Scott Lemieux

Like Ezra, I strongly recommend Jon Chait‘s depressing article about Senate obstructionism. Also like Ezra, I think the problems identified are structural and go beyond any particular group of politicians. Indeed, I would push it even further. While there’s some truth to his argument that “[t]he Senate is a broken branch,” I don’t agree that […]

Earlier this week, I expressed hope that Vermont governor Jim Douglas wouldn’t veto legislation granting same-sex marriage rights — legislation that is poised to pass both houses of the state legislature overwhelmingly (it has already passed 26-4 in the state senate). Alas, it seems that Douglas will veto the legislation. And, as Andrew Sullivan notes, […]

As Jesse Taylor and TBogg have noted, this is a case that will test just how far the Supreme Court is willing to let the War On (Some Classes of People Who Use Some) Drugs’ war on the Fourth Amendment go: Savana Redding still remembers the clothes she had on — black stretch pants with […]

Most TAPPED readers, I assume, are familiar with the conventional non-wisdom that judicial victories favoring same-sex marriage (or at least civil union) benefits are counterproductive. Recent events allow us to make a relevant comparison. In Vermont, one of the first states where the courts required the state to provide the benefits of marriage to same-sex […]

Ruth Marcus, among too many others, informed us that we have little choice to shower a financial division responsible for losing a billion dollars a week, because their incompetence was of a nature that only the incompetents itself can fix it — after all, where are you going to find people who know anything about […]

Eugene Robinson writes about his experiences after contracting a serious bacterial infection and draws some conclusions about health care from his experiences. Leaving aside that such anecdotes are far from the best way of making policy judgments, his first bottom-line conclusion is at least sound: If I were among the 46 million Americans who are […]

Yesterday, the Supreme Court considered a provision of the Voting Rights Act that requires a federal remedy if a member of a minority group has “less opportunity than other members of the electorate to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice.” This provision has created a very complex body of […]

The California Supreme Court appears overwhelmingly likely to split the baby on the legal challenge to Prop 8, upholding Prop 8 but also ruling the same-sex marriages that took place prior to the California electorate’s disgraceful display would remain legal. Even some of the Court’s majority in the ruling granting same-sex marriage rights that the […]

Diana Levine, a professional musician, developed gangrene after taking Phenergan through a direct injection and had her arm amputated below the elbow. A jury in Vermont held that the drug’s manufacturer had failed to provide sufficient warning about the risks inherent in injecting the drug. The company appealed, arguing that because the drug and label […]

It probably would not shock you to know that under the Bush administration, the Forest Service sold timber for logging without the legally required notice, comment and appeal provisions because of a recent regulations declining to apply these requirements to smaller parcels of land. The government settled a suit brought by several environmental organizations, but […]