Articles

Democracy, distrust, and the Schuette dissent

November 04, 2014 | By WENCONG FA

Today is Election Day. As Justice Sotomayor noted in her dissent in Schuette v. BAMN, “we are fortunate to live in a democratic society. But without checks, democratically approved legislation can oppress minority groups. For that reason, our Constitution places limits on what a majority of the people may do.” That’s absolutely ...

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An inside look at Fisher

October 07, 2014 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

There’s a new book out on Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor.  I have not read the book, but PLF friend Josh Blackman has the scoop on an interesting story about the Fisher decision in the book. According to Blackman (via Nina Totenberg), the case was primed to be decided along they typical 5-4 split (actually 5-3 in this case … ...

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Are judges umpires?

July 23, 2009 | By DAMIEN SCHIFF

Author:  Damien M. Schiff Professor Holly Doremus has this post from Legal Planet criticizing the analogy between umpires and judges.  Professor Doremus contends that the analogy is inapt for at least two reasons:  first, umpires do in fact have much discretion (compare one ump's strikezone to another and the point is proved); ...

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Philadelphia : The good and the bad

July 15, 2009 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

Author: Joshua Thompson The Philadelphia Inquirer published an excellent editorial Sunday.  I stumbled upon the article after it was re-printed in the Sacramento Bee today.  Granted, any editorial that quotes from Federalist 62 is bound to be one of my favorites, but, it's also great to hear The Inquirer ask Suprem ...