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US Supreme Court Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 12, 2011 46 Comments

This is the big case involving 26 states.  In January, Judge Roger Vinson struck the entire law finding that the mandate could not be severed from the rest of the law. The 11th Circuit ruled that the mandate was unconstitutional, but unlike Judge Vinson, did not throw...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 27, 2011 6 Comments

Several readers wrote to me asking me to post on this.  It certainly is worth noting, because Elena Kagan's involvement or not in whatever Obamacare appeals make their way to the Supreme Court could make a difference.Justice Kagan did not recuse herself from consideration of Virginia's...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 26, 2011 1 Comment

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Arizona law requiring employers to use the federal E-Verify system.Everyone is wondering how this reflects on a future ruling as to Arizona's immigration law which was struck down in a decision by both the Arizona District Court and the...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 25, 2011 4 Comments

ScotusBlog is reporting that the U.S. Supreme Court, without any dissents noted, has passed on the application of the State of Virginia for expedited review of the case now on appeal to the 4th Circuit.  The District Court in Virginia had ruled the health care mandate...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 02, 2011 28 Comments

The U.S. Supreme Court, in an 8-1 ruling (Alito dissenting), ruled in favor of the right under the First Amendment for protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church to picket near the funerals of soldiers.Here is a key piece of the Opinion, written by Chief Justice...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 23, 2011 18 Comments

The decision by the the Department of Justice to refuse to defend the Defense of Marriage Act is a massive power grab by the Executive Branch.The Justice Department is tasked with representing the "government" is the broad sense in legal matters coming before the courts. ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 25, 2011 6 Comments

I heard Supreme Court Justice Antonin "Nino" Scalia talk many years ago at a function in Rhode Island held by the Justinian Law Society.  If I recall correctly, the topic was the "living Constitution."Scalia was both brilliant and entertaining.  He is a wonderful speaker, and...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 24, 2011 12 Comments

Criticism of Supreme Court Justices is nothing new.  We do it and they do it.But the latest tactic in going after two Supreme Court Justices, Scalia and Thomas, seems out of the ordinary.  Since the first of this year we have seen three charges made.First,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 04, 2011 11 Comments

More dumbed-down talk about the Constitution from Tea Parties liberal columnists, this time Amanda Terkel (formerly of Think Progress) writing at HuffPo with the headline:Scalia: Women Don't Have Constitutional Protection Against Discrimination Gee, Scalia must hate women.Except that the headline is a good example of a...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 08, 2010 7 Comments

I don't have time today to get into detail on the Michigan trial court decision upholding the Obamacare mandate under the Commerce Clause.  The decision can be boiled down to these three words:  "Inactivity is Activity."Here is the money quote from the decision (at pp....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 16, 2010 6 Comments

The Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has granted a stay pending an expedited appeal of the District Court Order which held that California Prop. 8 violated the U.S. Constitution. The Court specifically ordered the supporters of Prop. 8 to brief if they had...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 12, 2010 9 Comments

The federal judge who ruled that California Prop. 8 violated the U.S. Constitution, and who temporarily stayed his ruling pending further arguments, has now denied the motion to stay entry of judgment of his decision.Judge Vaugh R. Walker just entered an Order which would allow...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 05, 2010 16 Comments

Yesterday I made the point that Chief US District Judge Vaughn Walker, who declared California Prop. 8 to violate the U.S. Constitution, was trying a bit too hard to insulate his decison on appeal by engaging in fact finding and credibility determinations on what essentially...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 04, 2010 49 Comments

A federal lawsuit was filed in May 2009 challenging Proposition 8, the California referendum which amended the state constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman. Prop. 8 previously was upheld by the California Supreme Court.The federal lawsuit, Perry et al v....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 27, 2010 11 Comments

So many of the important decisions of the United States Supreme Court are decided by a single vote.Often that vote is Anthony Kennedy. Not a bad single vote to have, considering the alternatives.What if Kennedy's single vote didn't matter anymore because Kennedy or one of...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 19, 2010 6 Comments

If you were voting:Should Elena Kagan be confirmed?YesNo, but Republicans should NOT filibusterNo, and Republicans should filibuster pollcode.com free polls--------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube...

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