Scott Lemieux

Dana, Adam, and Ezra have already identified one likely line of argument against any non-white male Obama nominee, i.e. the idiotic argument that any Democratic appointee who isn’t a white male must ipso facto not be the “most qualified” Supreme Court candidate (whatever this could possibly mean). A couple more of the potential arguments can […]

As Dana notes below, David Souter will apparently be stepping down at the end of the term. According to Nina Totenberg, this means that (barring tragedy) Stevens and Ginsburg will be staying on for another term. It is very unusual for a modern justice to retire while still in good health, but it is obviously […]

Jon Cohn has some cautionary words about the effects of Arlen Specter switching parties: But the headline currently on the Post home page–“Democrats Get Filibuster-Proof Majority”–is bit-misleading. Yes, the Dems will have sixty votes in the Senate. But Colorado [sic] Senator Ben Nelson isn’t a reliable Democratic vote and, to a lesser extent, neither are […]

After reading Lithwick, Savage, and Liptak, it was impossible to avoid the conclusion that the Supreme Court will uphold a principal’s appalling decision to strip-search a 13-year old student because of extraordinarily flimsy evidence that she might possess … ibuprofen. I decided to look at the transcript of the oral arguments to try to find […]

Apparently, the ability of the War On (some classes of people who use some) Drugs to act as a solvent in which the Fourth Amendment vanishes has some limits. Today, the Supreme Court ruled that a search of an automobile after the defendant was secured (in this case, for his arrest for driving with a […]

Jeffrey Toobin raises a good point about a key architect of the torture memos, Jay Bybee: Bybee is generally the forgotten man in torture studies of the Bush era. The best known of the legal architects of the torture regime is John Yoo, who was a deputy to Bybee. For better or worse, Yoo has […]

Following up with a few more gems among the apercus in today’s column from beloved columnist Abraham J. SImpson George F. Will: “Writer Daniel Akst has noticed and has had a constructive conniption. He should be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He has earned it by identifying an obnoxious misuse of freedom. Writing in […]

The superb New York Times‘s legal columnist Adam Liptak had an article this weekend that was disappointingly credulous about claims that judicial opinions are likely to produce a unique backlash. I won’t fully rehash the arguments I’ve made on the subject. Suffice it to say, for now, that like many such argument the article curiously […]

Just as the leader of the House did on Friday, Iowa Senate leader Michael Gronstal says that his institution has no interest in pursuing a constitutional amendment enshrining discrimination into the state constitution: There will be no debate in the Iowa Senate this session on a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, Senate Majority Leader Mike […]