Letters from an American May 4, 2022, Prof. Heather Cox Richardson Overturning Roe v. Wade The uproar over the leaked draft of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade continues. You can tell just how furious the reaction has been by the fact that establishment Republicans are desperately trying to turn the public conversation to the […]
“By the way, I’m spending a lot of money on my campaign. And why isn’t she spending some money on hers? I’m spending a hundred million dollars,” Trump said, after criticizing Clinton for accepting donations from Wall Street bankers and special interest groups. “… I think I’ll be over a hundred million dollars.” — Trump […]
Any American under the age of 50 has no memory of living with a liberal Supreme Court. That could change soon. Were a Democratic appointee to fill the current opening, laws could change on voting rights, corporate power, campaign finance, criminal justice and many other issues. “For the first time in decades,” Jeffrey Toobin writes in […]
The Supreme Court said Monday that people convicted of domestic abuse can be prevented from owning a gun, in a case that prompted the first questions from Justice Clarence Thomas in 10 years. In a 6-to-2 decision, the court said Congress had intended to keep firearms out of the hands of domestic abusers. The question […]
I received an email this morning from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, boldprogressives.org, asking that I complete a survey on the Garland nomination. The email began with this question: What do you think about Merrick Garland and the Supreme Court vacancy now? It continued: The president nominated Merrick Garland to fill the vacancy on the […]
Repubs apparently now think they can have the last laugh. Senate Repubs reportedly now are considering whether to confirm during the lame duck session after the election if Clinton wins. But of course, then Garland would be expected to withdraw if Obama does not withdraw his name saying that Clinton and the new (Democratic-controlled) Senate […]
A few weeks ago Mike Huckabee made minor news by telling an interviewer that slavery has never been made unconstitutional. Or, to be precise, he told radio interviewer Michael Medved that “the Dred Scott decision of 1857 still remains to this day the law of the land which says that black people aren’t fully human.” […]
“People often talk about the electorate moving left,” said Clinton senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan. “I think it’s more that the electorate is just getting more practical. For Hillary Clinton, that matches her evidence-based approach. The arguments that persuade her are evidence-based and progressive.” He cited the growing consensus that mass incarceration is expensive and […]
Justice Kennedy said he was concerned about changing a conception of marriage that has persisted for so many years. Later, though, he expressed qualms about excluding gay families from what he called a noble and sacred institution. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. worried about shutting down a fastmoving societal debate. Justice Samuel A. Alito […]
This speaks for itself. I’m sure that Kennedy, Roberts and Alito call this ‘freedom’. I won’t guess at what Sotomayor and Kagan call it. But what Breyer calls it, or should, is conflict of interest. Back when Breyer was lead counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee, he helped draft the Federal Sentencing Guidelines—a really appalling […]