Justice Alito said recently he won’t be attending the next State of the Union address. Sounds like a good idea to me.

RedState‘s Erick Erickson notes that, not only would Elena Kagan replace the Supreme Court’s last Protestant but also “the last of the military veterans on the United States Supreme Court.” Indeed, according to his Wikipedia entry, John Paul Stevens “began work on his master’s degree in English at the university in 1941, but soon decided [...]

Scott Lemieux notes something that I also noticed in the reporting on the Kagan nomination:  the idea that part of the reason that Obama nominated her was that she might be able to influence Justice Anthony Kennedy. Scott notes, for example, TNR’s Jeffrey Rosen:  “Obama has signaled that he wants a justice who can win [...]

Chief Justice John Roberts says he’s not sure why the Supreme Court still attends the State of the Union address, indicating that perhaps it was time for that tradition to end. U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said Tuesday the scene at President Obama’s State of the Union address was “very troubling” and the [...]

In last night’s State of the Union speech, President Obama called out the Supreme Court’s decision overturning corporate and union spending limits, saying it “reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections.” Associate Justice Samuel Alito shook his head [...]

The Supreme Court is considering making the Miranda warning more explicit. The Supreme Court on Monday seemed headed toward telling police they must explicitly advise criminal suspects that their lawyer can be present during any interrogation. The arguments in front of the justices were the latest over how explicit the Miranda warning rights have to [...]

By a slim 5-4 margin, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the white New Haven firefighters whose promotions were denied because not enough non-whites passed the promotion exam.  Among those ruling the other way on the lower court was a certain wise Latina. The Supreme Court ruled Monday that white firefighters in New Haven, [...]

Kevin Drum notes that he’s already tired of the “kabuki” that has emerged in reaction to the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. I both agree that the process is predictable and tedious and that Sotomayor would seem obviously qualified for confirmation.  I would quibble, however, with this: Conservatives, who seem constitutionally unable [...]

Dahlia Lithwick takes to the pages of FireDogLake to explain why, in her view, liberals are much less excited about the Supreme Court than conservatives: My own impression, having covered the past two presidential elections is that most liberals simply don’t vote with the composition of the Supreme Court in mind at all, or that [...]

Terrorist suspects detained at Guantánamo Bay (and presumably, anyplace else under American jurisdiction) have the right to file habeus corpus petitions in U.S. civilian courts the Supreme Court ruled today in a 5-4 decision. Further, Congress could not pass a law waiving these protections absent rebellion or invasion. Justices Rule Terror Suspects Can Appeal in [...]

The Supreme Court today upheld Indiana’s law requiring voters to show picture ID. The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can require voters to produce photo identification without violating their constitutional rights, validating Republican-inspired voter ID laws. In a splintered 6-3 ruling, the court upheld Indiana’s strict photo ID requirement, which Democrats and civil rights [...]

White House political adviser Karl Rove has announced his resignation, effective August 31st: “I just think it’s time,” Rove told the Wall Street Journal. “There’s always something that can keep you here, and as much as I’d like to be here, I’ve got to do this for the sake of my family.” He told the [...]

Arlen Specter thinks he was hoodwinked by John Roberts and Samuel Alito during their confirmation hearings. Essentially, they told the Senate that they were very respectful of precedent and Specter thinks their actions on the Court have broken what amounts to a promise. Specter, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, who served as chairman [...]

The Supreme Court today severely weakened a key provision of the McCain-Feingold law. The Supreme Court loosened restrictions Monday on corporate- and union-funded television ads that air close to elections, weakening a key provision of a landmark campaign finance law. The court, split 5-4, upheld an appeals court ruling that an anti-abortion group should have [...]

The Supreme Court has upheld a federal ban on partial birth abortions. The Supreme Court upheld the nationwide ban on a controversial abortion procedure Wednesday, handing abortion opponents the long-awaited victory they expected from a more conservative bench. The 5-4 ruling said the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and President Bush signed [...]

Rudy Giuliani’s judicial appointments while mayor of New York were mostly left-leaning Democrats who don’t love Jesus, reports Ben Smith for The Politico. When Rudy Giuliani faces Republicans concerned about his support of gay rights and legal abortion, he reassures them that he is a conservative on the decisions that matter most. “I would want [...]

God has issued more predictions for the coming year, in the person of his messenger Pat Robertson. In what has become an annual tradition of prognostications, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said Tuesday God has told him that a terrorist attack on the United States would result in “mass killing” late in 2007. “I’m not necessarily [...]

A three judge panel yesterday struck down McCain-Feingold’s restrictions on issue advocacy ads. A divided three-judge court ruled yesterday that ads advocating for an issue and mentioning candidates can run during an election, creating a loophole in the law that sought to control the power of big money in elections. In a 2 to 1 [...]

USA Today’s Joan Biskupic seems genuinely surprised that the appointment of a conservative Chief Justice and conservative Associate Justice to the Supreme Court by an ostensibly conservative president might shift the Court in a rightward direction. Now, granted, we don’t really know because very few rulings have been handed down since Alito joined the court. [...]

Judicial Watch has investigated the financial records of Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, who last week ruled the NSA electronic surveillance program unconstitutional, may have a conflict of interest. According to her 2003 and 2004 financial disclosure statements, Judge Diggs Taylor served as Secretary and Trustee for the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan (CFSEM). She was [...]

The Supreme Court today upheld Kansas’ death penalty law, affirming that states have substantial latitude in determining how to apply capital punishment. New Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito broke a tie Monday to rule that Kansas’ death penalty law is constitutional. By a 5-to-4 vote, the justices said the Kansas Supreme Court incorrectly interpreted the [...]

The Supreme Court ruled today that government employees do not have First Amendment protection for speech made in conjunction with their official duties and may therefore not sue for adverse job action on that basis. The Supreme Court on Tuesday made it harder for government employees to file lawsuits claiming they were retaliated against for [...]

Dahlia Lithwick is foaming at the mouth over the prospect of President Bush appointing “nut job” judges to the bench to placate the Radical Right. What we’re witnessing now are the early signs of flirtation that will lead the president to an inevitable embrace of his conservative base. And they have a message for him, [...]

The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Soloman Act, ruling that the federal government has a right to insist that colleges who take federal money allow recruiters on campus. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that colleges that accept federal money must allow military recruiters on campus, despite university objections to the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t [...]

Jim Geraghty engages in a bit of blogger triumphalism in a Washington Times op-ed crowing over the withdrawal of Harriet Miers and subsequent confirmation of the more base-friendly Samuel Alito. When Miss Miers was nominated, the right half of the blogosphere wasn’t quite united in opposition — radio show host and blogger Hugh Hewitt fought [...]

Justice Samuel Alito’s first official act will have conservatives scratching their heads. New Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito split with the court’s conservatives Wednesday night, refusing to let Missouri execute a death-row inmate contesting lethal injection. Alito, handling his first case, sided with inmate Michael Taylor, who had won a stay from an appeals court [...]

Dan Milbank has an amusing look at the dilemma facing Samuel Alito at his first State of the Union Address as a Supreme Court Justice: when to clap. At times, Alito followed the lead of the other three justices who sat with him in the front row. When Bush said “We love our freedom, and [...]

Steve Bainbridge argues, persuasively, that the Gang of 14 was a success: “There were 14 more votes for cloture than for confirmation, proving that the deal was able to prevent a filibuster of a qualified but controversial candidate.” Still, Michelle Malkin points out, correctly, that Alito was only able to be nominated because conservatives rallied [...]

The United States Senate has confirmed Samuel Alito as the newest Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, replacing the retiring Sandra Day O’Connor. The vote was 58-42, largely along party lines. The Senate confirmed Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court on Tuesday by a vote of 58-42, a day after an attempt by some [...]

On yesterday’s “Hardball,” Chris Matthews uttered the following words: …won’t they say something up beat and (bucking up)… isn’t she a great woman, didn’t she stand up-and then they’ll put the camera right on Ted Kennedy and show how he was the guy that molested her basically-that’s the way they’ll play it… According to John [...]

The Senated ended the one-day Massachusetts filibuster of Samuel Alito by an embarrasing 75-25 margin (60 would have done it). But not before Senator Teddy Kennedy showed that he is still crazy after all these years.

John Kerry, who failed to get elected president as “the reasonable candidate” in 2004, is joining Kos Nation and urging a fillibuster of Samuel Alito. While this has gotten the base more excited than they’ve ever been about the junior Senator from Massachusetts, the idea has gone over like a lead balloon with his colleagues. [...]

Chris Cillizza argues that Rhode Island’s “Republican” Senator Lincoln Chafee is in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t position with regards to the confirmation of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Chafee faces a primary challenge from Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey (R). Should he get through that race, he will face off [...]

Rick Santorum’s Democratic opponent, Bob Casey, Jr., announced yesterday that Samuel Alito should be confirmed. For weeks, Republicans have called Casey “Silent Bob” and pressed him to say whether he supports Alito’s confirmation. Casey and Alito have a family connection because Alito, who serves on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Philadelphia, [...]

As expected, the Judiciary Committee sent Samuel Alito’s nomination to the full Senate on a party-line vote. The Judiciary Committee favorably recommended Samuel Alito’s Supreme Court nomination to the full Senate on a party-line vote Tuesday, ensuring prospects the conservative jurist will join the high court bench. All 10 Republicans voted for Alito, while all [...]

The New York Times editorial board entitles its piece urging Senators to defeat Samuel Alito’s nomination for the Supreme Court “Judge Alito’s Radical Views.” It arrives at the conclusion that Alito is “radical” by lumping in arguments he advanced as a client advocate with misleading use of technical language that has a different meaning than [...]

Steve Bainbridge argues that the easy confirmation of John Roberts as Chief Justice and the seeming certitude that Samuel Alito will soon replace Sandra Day O’Connor on the Court is a big victory for the RINOs. Bush’s declining popularity and the start of the 2008 presidential race any day now will leave Bush a lame [...]

Jonathan Alter believes the NSA domestic spying flap and the Alito hearings demonstrate that the country is “in danger of scrapping our checks and balances—not just for a few years (as was done during the Civil War), but for good.” What if we faced a constitutional crisis and hardly anyone noticed? As he quietly mastered [...]

The Washington Post editorial board urges the Senate to “Confirm Samuel Alito.” He would not have been our pick for the high court. Yet Judge Alito should be confirmed, both because of his positive qualities as an appellate judge and because of the dangerous precedent his rejection would set.Though some attacks on him by Democratic [...]

A frustrated Sen. Joe Biden called for just doing away with judicial nomination hearings, since little is learned from them. Supreme Court nominees are so mum about the major legal issues at their Senate confirmation hearings that the hearings serve little purpose and should probably be abandoned, Democratic Sen. Joe Biden said Thursday. “The system’s [...]

AP’s Jesse Holland says Alito Appears Headed for Confirmation. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito seemed headed Thursday toward Senate confirmation, defending his judicial record to skeptical Democrats and praising the justice he would replace — Sandra Day O’Connor. “I would try to emulate her dedication and her integrity and her dedication to the case-by-case process [...]

Richard Cohen believes Joe Biden is seriously hurting his presidential chances with his questioning of Judge Alito. The only thing standing between Joe Biden and the presidency is his mouth. That, though, is no small matter. It is a Himalayan barrier, a Sahara of a handicap, a summer’s day in Death Valley, a winter’s night [...]

Kevin Drum, noting that Judge Alito freely gave his views on Griswold v. Connecticut but has steadfastly resisted getting pinned down on Roe v. Wade asks, “Why is it OK to take a firm stand on some decisions but not on others? What’s the supposed algorithm here? The supposed algorithm is “settled law.” That is, [...]

Judging from press reaction, Samuel Alito is more than holding his own after two days of Senate grilling. Adam Liptak and Adam Nagourney have an Analysis piece in the NYT entitled, “Judge Alito Proves a Powerful Match for Senate Questioners.” If Senate Democrats had set out to portray Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. as extreme [...]

Kevin Drum, chagrined that Supreme Court nominees sidestep most questions from the Senate on the grounds that it might prejudice their opinion in a future case, observes, In a remarkable evolution of democracy, we have now entered an era in which candidates for the Supreme Court are allowed to glide through their hearings without once [...]

The Senate confirmation hearings for Judge Samuel Alito are finally underway, with both sides doing their normal posturing: Democrats promised Samuel Alito tough questions on executive power, privacy rights and abortion as the Senate Judiciary Committee opened confirmation hearings Monday on President Bush’s choice to become the nation’s 110th Supreme Court justice. In a prelude [...]

Peter Lattman at WSJ’s Law Blog reports that David Lat is replacing Ana Marie Cox at Wonkette. Here’s the latest buzz: Queen of the blogosphere Ana Marie Cox is said to be handing over the reins at her spicy political blog Wonkette. David Lat, the federal prosecutor who revealed himself to the New Yorker magazine [...]

Bill Kristol believes the conventional wisdom is wrong on the question “Should Bush Fire Rove?” Bush’s decline in the polls long preceded the recent surge of publicity in the Plame case. But contrary to the media myth that Bush has been uncompromising and ideological, the strategy that the president has pursued for most of 2005 [...]

While there are signs that the Red-Blue divide from last year’s election is softening, America is, in the words of one observer, “A nation of scorekeepers.” Is America Still Red Vs. Blue, or Purpler? (AP) If you want signs of hope, you can read about the hundreds of millions of dollars that poured in for [...]

Patrick Ruffini has organized a blogger conference call with Steve Schmidt, Special Advisor to the President in charge of the White House Confirmation Team for Judge Samuel Alito, for 2 p.m. EST. I wasn’t able to get a question in on the last one; maybe I’ll have better luck today. Opening Remarks highlights: Process off [...]