio host Tovia Singer. This was during the second intifada, and Shapiro spoke to that too: