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US Supreme Court Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 03, 2009 10 Comments

The White House explanation for Sonia Sotomayor's 2001 "wise Latina" statement was that Sotomayor used a "poor" choice of words and certainly would "restate" the language. This spin made no sense, as the full text of the 2001 speech made clear that Sotomayor did not...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 01, 2009 7 Comments

In my post yesterday, I noted that Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus wasn't "buying" the Obama administration spin that Sonia Sotomayor made a "poor" choice of words or misspoke in her speech in 2001 when Sotomayor said “I would hope that a wise Latina woman...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 31, 2009 0 Comments

Ruth Marcus is a columnist for the Washington Post. By any standard, Marcus is left-of-center, not an Obama-basher, and not hostile to liberal causes. So when Marcus rejects the White House spin on Sonia Sotomayor's "wise Latina" statement, it deserves attention:Nice try, Mr. President, but...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 31, 2009 0 Comments

“Scott, you said that – or the President said, repeatedly, that Harriet Miers was the best person for the job. So does that mean Alito is sloppy seconds, or what?” CBS News Correspondent, John Roberts, at White House Press Briefing, questioning White House Press Secretary...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 30, 2009 4 Comments

Bruce Ackerman, a prominent constitutional law professor at Yale Law School, warned against the tactic of "stealth" Supreme Court nominations, where an ideologically driven President who seeks to change the direction of the Supreme Court nominates a relatively undistinguished appeals court judge whose lack of...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 30, 2009 4 Comments

"There are lies, damned lies, and statistics." So it is said. We now have reached stage three of the Sotomayor debate, because we are into statistical analysis of her opinions and dissents.First, some backdrop on statistics as relates to Supreme Court nominees. During the confirmation...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 29, 2009 3 Comments

At a 2001 conference, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor uttered these now-famous words: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 29, 2009 2 Comments

The New York Times has an article today about Sonia Sotomayor's board membership at the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEP) starting in the 1980s until she joined the federal judiciary in 1992. According to the article, Sotomayor was far from a passive...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 28, 2009 15 Comments

Barack Obama campaigned on the theme of a new era of transparency. Obama used that theme as a justification for the release of four highly classified internal Justice Department memos detailing strategies for interrogation of al-Qaeda detainees, over the objections of Obama's own Director of...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 26, 2009 1 Comment

A federal lawsuit has been filed challenging Proposition 8 (via Instapundit and Volokh Conspiracy). The lawsuit was filed last Friday, May 22, 2009, by noted Republican attorney Ted Olson, and noted Democratic attorney David Boies. Olson and Boies were on opposite sides of the landmark...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 17, 2009 1 Comment

My comments appear at 0.30 of the video, here.(I have removed the embedded CBS video since it apparently had an auto-run feature which understandably annoyed some viewers; if I can figure out how to get rid of the auto-run, I'll repost it)--------------------------------------------Follow me on Twitter...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 11, 2009 9 Comments

Cass Sunstein has a problem if he wants to get on the Supreme Court. It's not his intellect or credentials. According to Elena Kagan, also a contender for the high court, "Cass Sunstein is the pre-eminent legal scholar of our time — the most wide-ranging,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 08, 2009 0 Comments

NY Times links to and quotes from my post on potential Supreme Court replacement for David Souter:William Jacobson of Legal Insurrection seems to agree that while sexual orientation may not be a big deal, previous support of gay marriage is a red flag.Elena Kagan has...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 07, 2009 28 Comments

Matthew Yglesias is one of the best-known left-wing bloggers who does not hesitate to attack anyone he considers to be bigoted (under very expansive and political definitions). Yglesias blogs at Think Progress, a blog run by the Center for American Progress. Think Progress, much like...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 05, 2009 0 Comments

For the past several Supreme Court nominations, the hot issue has been abortion. Whether a nominee supported Roe v. Wade was the litmus test, both for conservatives and liberals. Predictably, nominees shied away from opining on whether they would vote to uphold either the outcome...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 03, 2009 6 Comments

A video of Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor, reportedly on Obama's short list to replace David Souter on the Supreme Court, has come to light (video and transcript via Volokh Conspiracy). Sotomayor stated as follows during a panel discussion at Duke Law School in...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 03, 2009 2 Comments

The Obama administration has been bipolar. When it comes to economic issues, Obama is in the process of attempting to fulfill the left-wing's wildest dreams of nationalized health care, government control over the most minute details of the economy, and redistribution of wealth through tax...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 01, 2009 1 Comment

The guessing game as to who is on the short list of potential nominees for David Souter's spot on the Supreme Court has begun. Many of the names are understandable because of their experience and credentials, regardless of whether one would support them: Elena Kagan,...

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