Scott Lemieux

BETTER CHERRY-PICKED ANECDOTAL DATA PLEASE. I’m never inclined to buy arguments that make broad generalizations about the nature of (as opposed to specific arguments made by) “liberals” and “conservatives” in any case. But I had no doubt that Peter Berkowitz‘s argument was unserious when he said that “Democrats instinctively want to repeal the Bush tax […]

COURT PROTECTS GENDER DISCRIMINATION. As Ruth Bader Ginsburg notes, the evidence of gender discrimination in the case of Ledbetter v. Goodyear, decided today by the Supreme Court, is unambiguous: Lilly Ledbetter was a supervisor at Goodyear Tire and Rubber’s plant in Gadsden, Alabama, from 1979 until her retirement in 1998. For most of those years, […]

AND DON’T KID YOURSELF, GROUCHO MARX WOULD TOTALLY SUPPORT UPPER-CLASS TAX CUTS. Memorial Day used to be the unofficial start of the summer movie season, although these days the start day keeps getting pushed back. But for those of you whose Memorial Day weekends involve watching one of the six or seven movies in constant […]

TERM LIMITS AND THE CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION. Brad Plumer reads Tom Goldstein‘s astute analysis of pending changes to the court and proposes term limits: “The fact that, say, Mitt Romney could nudge out Hillary Clinton by a percentage point or two and then bring about a constitutional revolution seems fairly absurd, and a decent argument in […]

BIRTH CONTROL “IS A PESTICIDE.” More reasoned discourse from America’s profoundly serious and morally superior pro-life movement, this time from National Abstinence Clearinghouse Sweepstakes spokesperson Leslee Unruh. You will not be surprised to learn that Unruh and her spouse were featured “experts” of the uber-crackpot South Dakota Forced Pregnancy Task Force. More on Unruh here. […]

PUNDIT PROJECTION. To follow up on Sam and Matt, I too find the focus on the short-term reactions to individual votes baffling. As long-term readers will be (all too) aware, one of my hobbyhorses is the tendency of law professors to assume that public reaction to Supreme Court decisions is based on the craftsmanship of […]

MAUREEN DOWD DOESN’T WRITE FOR IN STYLE. In light of Maureen Dowd‘s latest idiotic “Al Gore is Fat” column, I think Atrios makes an important point. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with writing about fashion or gossip per se. The problem is when major news organizations (and their would-be internet equivalents) think fashion writing […]

PRE-SUFFRAGETTE CITY. Jill Filipovic points us to this Times article about the new strategy to justify using state coercion to force women to carry pregnancies to term by claiming that women are too irrational to know what’s good for them, and offers a modest proposal. I would also urge you to read Reva Siegel and […]

PAGING WILLIAM SALETAN. Shockingly enough, the “pro-life case for contraception” continues to fail dismally among actual pro-lifers, as the Missouri legislature (with the strong support of Missouri pro-life, natch) voted down restoring funding for contraception because “it would have amounted to an endorsement of promiscuous lifestyles.” Which will mean more unwanted pregnancies and — as […]

THE INEVITABILITY INCREASING LIKELIHOOD OF ROMNEY. Last week, in the wake of Giuliani‘s decision to effectively end his candidacy, I speculated about who was going to replace him as the front runner. Given his fundraising and the fact that he would seem to be more appealing to both moderates and conservatives than the other remaining […]