nicole

I’ll probably have more to say about this post later, but one thing I would say is that I don’t see why you would need a constitutional amendment to change the voting rules of the federal courts. Nothing in Article III establishes a voting rule, and Congress has the statutory authority to regulate the courts. […]

You would think that a journalist would at least be embarrassed to evaluate McCain‘s large number of flip-flops charitably while assailing Obama for doing similar things. But if so, I guess you’ve never seen Richard Cohen, who is not merely open about this transparently indefensible double standard but seems almost proud of it. The pass […]

To echo what Manohla Dargis, Glenn Kenney, TAP’s own Noy Thrupkaew and countless others have said, I really can’t recommend the extraordinary Romanian picture 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days strongly enough; it’s sure to be remembered as one of the peaks of the decade. Black market abortion in a miserable dictatorship is a […]

Hugo Chavez‘s referendum has apparently gone down to a narrow defeat. This is a good thing for reasons that Randy Paul explains here. —Scott Lemieux

THE HIDDEN RIGHTWARD SHIFT. Jeff Rosen has a very good piece on John Paul Stevens in the Times Magazine. The central point is that Stevens isn’t so much a liberal as someone who plays one on the Rehnquist and Burger Courts: Stevens, however, is an improbable liberal icon. “I don’t think of myself as a […]

THE VOTE FRAUD FRAUD: POTEMKIN THINK-TANK EDITION. Richard Hasen has a must-read article about the “American Center for Voting Rights,” which was ginned up to varnish bullshit Republican claims of widespread voter fraud and has completely disappeared. It’s a classic 21st century Republican story, featuring incompetence, junk science and abuse of the justice system in […]

ENOUGH. Can someone explain to me what this empty-headed, sexist drivel is doing in the op-ed page of the New York Times twice a week? The Chicago Tribune profile of �Barack�s Rock� on Sunday noted that her career had caused her husband discomfort: �Critics have pointed out that her income has risen along with her […]

THE COUNTERMOBILIZATION TAUTOLOGY. Speaking of nominal supporters of gay rights and specious backlash arguments, you may remember that in the wake of the New Jersey civil unions ruling Glenn Reynolds said that “changes like this are better made through legislative than judicial means, and that this may well benefit the Republicans substantially in the coming […]

BENJAMIN WITTES EXPLAINED: Standard of legitimacy #1: “Since its inception Roe has had a deep legitimacy problem, stemming from its weakness as a legal opinion.” Standard of legitimacy #2: “Consider finally the prediction that Bush v. Gore would gravely damage President Bush’s and the Court’s own legitimacy. That claim is subject to empirical testing. And […]