Don't Despair
Strong justices can still be confirmed.
Posted: Thursday, November 9, 2006
The Democrats' capture of the Senate is bad news for President Bush's judicial nominations. But don't be fooled by Democrats' bluffing. There's still plenty of room to get another excellent Supreme Court justice -- or even two or three more -- confirmed.  [Full Story]

George Soros's Two Left Hands
The partisan squeeze on judicial seminars.
Posted: Thursday, October 12, 2006
In addition to supporting the Aspen Institute, billionaire George Soros has been a major funder of the Community Rights Counsel, a left-wing "public interest law firm."  The Community Rights Counsel has been the most vocal opponent of educational seminars for judges operated by anyone other than federal bureaucrats or bar associations. But Soros's left hand apparently knows what his other left hand is doing: The Community Rights Counsel has not criticized the Aspen Institute's seminars for judges.   [Full Story]

Happy 20th Anniversary, Justice Scalia!

Posted: Monday, September 25, 2006
This week marks the twentieth anniversary of Justice Antonin Scalia's arrival on the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Scalia, writes EPPC President Ed Whelan, "by virtue of the force and clarity of his positions, has in a very real sense been the defining figure in American constitutional law over the past two decades."  [Full Story]

Another Fein Mess
The ABA's Signing-Statement Report
Posted: Thursday, August 24, 2006
Bruce Fein's defense of the ABA task force's foolish report on presidential signing statements does him no credit, except to highlight once again the wondrous and hilarious fact that this improbable Svengali, whom Chief Justice Roberts some two decades ago euphemistically described as an 'unalloyed jurisprudential iconoclas[t],' somehow dazed the prominent academics and former judges on the task force into adopting his loopy analysis.  [Full Story]

Not Qualified
The American Bar Association and its role in our confirmation process
Posted: Monday, August 21, 2006
As the American Bar Association has degenerated into another liberal advocacy group, it has trumpeted the imprimatur that its continuing privileged role in the judicial-confirmation process accords it. It's time to put an end to that, since the ABA has proven itself unworthy of the trust that has been placed in it.  [Full Story]

Shut Up, They Explained
The ABA's latest anti-Bush strike.
Posted: Saturday, July 29, 2006
The special American Bar Association task force on presidential signing statements -- which last week accused President Bush of undermining the rule of law and the separation of powers -- provides a revealing case study of the polititicization of the ABA.  The ABA's report is, at every level, a shoddy piece of work -- poorly reasoned, sloppily written, and displaying a pervasive misunderstanding of how the American constitutional scheme does, and should, work.  [Full Story]

Hamdan and Judicial Lawlessness

Posted: Friday, June 30, 2006
Five justices on the Supreme Court -- Stevens, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer -- have declared their license to override, in the name of "substantive due process," whatever democratic enactments they disfavor. It should come as no surprise that it was these same five justices in Hamdan who disregarded the fact that Congress, in the Detainee Treatment Act, plainly deprived the Court of jurisdiction in the case and who arrogantly and illegitimately intruded on the president’s conduct of military operations. The Mystery Five have simply practiced once again the utterly lawless willfulness that they have proclaimed to be their mission.   [Full Story]

Lowering the Bar
The corrupt ABA judicial evaluation process.
Posted: Monday, June 5, 2006
After nearly three years of Democratic obstruction, Brett Kavanaugh's nomination was recently confirmed by the Senate, and he has taken his seat on the D.C. Circuit. But the untold story of his recent treatment by the ABA's Committee on the Federal Judiciary, which rates all federal judicial nominees, deserves attention, for it illustrates a longstanding defect that periodically plagues the committee's evaluations of Republican nominees.  [Full Story]

The Meta-Nonsense of Lawrence

Posted: Friday, June 2, 2006
Jamal Greene's interesting essay deals not with Justice Kennedy's actual majority opinion in Lawrence v. Texas but with an opinion of Greene's own imagining. This is not surprising, since Justice Kennedy's actual opinion reads like a cruel parody of the modern make-it-up-as-you-go-along judicial decision-making that hides behind the euphemism of the "living Constitution."   [Full Story]

Partisan Ethics
Some perspective on the charges against Judge Boyle.
Posted: Thursday, May 18, 2006
After the ridiculous ethics allegations that the Left leveled against John Roberts and Sam Alito, you might think that sensible observers would be suitably skeptical of Salon's recent allegations against Fourth Circuit nominee Terrence Boyle. Indeed, Boyle's supporters have already offered a robust response to those allegations. But some broader perspective might place this matter in useful context.   [Full Story]