Free Republic

Joshua Matz didn’t bother waiting to write about the Supreme Court until he went to work there. He teamed with a renowned Harvard law professor to finish a book about the court before he started his year as a law clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy. Unlike Matz, Christopher Michel is not listed as an author of the book he worked on years before his clerkship with Chief Justice John Roberts. But former President George W. Bush offered warm praise for onetime presidential speechwriter Michel as his collaborator on his memoir, "Decision Points." Bush said in the book’s acknowledgements that Michel’s...

On Monday, October 6, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a North Carolina case that asks whether a traffic stop based on a police officer’s mistaken understanding of traffic laws violates the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures. A friend-of-the-court brief submitted by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of North Carolina, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the Cato Institute argues that a mistake of law can never supply the reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing that the Fourth Amendment requires in order to justify a traffic stop. "Ignorance of the law is not...

Simmering tensions between Harry Reid and Tom Daschle are erupting into an all-out feud. Daschle is expressing frustration with the Senate majority leader (D-Nev.) for refusing to endorse Rick Weiland, a former Daschle aide who is running for the South Dakota seat held by retiring Sen. Tim Johnson (D). Reid last year declared Weiland was “not my choice” in the race, and this summer added, “We are going to lose in South Dakota, more than likely.” Asked if those comments hurt Weiland’s chances, Daschle told The Hill, “Well, it certainly hasn’t helped.”

Did retailer Abercrombie & Fitch discriminate against a Muslim woman who was denied a job because her headscarf clashed with the company's dress code? That's the question in one of the 11 cases the Supreme Court said Thursday it will take on in its new term. The justices took no action on the highly anticipated issue of same-sex marriage, though a decision on the gay marriage cases could come later this month. In other notable cases, the court will consider taking away a powerful legal tactic the Obama administration has used to combat housing discrimination, decide whether judicial candidates have...

San Joaquin Valley growers Wednesday filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, hoping to reverse an appellate court’s rejection of their claim that flawed science was used to cut back water pumping in Northern California. The case already has been through U.S. District Court in Fresno, which sided with growers in a decision that would have forced federal leaders to rewrite 2008 protections for the threatened delta smelt. The dwindling fish population lives in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta where pumps divert water for Valley farms and Southern California cities. Federal wildlife agencies say water pumping is harming the...

The left is furious with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg because she won’t retire and allow President Obama to appoint another leftist to the Court. On some level though they should be thrilled that she’s staying. Of all the leftists on the Court, she’s the most open about it and she’s the most articulate in espousing left-wing positions. Justice Ginsberg is radically pro-abortion. Frankly, she sounds a bit like Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger. The left is forever reading racism into the words of conservatives. In this case, it might not be a bad idea to look at what...

A federal judge in Oklahoma on Tuesday struck down a key provision supporting the Affordable Care Act, in yet another judicial move that threatens to derail President Obama’s vision of national health care reform. US District Judge Ronald White said in a 20-page opinion that the Internal Revenue Service lacked the authority to enact a regulation that allows the federal government to provide tax credits to qualified health care policyholders through health care exchanges in every instance. At issue in the lawsuit was whether the IRS regulation conflicted with the clear language of ACA, also known as Obamacare, which appears...

Rights: A Ninth Circuit Court ruling that students can't wear American flag T-shirts because they may offend Mexican students celebrating Cinco de Mayo is a ridiculous yet dangerous assault on the First Amendment. On Sept. 17, more than four years after Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Calif., sent students home for wearing American flag t-shirts, an 11-judge Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled that it was the right choice, "tailored to avert violence and focused on student safety." The decision upheld the court's three-judge ruling in February that justified the school's actions based on tensions between Mexican...

The top lawyer arguing a case to overturn Obamacare subsidies believes he can succeed at crippling the law even if it's upheld in every district and appellate court. A three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit invalidated the federal exchange subsidies in June. The full court subsequently vacated the ruling and announced it'll re-hear the case, called Halbig v. Burwell. The conservative opponents have a tough battle because the en banc ruling will feature 8 Democratic-appointed judges — four of whom were appointed by President Obama himself — and 5 Republican-appointed judges. Michael Carvin, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, has appealed...

Supreme CourtJustice Ruth Bader Ginsburg took a hard look at the political landscape, saw a Senate that was looming as unfavorable to her leanings and summed up her fate: I can’t resign now — there’s nobody like me who could be confirmed, she said. “Who do you think President Obama could appoint at this very day, given the boundaries that we have? If I resign any time this year, [Obama] could not successfully appoint anyone I would like to see in the court,” Ms. Ginsburg, 81, said in an Elle Magazine excerpt released on Tuesday. “Anybody who thinks that if...

See, this is how a master scares his audience. When an amateur like me tries to do it, it tends to devolve into lame “Romney 2016? trolling. As if Romney isn’t, relatively speaking, the most appealing RINO in the field. (Seriously, would you prefer Jeb Bush or Chris Christie?) That said, I am and will forever remain proud of how effective my many “Huckabee 2016?” posts have been in getting readers to pee their pants. Rush may be a master but I’m at least semi-pro. After you perform your six years of government service, you then retire to the private...

If you use Facebook, pay taxes, enjoy fishing or drive a car, the 2014-2015 term of the Supreme Court, which begins Oct. 6, will be worth watching. Many of the cases from the last term touched on issues such as executive power, religious liberty, free speech and racial preferences. Here are highlights of the upcoming term: 1. Elonis v. United States: Aspiring rapper Anthony “Tone Dougie” Elonis was convicted of making criminal threats after posting rap lyrics on Facebook about killing his estranged wife. Did the government have to prove Tone Dougie intended to actually threaten his wife, or is...

Five years ago, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the most fascinating thing in a candid interview with Sunday New York Times Magazine reporter Emily Bazelon: "Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of." People who aren’t as gung-ho about the snuffing out of young life as your typical mainstream media journalist noted this interview and discussed the deep ties of abortion and birth control to the progressive eugenics movement. In 1992, Ron Weddington, co-counsel in...

Justice Elena Kagan has officiated for the first time at a same-sex wedding, a Maryland ceremony for her former law clerk and his husband. Kagan presided on Sunday over the wedding of former clerk Mitchell Reich and Patrick Pearsall in the Washington suburb of Chevy Chase, Maryland. Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said Monday that the same-sex ceremony was the first at which Kagan officiated. Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg have previously officiated at the wedding of gay and lesbian couples, including at the Supreme Court. Ginsburg most recently performed the wedding of Washington theater...

The jockeying among the titans of the Supreme Court bar for a place at the lectern when the justices hear the next same-sex marriage case is as understated as it is unmistakable. In a half-dozen briefs filed in recent weeks, some of the best lawyers in the nation spent many pages arguing that their case was the right one in which to establish a nationwide right to same-sex marriage. They pointed out the attractive features of their own cases and the shortcomings of others. In legal jargon, streamlined cases without procedural pitfalls are said to be good vehicles. That made...

While political partisanship flourishes in the halls of Congress, it has no place in the chambers of the U.S. Supreme Court, the chief justice said Friday in remarks to Nebraska law students. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. said he worries that the partisan rancor of the age has skewed the public understanding of the court’s role in government. During a 55-­minute talk at the University of Nebraska College of Law, he stressed that the rule of law, rather than politics, drives the court’s decisions. “We are not Democrats and Republicans in how we go about it,” he told an audience...

Kansas Democratic Senate candidate Chad Taylor’s effort to get his name taken off this fall’s ballot will be heard in the state’s supreme court, according to reports, the latest twist in a suddenly fast-changing race thought to be a shoo-in for Republicans. Last week, Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach ruled that Taylor will have to remain on the ballot since he did not demonstrate that he was incapable of serving if elected, a requirement under state statutes. Taylor went on to file a lawsuit against Kobach, claiming an election official helped him prepare the necessary documents to withdraw from...

Americans should be more concerned about their privacy being invaded by the spread of drones, Justice Sonia Sotomayor told an Oklahoma City audience on Thursday. Speaking before a group of faculty members and students at Oklahoma City University’s law school on Sept. 11, Justice Sotomayor said “frightening” changes in surveillance technology should encourage citizens to take a more active role in the privacy debate. She said she’s particularly troubled by the potential for commercial and government drones to compromise personal privacy. Said Justice Sotomayor: There are drones flying over the air randomly that are recording everything that’s happening on what...

Washington, D.C., September 05, 2014 (Zenit.org) | 3257 hits Below is a statement released Thursday by the Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, regarding the next legal battles facing the diocese regarding the state supreme court's attempt to mandate breaking the seal of confession. The diocese reports that now the "Louisiana Supreme Court has directed the trial court to hold an evidentiary hearing and then to take the unprecedented step of deciding whether or not a sacrament actually took place."It notes that "civil courts are entirely without jurisdiction to decide what constitutes a sacrament in the Catholic Church."A statement on the case from July...

A stinging rejection of same-sex marriage bans in Wisconsin and Indiana, issued by a unanimous and unequivocal U.S. appeals court, has brought hope to those fighting the laws that the Supreme Court will feel pressure to rule soon in their favor. The ruling from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago came Thursday, the same day 32 states asked the Supreme Court to settle the issue once and for all. Fifteen states that allow gay marriage, led by Massachusetts, filed a brief asking the justices to take up three cases from Virginia, Utah and Oklahoma and overturn bans....