American Fathers, American Kids
July 27, 2011Hurdles are higher for foreign-born children of U.S. fathers. The law should affirm that all American parents have American kids.
Wal-Mart’s Close Call
June 21, 2011On the surface, Monday’s Supreme Court decision to block a massive law suit against Wal-Mart Stores was a unanimous move to put the brakes on runaway class actions. But dig a little deeper and you will find that although the court made the right call, it was a close call. Only a 5-4 majority agreed to end the case outright. The four justices appointed by Democrats all wanted to send …
A Less Partisan State Of The Union?
January 19, 2011President Obama and some members of Congress are trying to set a new tone at next week’s State of the Union address, having apparently concluded that last year’s hyper-partisan smackdown did not serve them well. Bucking more than 200 years of tradition, some lawmakers have said they plan to sit with members of the opposite party when the president makes his Jan. 25 address. Sen. Mark Udall, D.-Colo., was the …
Don’t Like The Speech? Attack The Speaker
October 22, 2010If you don’t like what someone has to say, you can attack his right to say it. That is the approach President Obama and fellow Democrats have adopted when it comes to political advertising by businesses. In his State of the Union address last January, the president openly challenged a Supreme Court ruling that said corporations and labor unions have the right to express their opinions in the pivotal weeks …
Does The Supreme Court Need Reserve Players On The Bench?
August 17, 2010A standing-room-only crowd filled the courtroom of Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently when retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor appeared there to help decide three Montana cases. Although it is rare to see a former member of the nation’s highest court fill in on a lower court panel, it is not unusual in the federal court system for judges to substitute for one another. The only court …
Privacy Has Its Place, But Not Necessarily At Work
July 8, 2010If you want to keep your personal business to yourself, you should not conduct it at work — especially not on your employer’s equipment. Though it seems obvious to me, Sgt. Jeff Quon, a police officer from Ontario, Calif., had to go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to learn this lesson. The court ruled 9-0 in favor of the obvious, reversing a federal appellate court’s prior decision. …
Will Court Conservatives Challenge Land-Use Rules?
June 28, 2010The confirmation hearings that get underway today on Elena Kagan’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court are, in the cosmic scheme of things, a sideshow. If she is confirmed, Kagan is expected to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens in the court’s bloc of four reliably “liberal” justices. (I dislike the liberal/conservative labels because they have such rubbery definitions, but for lack of a better alternative, here is my take: …
Time To Put Justice On Camera
June 16, 2010Two lawyers will go before a judge today to make closing arguments on an issue that divides the nation. Though the scene will be captured on camera and people all over the country are eager to watch, the only way to see the video is to go to a federal courthouse in San Francisco. The federal courts’ refusal to allow live broadcast of their proceedings has thus progressed from anachronistic …
To Err Is Human, Except When It’s A Crime
June 11, 2010Catastrophic accidents often are the product of an “error chain.” The 1986 Challenger explosion began with a faulty O-ring design and ended with a launch in severely cold weather that exposed the design’s defects. The RMS Titanic had too few lifeboats, which became a lethal flaw when its captain ordered full speed through iceberg-filled waters. In both cases, and in countless others, there were many intervening points at which disaster …
We Need More Justices Like Stevens
April 14, 2010The retirement of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens will remove my favorite jurist from public life, but I am hopeful that his thoughtful, fair-minded legacy will live on through some current justices and others yet to be appointed. Stevens, who will turn 90 next Tuesday, announced last week that he will leave the court this summer. He is our last link to an era when Supreme Court candidates were …
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