Fetishizing numbers

Joel Eissenberg | June 27, 2025 2:56 pm

History

Politics

Nate Silver makes lemonade from lemons: “Is Trump less popular than he was a few weeks ago? Yes. Is he now firmly underwater on his best issue (immigration)? Also yes. But he’s still more popular today than he was at this point during his first term. On day 159 of term 1, Trump’s net approval […]

Turns Out I Was Wrong. Nate Silver HAS Been Asked to Analyze John Roberts’ Voting-Statistics Usage. But By The New York Times, Not By John Roberts. Oh, Well.

Beverly Mann | March 7, 2013 4:03 pm

Law

In this post last weekend, I lamented that Roberts hadn’t asked Nate Silver to weigh in on the voting statistics Roberts employed at the argument last week in the Voting Rights Act case. I also said Roberts & Friends were unlikely to ask him to weigh in on it. Which I’m sure is accurate. But […]

Tags: Anthony Kennedy, Nate Silver, The New York Times, The Voting Rights Act of 1965; Antonin Scalia; the Supreme Court Comments Off | |

John Roberts’ Curious Voting-Statistics Sophism Misconstrues The Census Report’s Statistics by Failing to Consider Key Statistical Deviation Facts and Fails To Consider WHY Massachusetts Blacks Might Be Voting In Lower Percentages Than Mississippi Blacks Are, Even IF They Are. [UPDATED]

Beverly Mann | March 2, 2013 1:53 pm

Law

In a blog post titled “In Voting Rights Arguments, Chief Justice Misconstrued Census Data” on NPR’s website, veteran NPR Supreme Court correspondent Nina Totenberg deconstructs a sophism offered by John Roberts at the oral argument on Wednesday on the continued constitutionality of a key section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which Congress has […]