Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Scalia Changes His Mind … About the Purpose of the Equal Protection Clause.

Wow.  It looks, from SCOTUSblog’s Lyle Denniston’s report on the argument this afternoon in Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, that I was, um … right in saying yesterday and again earlier today that this case is not, at heart, an affirmative action case.  The case is really about when a voter referendum can […]

The Way to Stop Discrimination on the Basis of Race Is To Stop Discriminating on the Basis of Race. (Except, that is, when the discrimination favors whites over racial minorities.)

  The Way to Stop Discrimination on the Basis of Race Is To Stop Discriminating on the Basis of Race. — Chief Justice John Roberts, Jun. 28, 2007, writing for a four-justice plurality in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1. Given that statement of his own belief, and his concomitant […]

Justice Kennedy Reads Angry Bear! Yup. There’s No Other Plausible Explanation for His Affirmative Action Opinion Today.

A longer-than-planned post on today’s Supreme Court opinion on state-college-admissions affirmative action programs.  (I’m up in Michigan’s Thumb region, sans cable and regular web service, and using my phone as a Wi Fi hotspot via the PdaNet app. I can attest that PdaNet is awesome.)  Here it is: The headline on Politico reads, “SCOTUS passes […]

Sooo … Akhil Reed Amar and Neal Katyal confuse the IRS and TSA with the FBI. I mean … really, profs??

Update: Link at Scotus blog http://www.scotusblog.com/2013/06/wednesday-round-up-187/. As prosecutors, police agencies and civil libertarians consider the ruling’s implications, Justice Scalia’s stark dissent — and the fact that President Obama’s two appointees to the court so far agreed with it — makes it worthy of scrutiny, even if he was on the losing side. His argument is […]

Justice Scalia Says Rightwing Economic Ideology is Mandated By the Constitution. Really.

Scalia regularly bars video or voice recordings of his off-the-bench speeches, and in at least one fairly recent instance, the details of which I can’t recall, he employed a member of the U.S. Marshals Service to enforce his policy.  If I recall correctly, a member of his security detail confiscated a reporter’s or law student’s […]

Out of the Mouths of Hypocrites: Scalia Says Citizens United Was Wrongly Decided.

Yes, that’s right. Scalia said Citizens United was wrongly decided. He said it yesterday, at the argument on the constitutionality of California’s Prop. 8.  He also said that the right to bear arms doesn’t, after all, preclude the federal government and the states from enacting gun-ownership restrictions as they wish, so the recent Court opinions […]

Anthony Kennedy and Antonin Scalia Say the Confederacy Won the Civil War and the Purpose of the Reconstruction Amendments Was to Reinforce Rather Than Diminish State Sovereignty. (Except on Affirmative Action, the Second Amendment, and Real Estate Property “Takings.”)

Leaving race aside for the moment (did someone mention that the Voting Rights Act has something to do with empowering black voters – who just might, for some strange reason, prefer Democrats?), what the court’s conservatives seem to see in Section 5 is a threat to state sovereignty — the “sovereign dignity” of the states, […]

Justice Scalia’s Super Body (And, no, it has nothing to do with the Constitution’s Free Exercise Clause. Really.)*

First, Justice Anthony Kennedy wants to know what possible connection there is between Esther Kiobel, the wrongs she says unfolded in Nigeria, and the United States. The answer the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Paul Hoffman, gives is that his clients live here because the U.S. government gave them asylum. Also, Royal Dutch Petroleum does plenty of business […]

Our Unserious Supreme Court: “Federalism,” “Jurisdiction,” Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., and Anthony Kennedy – [Typo-corrected and updated TWICE]

In the comments to my post of yesterday titled, “Welcome Back, Supreme Court Justices! (Well, for the next two weeks, anyway.),” Angry Bear colleague Dan Becker wrote: Hi Bev,  I have read about this case. Still unclear even after reading your piece as to what the law was for, to do and how the new […]

Did Scalia Pointedly Hint At A Major Limitation To Citizens United? (No need for the Disclose Act, because Citizens United itself requires disclosure?)**

I think Thomas Jefferson would have said the more speech, the better.  That’s what the First Amendment is all about. So long as the people know where the speech is coming from. … You are entitled to know where the speech is coming from — you know, information as to who contributed what. — Justice […]