Scott Lemieux

Common knowledge: Supreme Court confirmation hearings are now conducted on a kindergarten level. The dominant theme is that some judges follow the law, while other judges are “political.” And of course the nominee issues an endless stream of vacuous banalities assuring the country that he or she is one of the former. But at the […]

Tom Goldstein makes a depressingly convincing case that Obama will nominate Elena Kagan. In and of itself, that isn’t surprising, but what is annoying is that the administration seems to believe that the vastly preferable Diane Wood could be confirmed quite easily in the current political context. Given that Kagan could be confirmed in virtually […]

Among the many progressives (including me) who see Diane Wood as the superior choice on the speculative Supreme Court shortlists, one crucial factor is her status as an intellectual force on the right-leaning 7th Circuit. A good article by Sheryl Gay Stolberg today provides a good account of this. Her ability to persuade is not […]

Yesterday, I wrote an article urging Obama to put a strong liberal voice on the Court. Matt Yglesias responds and asks what a “real liberal” would look like. He highlights my criticism of Elana Kagan’s record on civil liberties and executive power: That’s a valid concern (and see Glenn Greenwald for outrage at great length […]

For reasons I’ll explain next week, among the candidates likely to actually be on the shortlist, Diane Wood seems to me to be the best choice for the Supreme Court. At this point, though, I like the idea of thinking about some other potential candidates who would, in an ideal world, receive stronger consideration. Emily […]

No huge surprise here, but John Paul Stevens will be resigning this summer. I hope Obama will consider that since 1916 this seat on the Court has been held by three — just-three — giants: Louis Brandeis, William O. Douglas, and Stevens. (And, personally, I’d prefer a throwback to a strong liberal like Douglas, as […]

As a follow-up to Adam‘s post below, here’s a useful roundup of quotes from Confederate Declarations of Secession — unlike their latter-day apologists, they made no pretense that secession wasn’t about slavery. And as Katrina vanden Heuvel notes, the “states’ rights” excuse becomes even more feeble when you remember that Southern political elites were perfectly […]

In light of last night’s horrendous mine explosion in West Virginia, Steven Mufson has a good article about the mine’s owner, Massey Energy, and it’s ultra-reactionary CEO Don Blaneknship: And although the company says that its safety record is better than the industry average, Massey has frequently been cited for safety violations, including about 50 […]

With the bill passed, it’s a good time to follow up my previous discussion about its constitutionality. There are two questions here: Is the bill unconstitutional under current law, and what will the Supreme Court do? On the first question, I think the bill is plainly constitutional under current law, as Jack Balkin explains here […]