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House Rep. Jim Jordan pushed back against the House Judiciary Committee’s star witness Rev. Robert Schenck during a Supreme Court “Undue Influence” hearing on Thursday, challenging Schenck’s credibility in past legal proceedings. The hearing came as a result of Schenck alleging that Justice Samuel Alito leaked a Supreme Court opinion in 2014 and accusations that the justice may have leaked the Dobbs opinion in May. “One thing I’ve learned, people who mislead folks on small things, mislead them on big things,” Jordan said during the hearing. House Rep. Jim Jordan grilled conservative-turned-progressive activist Rev. Robert Schenck Thursday in a House...

Some personal secrets are so well-kept that even family and friends are oblivious. So it is with the story of the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist's marriage proposal to a Stanford Law School classmate in the early 1950s. When 19-year-old Sandra Day entered Stanford Law School in 1949, her frequent seatmate was 26-year-old Bill Rehnquist, attending Stanford on the GI Bill. The two shared their equally meticulous class notes and eventually were dating regularly. But by December of their second year, she broke up with him while somehow retaining what she called their "study buddy" relationship; she even entered the...

The founder of Westboro Baptist Church, Fred Phelps, notorious for leading hateful protests against gay rights, is actually a Democrat with long history of endorsing Democratic candidates. On Tuesday, Politico provided some background on Phelps' political history, most of which saw him endorsing Democrat candidates and running for office a number of times as a Democrat. In the 1990's, Phelps ran in three Kansas Democratic primaries for Governor in 1990, 1994, and 1998, receiving only 15% of the vote. He also ran for Senator in 1992, receiving 31% of the vote, and for mayor of Topeka in 1993 and 1997....

If establishment pundits can’t deny a Republican’s intelligence, then they have to claim his intelligence is a problem. The other day, NPR’s Robert Siegel assembled his usual suspects from the New York Times, Washington Post and Brookings Institution to provide a “balanced” review of the week in politics, including the latest from Ted Cruz. These two short sentences provide a perfect example of the uphill climb Cruz and any Republican has ahead: DAVID BROOKS of the NY Times: “My problem with Cruz is that he’s very, very smart – he’s going to Wall Street these days and impressing people with...

IN THE Federalist, James Madison observed that judges are "shoots from the executive stock." With this phrase, Madison was making a point about where, in a government of separated powers, judges come from; and of course, the answer is the executive, since the Constitution plainly sets forth that it is the president who has the authority to select judges.True, the Senate must approve a president's nominees, or else none can have life tenure. But the constitutional structure is such that no one can become a judge unless the president chooses the person. Judges are shoots from the executive stock only,...

Last December, during my oral argument in the medical marijuana case of Gonzales v. Raich, the center chair normally occupied by Chief Justice William Rehnquist was empty. Without the towering, and sometimes glowering, visage of the chief, with his no-nonsense demeanor and questioning, there was a palpable void in the courtroom that day. Now, with his passing, there is a void in the Supreme Court itself. Today we mourn the death of William Rehnquist. One day soon we may mourn the death of his legacy--the jurisprudence of the Rehnquist court. Even before becoming chief justice, often in lonely dissents, it...

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor steered clear of directly discussing the big issues facing the nation's highest court while visiting the University of Florida's law school Friday. O'Connor spoke before a crowd of 500 but did not mention the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, the nomination of John Roberts to replace him, or her own delayed retirement plans. What she did address was political influence on the judiciary. "I am against judicial reform driven by nakedly partisan, result-oriented reasons," O'Connor told the group. "The experience of developing countries, former communist countries and our own political culture teaches...

WITH JOHN ROBERTS sailing toward confirmation last week, President Bush had the O'Connor seat "won." The Court was set to move one click to the right (so to speak). Then Chief Justice William Rehnquist died. The president chose to move Roberts over to fill the Rehnquist slot--thereby re-opening the vacancy created by Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement.One understands the attraction of Roberts as chief. But with this action, in one fell swoop, the president deprived himself and his supporters of the easiest argument for his next nominee: that surely a reelected conservative president is entitled to replace a conservative justice--Rehnquist--with another...

In a news conference today, Howard Dean stamped his feet and called Bush's nominee to replace the late Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist a "right wing extremist homophobe bigot," and an "icky pukey old man." Dean, who is more noted for his hissy fits than for his penchant for wearing women's underwear, at one point became so animated that he actually bit his tongue so hard it bled.

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretarySeptember 4, 2005 President's Statement on the Death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist The Roosevelt Room 10:01 A.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Our nation is saddened today by the news that Chief Justice William Rehnquist passed away last night. Laura and I send our respect and deepest sympathy to this good man's children, Jim, Janet, and Nancy. We send our respect to all the members of the Rehnquist family. William H. Rehnquist was born and raised in Wisconsin. He was the grandson of Swedish immigrants. Like so many of his generation, he served in the...

But what kind of conservative? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: July 25, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 Creators Syndicate, Inc. Will George Bush be seen historically as the George Patton – or the George McClellan of the culture wars? That question endures. For with his nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court, the president consciously chose to avoid battle with the Left. As he did not want a fight, Bush named a conservative without a single scar from the culture wars and no record of having served. He chose an establishment-conservative, not a warrior-conservative. Judge Roberts is a man of high...

Reading his majority opinion in the last case on the last day of the U.S. Supreme Court's term, Chief Justice William Rehnquist was in a joking mood. He was reviewing those who'd voted with him and against him in the Texas Ten Commandments case, and by the time he'd finished with the concurrences and dissents, he'd rattled off 12 names. This was the moment the 80-year-old chief justice – hobbled since October by thyroid cancer – was supposed to resign. But he didn't. And he hasn't. And now it appears that he won't. One theory is as good as another,...

Others with close White House connections say a short list is well into development. "There's a normal process that the White House has definitely been pursuing for at least six months where they are soliciting views and recommendations," said Samuel B. Casey, executive director of the Christian Legal Society (CLS). "We have submitted our views." Said one top Republican official with close ties to the White House: "The same four or five or six names keep coming up. I'm sure they have a short list already." Top administration and White House officials -- including Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, Solicitor...

Let's talk about the arguments that will be made, court cases cited, the sound bites, and votes in Congress. Let's talk about what's going to happen. Chief Justice Rehnquist isn't going to be around forever, and I'd bet a beer that this is his last court session. Then the president gets to nominate a replacement. That replacement is someone who votes just like Rehnquist did when it comes to religious freedom issues. The court remains much the same. It's late in the president's second term when Sandra Day O'Connor and one other justice decide that they'd rather have their replacements...

Former UN diplomat and Republican presidential contender Alan Keyes of Maryland is warning that "pressure from Democrats and RINOs is building on President Bush to nominate Sandra Day O'Connor as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and hand liberal special interests everything they want -- on a platter! In a letter to "Defenders of Justice," Keyes writes: "You've seen Ted Kennedy's filibusters against conservatives federal judges set the stage for a national disaster. "Because every contact I have tells me that President Bush's political "advisors" are pressing him to make "safe" Supreme Court appointments. That is, appointments the liberals will...

The Republican sweep makes a Supreme Court retirement likely in the near future. by Terry Eastland 11/07/2002 12:00:00 AM ONE CONSEQUENCE of the shift of Senate control to the Republicans may be to nudge a Justice or two towards retirement. It's about time we had a vacancy. The last was in 1994, when Harry Blackmun stepped down and his seat was taken by Stephen Breyer. More than eight years have passed--the second longest period without a vacancy since the early nineteenth century. So far history has blanked George W. Bush--he hasn't had a single opportunity to name a Justice. The...

Rehnquist may retire by '03, court observers say Age, accomplishments and politics could lead to chief justice's exit 09/22/2002 Associated Press WASHINGTON - Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist is 77, has been on the job for more than three decades and has a bad back, so retiring to read, write and work on his tennis swing would seem reasonable. But for Justice Rehnquist, the prospect of retirement is fraught with political consequences. Retirement rumors have swirled around Justice Rehnquist for several years, and the judge is keeping his thoughts on the subject to himself. But age, accomplishment and politics...

Cheney for Chief JusticeBy Bruce Walkerweb posted April 8, 2002The Pickering defeat and subsequent Democrat posturing makes it clear that the necessary battle to reclaim the federal judiciary from liberals will have to be a political campaign, and not a refined discussion of legal theory. That means presenting judicial nominees who are actually political candidates, and it also means picking political candidate who is perceived as suitable to be good judges. Most Americans are properly unimpressed by what insiders in the mammoth legal industry consider good qualities in judges. The justice system is seen as something of a racket, with...