Constitution

Andrew Kull: The affirmative action cases

Featured image After posting my own brief comments on the Supreme Court’s historic decision in the affirmative action cases on Thursday, I wrote Professor Andrew Kull. Professor Kull is Distinguished Senior Lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law and the author of The Color-Blind Constitution. I told him I had been drawing on CBC for something like 20 years to write about the “affirmative action” regime and that »

Zeroes for Biden’s non-heroes

Featured image I thought that President Biden’s claim of authority to wipe out some $430 billion in student debt under the HEROES Act was absurd. As I noted when President Biden exercised his purported authority to confer the giveaway, the issue of standing was key to the outcome of the two cases challenging Biden’s purported authority. Today the Supreme recognized Missouri’s standing and held 6-3 in Nebraska v. Biden that the HEROES »

Thoughts on Today’s Decision

Featured image Scott and Steve have already commented on today’s historic Supreme Court decision, finding that both Harvard and the University of North Carolina have engaged in illegal race discrimination through their affirmative action policies. I will add a few observations, which perhaps will be supplemented when I have had time to read all of the opinions. * The Grutter decision has always been an anomaly. It expressed considerable distaste for affirmative »

The time has come today

Featured image The subject of what goes under the shibboleth of “affirmative action” is both close to my heart and one about which I have frequently written, usually drawing on Andrew Kull’s legal history The Color-Blind Constitution. Published by Harvard University Press in 1998, it remains a terrific book. If Kull updated it to take cases of the past 25 years into account, he would have a story with a somewhat happier »

Man Bites Dog: Gavin Newsom Betrays Progressives!

Featured image There’s long been reason to believe Gov. Gavin Newsom is nearly as dumb as his “frenemy” Kamala Harris, but this week gives some of the best proof yet: he has departed from Progressive orthodoxy in the dumbest way possible. You may have heard that he has proposed a constitutional amendment to allow for “common sense” gun control, such as background checks, bans on so-called “assault weapons,” and waiting periods for »

Geraldine Tyler’s (good) day in court

Featured image I covered the Supreme Court oral argument in Geraldine Tyler v. Hennepin County last month in “Geraldine Tyler’s day in court.” The following week I stepped back for a broader view of the case in “Argumentum interruptum — live on FOX News!” In the latter post I wrote (link omitted): Ms. Tyler lost in the district court and on appeal because the courts felt bound to apply the 1956 Supreme »

Postscript on the National Vote Compact

Featured image John wrote here Sunday about the “National Vote Compact” (NVC), the proposal of the goo-goo (“good government”) reformers to get around the electoral college by having a majority of states agree to award their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. I agree with John that it is a loopy idea, though I’d love the spectacle of California someday having to cast its electoral votes for a »

Argumentum interruptum — live on Fox News!

Featured image Yesterday I worked all day preparing for what was to be a three-minute segment with Lawrence Jones on Fox News last night. The segment was to discuss the case of Geraldine Tyler v. Hennepin County that is pending in the United States Supreme Court. The Court held oral argument on April 26. It is likely to decide the case in June. I anticipated that more urgent news would result in »

The madness of King Joe

Featured image President Biden shares a propensity to transgress legal constraints after declaring that he lacked the authority to do what he subsequently does. “One would think posing as a defender of our system would force Biden to be more fastidious about his own relationship to our institutions and norms, although that doesn’t seem to have occurred to him,” Rich Lowry writes. Say this on Biden’s behalf. There is a lot more »

Geraldine Tyler’s day in court

Featured image The Supreme Court heard the case of Geraldine Tyler v. Hennepin County yesterday. C-SPAN has posted audio of oral argument in the Supreme Court here. The Eighth Circuit decision in the case — the one that the Supreme Court accepted for review — is posted online here. Hennepin County consists mostly of the sinkhole of Minneapolis. It is the sinkhole in our back yard, and yet we haven’t gotten around »

There’s One Thing that Scares RFK Jr More than Anything, Losing his Constitutional Rights

Featured image I’ve never been a fan of the Kennedy family. However, two years ago, I watched a podcast on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s website, the Defender, that changed my mind about him. Although I continue to disagree with his positions on most social issues, I found his conversation with liberal author Dr. Naomi Wolf, a one-time adviser to former President Bill Clinton, to be riveting. And “riveting” is not a word »

Biden Demands Race Discrimination

Featured image On February 16, Joe Biden issued an order titled “Executive Order on Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.” The order demands “equity” throughout federal agencies. “Equity” is simply a fancy word for race discrimination. Earlier today, U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Peter Kirsanow wrote to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, urging Congress to take action against Biden’s race discrimination order. Kirsanow’s letter is »

Today in the HEROES Act cases

Featured image The Supreme Court hears oral argument at 10:00 a.m. (Eastern) this morning in two consolidated student loan giveaway/HEROES Act cases. The Associated Press purports to report on the issues in this story this morning. The live stream of the hearing is accessible here. The cases come before the Court on review of the Eighth Circuit’s preliminary injunction putting a hold on the loan giveaway program. The Eight Circuit opinion is »

Not in the HEROES Act

Featured image The constitutionality of President Biden’s student loan giveaway under the HEROES Act comes before the Supreme Court for oral argument in the cases consolidated for hearing in Biden v. Nebraska this week. The cases raise an incredibly important issue. John’s and my friend and former congressman, John Kline, has filed an amicus brief in the case with Buck McKeon. They wrote the bill. Their lawyer wrote a letter to the »

Student Debt Forgiveness Comes to the Supreme Court

Featured image In August of last year, the Biden administration announced, by executive order, that some $400 billion in outstanding student debt would be forgiven. There was no statutory basis for this order, and many assumed that it was an election-year Hail Mary that ultimately would lose in the courts, but would garner Democrat votes in the midterms. That appears to be what happened. The legality of Biden’s purported debt forgiveness has »

The Chauvin appeal: A second look

Featured image Minneapolis attorney Marshall Tanick has taken a look at the issues raised in the Minnesota Court of Appeals hearing on the murder conviction of Derek Chauvin. Marshall discusses the hearing in the Star Tribune op-ed column “Did Chauvin get a fair trial?” I wrote about the hearing here last week. Marshall more or less provides a second opinion that aligns with mine, if somewhat faintly: [T]he core of the argument »

Announcement: Power Line University Webinar Tomorrow

Featured image Following up on our dry run at Power Line University last week (not too late to go back and take it in if you missed it), tomorrow (Wednesday) at 4 pm Pacific/7 pm Eastern, we’ll be doing our first class session on The Federalist in webinar format, which means you’ll be able to watch live and send in questions and comments. We’ll be covering Federalist numbers 1 – 10, with »