Now the shoe is on the other foot, and it is time for the court to strike down a federal statute in order to advance a liberal policy goal rather than a conservative policy goal. Justice Scalia’s paean to the democratic process* in his dissent sounds a little hollow, coming in the wake of his votes to […]
OH. WOW. I actually called this exactly right in my post yesterday—this being, well, this. [Inadvertently-omitted link to court opinion inserted. H/T Dan Crawford.] Specifically: Roberts’ 5-4 opinion today in Shelby County, Ala. v. Holder, the Voting Rights Act case that I discussed, and predicted the outcome of, in that post yesterday. Regular AB readers […]
When Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was arrested Friday night, the celebration was instantly overtaken by an ideologically charged debate. Liberals argued that the government must respect Tsarnaev’s constitutional rights, by which they meant that he should be treated the same as any ordinary criminal suspect—informed of his Miranda rights, supplied with a lawyer, presented to court as […]
I have no idea who Rory Cooper is. But in light of Matthew Yglesias’s quoting of three Twitter comments by Cooper today, I can sort of guess: Rory Cooper @rorycooper You don’t want to reduce the debt just for the sake of reducing the debt. #WhiteHouseLogic Rory Cooper @rorycooper You don’t want to balance your […]
The National Republican Senate Committee put out a blast email today mocking Ed Markey as the next Al Gore—aka a politician whose opponents will lie about him in order to try to block him from claiming deserved credit for his legislative initiatives:* In case you missed it, Out of Touch Ed Markey — who has […]
Paul Ryan is, in effect, the Joe McCarthy of our era. He consistently spews outlandishly false statements of fact, never offers actual evidence in support of them and never refutes factual challenges using actual and full facts, and tries as a matter of routine to obfuscate his specific and broader objectives and therefore to trick […]
Bob Woodward, the legendary Watergate reporter turned reliable chronicler of insider accounts of political events, has made a series of bizarre assertions over the past week. — Matthew Yglesias, Bob Woodward Trolls the World, Slate, today Yglesias then summarizes last weekend’s exciting Woodward-related events, and then updates us: Things moved into the absurd Wednesday night […]
In the Comments thread yesterday to my Uwe-Reinhardt-For-Labor-Secretary post, an old fellow “Frayster” (definition: Someone who posted regularly to Slate’s wonderful, late, great “Fray” comments board), Woolley, wrote: I don’t know anything about Uwe and after reading your piece, I still don’t know anything about [him]. Can you tell us why [he] is such a […]
Okay. There’s no way to do justice to Washington Post centerist columnist Dana Milbank’s column today about Obama’s “presser” yesterday by just summarizing it or quoting a sentence or short paragraph from it. And justice for that column, titled “President Congeniality talks tough,” is what I want. So here are the first six (blessedly short) […]
No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any […]