President Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace Justice David Souter is the type of decision we have come to expect from the Obama administration. It involved important political considerations and will likely prove to be good enough for liberals but not off-putting for conservatives. Let me start off with the assumption that she [...]

President Obama gave the commencement speech at Notre Dame earlier today and spoke primarily about abortion and other social issues. You can find a full recap from the New York Times here. I don’t ordinarily take note of political speeches coming from the White House, but I have to think about whether or not the [...]

I have to apologize for the lack of posts over the last few days. I’ve been working on an amicus brief in Ricci v. DeStefano and I need to submit it sooner rather than later. Regardless, the Court probably won’t be handing down any opinions until mid- to late-February. In the last three years, the [...]

Barack Obama and Joe Biden met with 8 of the 9 Supreme Court justices this on Wednesday at the invitation of Chief Justice Roberts. In a press release, the Chief Justice invited the President- and Vice President-Elect to visit the court and make the “sporadic practice become a congenial tradition.” You can see some pictures [...]

Most terms of the Supreme Court go by without much publicity. The court usually hands down only one or two cases notable to make the front page of the times and another case or two worthy of the business section. In some terms, however, the Court accepts more than its usual load of high-profile cases [...]

Earlier tonight, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama joined Pastor Rick Warren at his California megachurch for an event pegged as “The Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency.” The interviews, each an hour in length, were separated by thirty-six tense seconds in which the presumptive nominees shared the stage (and an awkward hug [video here!]). [...]

This is nothing new, groundbreaking, or particularly insightful but I was reading Hill v. Colorado (2000) for one of my Constitutional Law classes and I stumbled upon this line from the introduction to Justice Scalia’s dissent: None of these remarkable conclusions should come as a surprise. What is before us, after all, is a speech [...]

Ann Althouse has a rather interesting article about Justice Steven’s recent speech at the Ninth Circuit’s Judicial Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii. Its obvious from the location of this judicial conference that congressmen aren’t the only ones who take junkets. Regardless, this is the most interesting part of her recap: I think, after all — he’s [...]

The Washington Post had a article recently about the way in which more and more American’s are viewing the court as too conservative. 33% of Americans feel that the Court is too conservative and only 47% believe that the court is balanced. 55% of Americans agree with the court’s ruling in Carhart but 70% disagree [...]

Hilary Clinton’s answer during the Democrat’s most recent debate and an article in the most recent edition of Foreign Affairs got me thinking- What do I want the next President to do with American foreign policy? Well, here are the 10 things that Yao, Gary, and I are looking for: 1) Engage Foreign Leaders- As [...]