Judiciary
September 25, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday I posted Ramsey County District Judge John Guthmann’s Order and accompanying Memorandum that Governor Tim Walz has alleged compelled his administration to keep pouring money out to the Feeding Our Future fraudsters. On Thursday Judge Guthmann authorized release of a statement calling out Walz for this lie and the Star Tribune for regurgitating it. John wrote about it here. Judge Guthmann’s statement is posted online here. I quote it
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September 13, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Judge Kenneth Starr has died today at the age of 76. I have to borrow from Jake Bleiberg’s AP obituary: At age 37, he became the youngest person ever to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where Chief Justice John Roberts and justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia also had served. From 1989-93, Starr was the solicitor general in the
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July 24, 2022 — John Hinderaker
This is a shocking story: One of President Biden’s latest judicial nominees serves on the board of a group that backed calls to defund the police and has called to abolish prisons. Biden nominated Roopali Desai, a litigation partner at the law firm Coppersmith Brockelman, to the 9th Circuit Appeals Court bench last month. The 9th Circuit is notoriously liberal, but this is ridiculous. Before we get to abolishing prisons,
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July 16, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Cast your mind back to 2016 for a moment, when it seemed a lock that Hillary Clinton would win the election, and nominate a leftist to succeed Justice Scalia. (Remember that Hillary refused to commit to re-sending the nomination of Merrick Garland—a clear signal to progressives that she’s pick someone younger and more progressive.) Mark Tushnet, one of the leading leftists at Harvard Law School, let loose with his id
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May 19, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Well, duh—the obvious answer is YES. But that hasn’t been a winning argument in the Supreme Court since 1935 unfortunately. In the aftermath of the leaked Dobbs opinion, the left has been in a panic about what other “rights” the Supreme Court might take away, like the right to same sex marriage, inter-racial marriage, contraception, and watching European soccer in the middle of the night. The left lacks imagination, and apparently
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May 3, 2022 — John Hinderaker
I was in law school when Roe v. Wade was decided. Pretty much everyone was shocked because it was such a terrible decision. Someone took a poll of law professors and, as I recall, 85% said they thought the decision was wrong. Roe has had a negative impact on both the Supreme Court and on American politics. It set the precedent for regarding the Constitution not as a document, but
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April 3, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Back in February we reported here on the federal district court ruling that the new “diversity” admissions process for the elite Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Virginia, had illegally discriminated against Asians. (Who do they think they are—Harvard?) The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has unfortunately granted a stay against the district court’s ruling pending further appeal, which means TJ can continue discriminating against Asians for next fall’s admissions:
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February 25, 2022 — Steven Hayward
This afternoon a Federal District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, handed down a summary judgment in favor of parents who sued Fairfax County Public Schools for the recent changes in the admissions process for Thomas Jefferson High School, the extremely selective public high school that emphasizes math and science. The case, Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board, strikes a significant blow to race-conscious policies in education. The County Board had
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January 30, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Biden’s pledge to name a black woman—and only a black woman—to the Supreme Court is going down badly with Americans, a majority of whom are growing tired of the left’s relentless identity politics. A new ABC News/Ipsos poll begins its report thus: A new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds that a plurality of Americans view the Supreme Court as motivated by partisanship, while President Joe Biden’s campaign trail vow to select
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January 21, 2022 — John Hinderaker
President Biden issued four orders purporting to require vaccinations in various populations. Two of those mandates have been addressed by the Supreme Court. The other two were challenged in a case brought in Texas by a group called Feds for Medical Freedom. Earlier today, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown issued an order enjoining the federal government from enforcing Biden’s mandate that all federal employees be vaccinated, or lose their jobs.
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January 17, 2022 — Steven Hayward
The media consults “experts.” And then get the story completely wrong. There’s a deeper story at work right now, and it is simply this: all the action on constitutional interpretation now is on the right—the reverse of circumstances of the Warren Court era in the 1960s, when elaborate new liberal theories beloved of the “living Constitutionalists” were spinning forth from law schools every day. Today’s reversal is not merely because
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July 12, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Richard E. Myers II is the Chief District Judge of the United States District Court, Eastern District of North Carolina. He was nominated by Donald Trump and took office on January 1, 2021. Judge Meyers was born in Jamaica. He is of mixed race. Today, he testified before a congressional committee on the subject of “The Importance of a Diverse Federal Judiciary: The Selection and Confirmation Process.” I found his
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December 11, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Judge Emmet Sullivan’s refusal to grant the government’s initial motion to dismiss the case against Michael Flynn commits a rank injustice that conflicts with the applicable law. One would never know from his behavior in the case that he is bound by canons of judicial ethics intended to protect the integrity of our system of justice and to deter the disgrace he has brought on the judiciary. Sullivan’s 43-page memorandum
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September 28, 2020 — Steven Hayward
As mentioned here over the weekend, one reason among many that President Trump chose to appoint Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court is that she’s already survived a Democratic attack, and one that was especially ugly in its overt anti-Catholic bigotry. Democrats with sense understand that a reprise of that attack will be a disaster for them. Over the weekend you could see various Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi and
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September 26, 2020 — Steven Hayward
I’m starting to wonder whether I should believe in karma for real. There is something fitting about the fact that the Barrett nomination comes at the very moment that the person most responsible for blowing up judicial politics more than 30 years ago is the Democratic nominee for president—Joe Biden. There’s no way he can dodge questions at the first presidential debate next week about Barrett, and I hope Chris
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September 25, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Among the reasons President Trump has reportedly decided to appoint Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court is that the Democrats already attempted to “Bork” her, but failed, and disgraced themselves in the process while elevating her public profile. Think I exaggerate? Check out this Tweet from Center for American Progress far-leftist Ian Millhiser: You can expect a lot of news reports over the next few days to re-run Sen.
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June 11, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, I wrote about John Gleeson, the former judge enlisted by Judge Emmet Sullivan to advise him about whether to sentence Flynn, even though the prosecution has moved to dismiss its case. Sullivan knew what advice he would get because Gleeson had already written an op-ed calling on Sullivan to sentence Flynn. Sure enough, that’s the advice Gleeson offered. In yesterday’s post, borrowing from Bill Otis, I described how, as
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