Veteran Supreme Court reported Jan Greenberg reports what many had speculated—that Chief Justice John Roberts switched his vote on ObamaCare, saving the bill from being declared unconstitutional. Justice Anthony Kennedy, the crucial “swing judge” even tried to get Roberts back on the side of the Court’s conservative bloc, but to no avail. What Roberts did, [...]
The Supreme Court is currently conducting a marathon three-day session of oral arguments on the challenges to ObamaCare, an almost unprecedented amount of time for the Court to consider any case. But the ObamaCare issue isn’t just another case, or even just another case involving weighty constitutional issues. If the Court upholds ObamaCare’s individual mandate, [...]
Tags: Congress, constitution, health care, law, Obama, ObamaCare, Politics
In a 2-1 decision that comes as little surprise, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that California’s Proposition 8 was unconstitutional. Prop 8 came about after California judges ruled that California’s constitution mandated the recognition of same-sex marriages. A majority of voters in the State of California passed an amendment that gave same-sex couples [...]
Tags: gay marriage, law, marriage, Ninth Circuit, same-sex marriage, SCOTUS, Supreme Court
Newsweek has a stereotypical hit piece on the recent Republican Pledge to America. Ramesh Ponnuru notes a curious passage from the piece: Not so harmless, however, is the promise to require every bill to be certified as constitutional before it is voted on. We have a mechanism for assessing the constitutionality of legislation, which is [...]
Tags: Congress, constitution, courts, judicial review, law, Newsweek, separation of powers
President Obama has picked Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the Second Circuit as his nominee to replace David Souter as Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Judge Sotomayor was considered the front-runner for the spot, along with Judge Diane Wood, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and Solicitor General Elena Kagan. Ilya Somin has a [...]
Law professor Paul Campos takes a critical look at the Iowa Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding gay marriage. (The Court’s opinion is available here.) Campos finds that the legal reasoning behind the decision was lacking: Stripped of its verbiage, the court’s opinion comes down to the following claims: First, it’s a bad thing for the [...]
Jim Geraghty notes a curious provision in the stimulus bill directed at the State of Illinois: None of the funds provided by this Act may be made available to the State of Illinois, or any agency of the State, unless (1) the use of such funds by the State is approved in legislation enacted by [...]
Tags: Blagojevich, Congress, constitution, federalism, Illinois, law