Free Republic

CNN) – Janet Napolitano just started her first Washington job — but speculation lingers over whether she might be interested in a more permanent post in the nation's capital. The Homeland Security secretary continued to shrug off questions Sunday over whether or not she'd be willing to serve on the Supreme Court if she were tapped by President Obama to fill the vacancy left by the retirement of Justice David Souter."You know Chris, I got to tell you, I got my hands full with the flu right now and I’m just going to stick with that," she told Fox News...

Obama will look for a “nontraditional” judge – speculation is rampant that his choice will be a Hispanic, or another woman - to find one who is not so egregiously left–leaning as to ensure Repubs close ranks and peel off a couple of moderate Dems to filibuster the confirmation – taking comfort in the near certainty that his seemingly centrist nominee is likely to drift further and further left over time. Though the majority of Supreme Court Justices proved ideologically malleable over the course of their tenures, here’s why Obama’s choice won’t be a “stealth” conservative, as Souter turned out to be...

Liberal Supreme Court Justice David Souter is retiring. On social issues, this makes little difference: whoever replaces him will satisfy liberal litmus tests, like supporting racial preferences and partial-birth abortion the way Souter did. But on economics, where Souter was more moderate, it will matter a lot: Souter was willing to occasionally overturn excessive punitive damage awards, and overturn state regulations that were preempted by federal law (like in Watters v. Wachovia (2007), where I filed a brief on behalf of economists and law professors). Some of his potential replacements, like Judge Sonia Sotomayor and especially Deval Patrick, will be...

Jay Sekulow warns of what is to come when you lose an election, since this President is an absolute radical, look for someone who believes in a living constitution, and will reference "foreign law" like Darth Vader Ginsberg. Thank you voters!!!!

It never fails. Let someone’s name be put forward as a possible Dem presidential candidate or judicial nominee, and the MSM will find a way to characterize him as a “centrist.” We didn’t have to wait long for the tradition to be honored regarding Sonia Sotomayor, who conventional wisdom pegs as the frontrunner to replace David Souter. On today’s Good Morning America, George Stephanopoulos declared Sotomayor not just a centrist, but a . . . “strong centrist.” View video here.

(Get ready for the BIG comedy Webcast starting September 10. No, this doesn't involve ol' PJ talking into a mike. This is a project involving MANY. Get your political humor in digestible chunks twice weekly on the Web.) Perhaps the biggest MISTAKE of the first George Bush was nominating David Souter to the Supreme Court. At the time, everyone said that Souter's views were a complete mystery. Well, he hid them well at the time for a reason. As has been revealed in subsequent years on the Supreme Court, he is an out and out liberal. However, we can...

If the justice is so fond of eminent domain, say protesters, let's seize his ancestral property and develop a charming bed and breakfast on it.Weare, New HampshireLOGAN DARROW CLEMENTS doesn't seem like the sort of fellow who'd go around stealing the houses of Supreme Court justices. He's mild mannered and laughs easily, often at his own jokes. Physically he resembles a less creepy Ralph Reed: He looks like a 36-year-old altar boy whose mom made him scrub up and dress for dinner. An Ayn Rand devotee, he heads an objectivist discussion group back home in Los Angeles. A zippy evening...

Angered by a Supreme Court ruling that gave local governments more power to seize people's homes for economic development, a group of activists is trying to get one of the court's justices evicted from his own home. The group, led by a California man, wants Justice David Souter's home seized to build an inn called the "Lost Liberty Hotel." They submitted enough petition signatures - only 25 were needed - to bring the matter before voters in March. This weekend, they're descending on Souter's hometown, the central New Hampshire town of Weare, population 8,500, to rally for support

CONCORD, N.H. --The U.S. Supreme Court angered many Americans last year when it sided with a Connecticut city that wanted to seize homes and other property for economic development. In protest, a small group led by a California man has been targeting David Souter, one of the five justices who voted yes in the case, trying to get Souter's hometown of Weare to seize his property for the purpose of building an inn. They submitted enough petition signatures -- only 25 were needed -- to bring the matter before voters in March. They plan to rally in Weare this weekend...

Harriet Miers has filled out a Senate Questionnaire that gives more evidence that she was personally against abortion. In that same questionnaire, she also said that she opposes judicial activism.Should that change anyone's mind? No, not one iota. Wondering why? Well, let me tell you a little story about a name that strikes terror into the heart of conservatives who care deeply about the Supreme Court: David Souter. Souter was a stealth nominee, nominated by George Bush's father. There were some initial grumbles about his nomination, but Republicans came out of the woodwork to assure the base that David Souter...

There are many reasons President George W. Bush could have decided not to pick White House Counsel Harriet Miers, a Dallas commercial litigator with a limited trial background and no judicial experience, to serve on the Supreme Court. But there is at least one compelling reason he did: the 15-year shadow cast by Justice David Souter, a nominee touted by Bush's father as a staunch conservative -- who has turned out to be anything but. "Miers is not going to 'go Souter' on him," notes Earl Maltz of the Rutgers University School of Law-Camden, using a pet phrase conservatives have...

My favorite supporting character in the legendary strip, “Peanuts,” is Pigpen. His unique trait is raising a cloud of dirt everywhere, even on a clean, dry sidewalk. Pigpen came to mind when I saw the White House Press Corps’ question President Bush Wednesday on his nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. First, the status of the nomination. Monday afternoon, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid held a nearly unprecedented press conference with Harriet Miers, just hours after her nomination. Reid said that she was an “exceptional” candidate, and “the sort of person who should be nominated.” In short, the...

New Hampshire Executive Councilor Raymond Burton, right, poses with U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter, center, and New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch in front of the Statehouse in Concord, N.H., in this April 7, 2005, file photo. Burton is facing calls to resign for hiring a campaign aide he knew was a convicted child sex offender, but he said Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2005, he has no intention of stepping down. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)

Judge John Roberts soon will be confirmed as the 17th chief justice of the United States to replace William H. Rehnquist. Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats Joseph Biden of Delaware, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Charles Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California are frowning and gnashing. Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans Orrin Hatch of Utah, Jon Kyl of Arizona, Jeff Sessions of Alabama and John Cornyn of Texas are smiling and exulting. But something is wrong with this picture.

I'm listening to Logan Clements, the man behind the idea of putting a hotel, cafe and museum where David Souter's living. KFI is in L.A./Southern California He's mentioned Free Republic several times saying that was where it first got rolling for him, then it moved to Drudge and then Rush.

IN THE DAYS BEFORE PRESIDENT Bush picked a Supreme Court nominee, the White House was gripped by Souter-phobia. Bush and his aides desperately wanted to avert the disaster that befell his father's White House in 1990. The elder Bush, on the advice of his chief of staff John Sununu and Senator Warren Rudman of New Hampshire, picked an unknown judge, David Souter, for the Supreme Court, thinking he was a conservative. Souter turned out to be a flaming liberal, so much so that Senator Ted Kennedy now regrets having voted against confirming him. In naming Souter, Bush had passed over...

An advertising entrepreneur leading an effort to seize David Souter's home in response to the high court's controversial eminent domain decision is encouraging citizens to mount a campaign against leaders of the justice's New Hampshire town. Logan Darrow Clements said today on "Joseph Farah's WorldNetDaily RadioActive" program that the five members of the board of selectmen of Weare, N.H., rejected his proposal to take Souter's property, prompting a call for their removal from office. Clements wrote to the board, explaining he needed to find out if they already opposed the proposal so he would know whether it was worth the...

Just after the First World War, President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, was not very successful in garnering support in the Senate for American membership in the League of Nations. Opposition was led by Republican Sen. William Borah of Idaho. Years later Borah was asked why he thought the League was such a bad idea. "I didn't," he answered. "I was against it because it was Wilson's idea." So far the opposition on the left to President Bush's nominee as the next associate justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts Jr., has mustered no more intellectual firepower than that.

On John Roberts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: July 21, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com President Bush's selection of John Roberts as Supreme Court nominee to replace Sandra Day O'Connor is being hailed as a stroke of genius. He has the likely opposition off balance because the nominee does not have a record of writings and positions that can be easily attacked and challenged. He is said to be a very nice man with a nice family and to possess a brilliant legal mind. At first blush, Roberts seems to be an acceptable choice for Americans who still believe in the...

Picture this: Ruth Bader Ginsberg wearing a snug, green outfit, complete with tights. Then picture four of her high-court compatriots, John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer doing the same. It's a tough visual, I admit, but given their property-rights ruling, we now know what those members of the U.S. Supreme Court must be wearing under their black robes. Think "jolly, old England" and the fellow in the green outfit who stole from the rich to give to the poor. He didn't do it alone. Robin Hood had his band of merry men to help. It wasn't...