Supreme Court

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• SOURCE: Boston Globe
  9/6/2020
  

  The Supreme Court’s Starring Role In Democracy’s Demise

  by Carol Anderson

  The Supreme Court today repeats the shameful actions of the courts in the 1890s, which gave judicial cover to state laws explicitly designed to disenfranchise Black voters, by accepting bad faith arguments that the laws in question were race-neutral. 

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• 7/23/2020
  

  What the Faithless Electors Decision Says about SCOTUS and Originalism

  by Ray Raphael

  The outcome of the "faithless electors" case shows that judicial "originalists" use that principle pragmatically and selectively. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  7/20/2020
  

  Trump Has the Worst Record at The Supreme Court of Any Modern President

  The court has shown less deference to presidents in recent years. Even so, Trump stands out.

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• 7/19/2020
  

  SCOTUS's Thuraissigiam Decision is a Threat to all Undocumented Immigrants

  by Elliott Young

  As Justice Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, a recent decision could “permit Congress to constitutionally eliminate all procedural protections for any noncitizen the Government deems unlawfully admitted and summarily deport them no matter how many decades they have lived here, how settled and integrated they are in their communities, or how many members of their family are U. S. citizens or residents.” 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  7/12/2020
  

  The McGirt Case Is a Historic Win for Tribes

  by Julian Brave NoiseCat

  Gorsuch, a westerner with experience in Indian law, who is no liberal, applied a conservative textualist approach to the reading of treaty law and statutes. The result: A legal theory that has been marshaled to combat abortion rights and gay marriage delivered the most significant and favorable Supreme Court decision for tribes in the 21st century.

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• SOURCE: NPR
  7/11/2020
  

  Hamilton, In Fiction And History, Is Key To Understanding The Electoral College

  This week, the U.S. Supreme Court settled an important question about the function of the Electoral College that elects the U.S. president. But it did not address the pivotal question about the Electoral College.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  7/1/2020
  

  Religious Animus Did Not Drive The Laws The Supreme Court Just Overturned

  by Adam Laats

  Historical restrictions against "sectarian" use of tax dollars used the term broadly to encompass many religious doctrines. Claims that the laws were based in anti-Catholic bigotry are inaccurate. 

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• SOURCE: Forward
  7/2/2020
  

  Woodrow Wilson Was a Hero to Jews. What Should We do with his Racism?

  by Jonathan D. Sarna

  Many find it discomforting to learn that Wilson was, at one and the same time, so bad for American Blacks and so good for American Jews.

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• SOURCE: Boston Review
  6/23/2020
  

  We Can End Qualified Immunity Tomorrow

  We need not wait for Congress or the Supreme Court to deny police officers qualified immunity when they violate constitutional rights. State attorneys general and city law departments can—and should—lead the charge themselves.

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• SOURCE: Slate
  6/16/2020
  

  The Real Story Behind “Because of Sex”

  by Rebecca Onion

  One of the most powerful phrases in the Civil Rights Act is often viewed as a malicious joke that backfired. But its entrance into American law was far more savvy than that, led by Representative Martha Griffiths.

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  6/16/2020
  

  What ‘Because of Sex’ Really Means

  Beneath the verbal jousting, the Court expressed dueling views of sexual orientation and gender, and how society should assess them.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  6/15/2020
  

  How a Segregationist Paved the Way for a Big Gay Rights Win in the Supreme Court

  A segregationist congressman's "poison pill" amendment to include sex discrimination in the 1964 Civil Rights Act became the linchpin of a ruling that LGBTQ people are protected by the act.

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• SOURCE: KUT
  5/25/2020
  

  What Might Have Been: The Forgotten History Of Women On The Supreme Court Shortlist

  In the new book, "Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court", coauthors Renee Knake Jefferson and Hannah Brenner Johnson tell the story of nine women who were considered for positions on the country's highest court in the decades before O'Connor's appointment.

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  5/17/2020
  

  Could 'Rogue Electors' Tilt the Balance of the US Election?

  The Supreme Court has heard arguments in cases involving "faithless electors" who depart from their state's popular vote when the Electoral College votes to choose the President. The cases evoke troubling prospects for the 2020 election being decided by a small number of electors.

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• SOURCE: The Conversation
  5/8/2020
  

  Historic Power Struggle between Trump and Congress to be Reviewed by Supreme Court

  by Stanley M. Brand

  Prior decisions involving Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton established precedents that seem to portend defeat for President Trump in the upcoming hearing. 

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• SOURCE: Vox
  5/5/2020
  

  The Supreme Court Hears the Biggest Presidential Immunity Cases since Nixon

  Should the most powerful man in the nation be given extraordinary legal immunity? Or does the fact that the president wields such power demand oversight of the man who holds that office?

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• SOURCE: Harvard Law Today
  4/28/2020
  

  If Democrats Win in November, Should they Pack the Supreme Court?

  Harvard Law School Professor Mark Tushnet discusses his research on FDR’s 1937 attempt to pack the Court, and the prospects for increasing the number of justices.

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• SOURCE: The Metropole
  4/20/2020
  

  Policing The Automobile: “Private” Transit In “Public” Spaces?

  by Sarah A. Seo

  "As much as courts throughout the twentieth century sought to differentiate cars from houses, the automobile straddled the public/private divide in American life." argues professor Sarah A. Seo.

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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  4/7/2020
  

  How the Republican Party Took Over the Supreme Court

  by John Fabian Witt

  We are now at least one decade into a nearly unprecedented experiment in partisan judging at the highest court in the land. Our legal and political systems have barely begun to process what that means.
 

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• SOURCE: Vox
  4/6/2020
  

  The Supreme Court’s Disturbing Order to Effectively Disenfranchise Thousands of Wisconsin Voters

  The Supreme Court’s Republican majority, in a case that is literally titled Republican National Committee v. Democratic National Committee, handed down a decision that will effectively disenfranchise tens of thousands of Wisconsin voters. It did so at the urging of the GOP.