Scalia

The Supreme Court Mystery We Couldn’t Solve

by Brian Johnson

The Obama administration claims that every nominee to the Court since 1875 has received a hearing or an up or down vote. So what happened in 1875? Nothing as far as we could determine.

The Supreme Court Nomination and the Politics of Checks and Balances

by Marc Stein

The Constitution is designed so that in general the president and Senate can be checked by a Supreme Court dominated by their predecessors’ appointees.

Obama’s Tangled History With Supreme Court Sets Stage for Nominee Fight

President Obama has enjoyed less success before the Supreme Court than any president since World War II.

How Biden killed John Roberts’s nomination in 1992

by Marc Thiessen

What Republicans are doing today is far from unprecedented. To the contrary, it is the norm.

When Lame Duck Lyndon Johnson Lost on the Supreme Court

by Mark K. Updegrove

They say past is prologue, and the waning days of the Johnson presidency are a lesson for President Obama in his upcoming Supreme Court fight.

Who Invented Originalism?

by Kristen Greif

It wasn’t Robert Bork or Antonin Scalia.

These Are Obama’s Two Choices in Selecting a Successor to Antonin Scalia

by John Dickson

The trouble is neither seem likely to end in success.

In 1992, Joe Biden Was Against Supreme Court Nomination During ‘Full Throes Of An Election Year’

“It would be our pragmatic conclusion that once the political season is underway — and it is — action on a Supreme Court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over,” Biden said. “That is what is fair to the nominee and essential to the process.”

Looking Back

by Jeffrey Toobin

Antonin Scalia, who died this month, after nearly three decades on the Supreme Court, devoted his professional life to making the United States a less fair, less tolerant, and less admirable democracy. Fortunately, he mostly failed.

"Advice & Consent"? No One Really Knows What the Founders Had in Mind.

by Ray Raphael

The Senate's role in the confirmation of judges was never really spelled out. 

Should Obama Pick Nominee? Your Answer May Depend on How Much History You Know

The more people are told about the history of Supreme Court nominations, the more they tend to agree that the Senate should consider the president’s nomination, not delay it.

In election years, a (spotty) history of confirming court nominees

by Jonathan H. Adler

In only seven of cases were the nominees confirmed prior to the election.

The Next Justice? It’s Not Up to Us

by Garry Wills

Those who profess an absolute devotion to the Constitution should at least pay it some lip service

Republicans, Beware the Abe Fortas Precedent

by Josh Zeitz

In 1968, a hostile Congress blocked LBJ’s nominee to the Supreme Court. Conservatives lived to regret it.

What Republicans Said About Supreme Court Nominations During George W. Bush’s Last Year

These leaders had a much different perspective in July 2008, the final year of George W. Bush’s presidency, when they convened a meeting entitled “Protecting American Justice: Ensuring Confirmation of Qualified Judicial Nominees.”

Justice Antonin Scalia: more quotable than influential

by Robert Schapiro

Justice Antonin Scalia will be remembered for his brilliant intellect, his acerbic wit and his insistence on interpreting law by reference to text and history.

In Election Years, a History of Confirming Court Nominees

by Timothy S. Huebner

Even unpopular or lame duck presidents successfully carried out their constitutional duties to fill Supreme Court vacancies during election seasons.

Top 5 Scalia Rulings that helped Progressives

by Juan Cole

Perhaps his passing is an opportunity to point to a few things on which we, as Americans, did agree, because of our commitment to the Constitution, however different our interpretation of it might be in general.

Antonin Scalia’s Lasting Influence

He showed modern presidents and political parties that it is possible to pick a Supreme Court justice who shines brightly without shifting shape.

Scalia’s an Originalist When It’s Convenient

by Bruce Allen Murphy

While Antonin Scalia is winning his career-long war for more governmental accommodation of religion, he is doing it by silently consenting to the further dismantling of one of his most important decisions.