Twenty-four hours after giving constitutional backing for Arizona’s use of an independent commission to draw new election district maps for its members of Congress, the Supreme Court on Tuesday took on a case complaining that the same state agency wrongly used race and partisanship in crafting state legislative district boundaries.
Jun 23 2015
Pressing the ACA birth-control issue
This post also appears on scotusblog.com The federal government’s top Supreme Court advocate moved again on Tuesday to make sure that the Justices are keeping up with the government’s success in heading off a round of new challenges to the birth-control mandate in the Affordable Care Act. In the second letter of its kind, Solicitor General… Read More
Apr 14 2015
Preview on same-sex marriage — Part II, The states’ views
This post also appears on scotusblog.com This is the second post in a four-part series on the written arguments that have been filed in the same-sex marriage cases at the Supreme Court. This post covers the briefs of the four states in defense of their state bans. America’s state governments have never seen anything like… Read More
Mar 26 2015
Is the Supreme Court promoting race bias in election districting?
Reprinted from Constitution Daily, the blog of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. This post is by Lyle Denniston. No one doubts that, at least since the 14th Amendment was put into the Constitution in 1868, states have been forbidden to discriminate on the basis of race in public policy. In modern times, however, America… Read More
Mar 4 2015
New US plea for speed on immigration dispute
The Justice Department told a federal judge in Texas on Wednesday that it may go to a higher court in an effort to put its new immigration policy into effect, if the judge does not act by Monday.
Feb 28 2015
Who, exactly, is “the legislature”?
A version of this post appears on scotusblog.com From time to time, at least since 1898, the people in America’s states have decided to take government into their own hands, withdrawing it from elected politicians when the voters think they have done the job badly, or not at all. “Direct democracy” has cycles of popularity,… Read More
Feb 25 2015
Argument analysis: Plucking simplicity out of complexity
This post also appears on scotusblog.com If it is true that lawyers can make a simple proposition into something bewilderingly complex, it may also be true that judges sometimes prefer the simple, and go with that instead. Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., proved the latter point in an argument on Wednesday, and the Supreme Court… Read More
Feb 24 2015
Texas judge won’t rush states on immigration
The federal judge in Texas who put the Obama administration’s new immigration policy on hold last week decided not to rush on the government request to move swiftly. On Tuesday, he gave the challenging states a full week to reply. The government on Monday had asked that he decide the issue in only two days. Justice… Read More
Feb 23 2015
Is a seven-year-old case getting too expensive?
This post also appears on scotusblog.com If two states have already split payment of fees and costs running well into six figures to keep a case going before the Supreme Court, but it could be resolved now for a final five-figure amount, is it worth continuing? And if, as interstate river disputes go, this one… Read More
Feb 23 2015
U.S. seeks fast action on immigration policy (UPDATED)
UPDATED 6:15 p.m. The 26 states that challenged the new immigration policy urged the judge in Texas not to act quickly on the government request. They argued that they should have at least a week to respond. Urging a federal trial judge in Texas to act within two days, the Obama administration on Monday filed… Read More
