The New Republic

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Moments after President Bush announced the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court, liberal interest groups were attacking Roberts as a conservative ideologue. "In reality John Roberts may be a hard-nosed extremist with a soft conservative facade," wrote the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. "In short, the President may have nominated a stealth candidate—a Justice [Antonin] Scalia or [Clarence] Thomas in [Sandra Day] O'Connor's robes." READ MORE >>

As an explosive showdown over judicial nominations approaches, Republicans are depicting themselves as champions of the will of the majority. "Only in the United States Senate could it be considered a devastating option to allow a vote. Most places call that democracy," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said in a speech to conservative Christian groups on April 24.To Republicans, the Democratic filibuster of seven of President Bush's judicial nominees is not just an undemocratic tactic; it is READ MORE >>

THE MORNING AFTER the Supreme Court struck down the juvenile death penalty as a form of cruel and unusual punishment in Roper v. Simmons, the reaction in the Supreme Court press room was unusually scathing. READ MORE >>

This week, the Supreme Court heard arguments about the constitutionality of displaying the Ten Commandments in and around courthouses. As with all hotly contested questions of American life, the tie-breaking vote may be cast by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and her reaction to two very different Ten Commandment displays in Texas and Kentucky is anyone's guess. But the Ten Commandments case is an important window into the Supreme Court battles to come, because it reveals the stark difference between READ MORE >>

When the Supreme Court struck down state sentencing guidelines last spring in Blakely v. Washington, federal judges prepared for the worst. Since the federal and state sentencing guidelines are, for all practical purposes, indistinguishable, many judges expected that the Court would strike down the federal guidelines as well. This, they imagined, would throw the entire federal justice system into chaos by forcing thousands of defendants to be resentenced. And, by requiring juries, rather than judges, to take the lead in READ MORE >>

During his postelection press conference, President Bush made it clear that he intends to appoint a reliable "strict constructionist" to replace the ailing Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist if and when he retires. According to administration officials, there are eight candidates on Bush's short list, all of whom fit the bill. Senate Democrats will try to distinguish between conservatives and moderates by focusing on the candidates' views of Roe v. Wade. But the more important distinction is between principled conservatives READ MORE >>

In the days before the election, there has been a boomlet of stories about politically mixed marriages. According to The New York Times Sunday Styles section, "In towns big and small across the country, couples and family members on opposite sides of the political fence are struggling to maintain amicable relationships as a highly polarized political season reaches its apex. " My wife and I were pleased to learn that we are part of an amusing social trend--she's a Republican and I'm a Democrat. But, thankfully, our experience READ MORE >>

Whether or not the Supreme Court decides the presidential election, the election will decide the future of the Supreme Court. And the first vacancy, which could come sooner rather than later, as Chief Justice William Rehnquist's surgery last week reminds us, is likely to provoke a partisan explosion that will make the battle over Robert Bork look like child's play. As Election Day approaches, liberal and conservative interest groups are trying to rally their bases with the same alarmist slogans they have been using for the READ MORE >>

It's November 2, and the presidential election looks close in Ohio. An army of lawyers are dispatched by the Bush and Kerry campaigns to scour all 11,614 precincts in the state for any hint of voting irregularities. Within hours, both sides have filed competing suits in state courts challenging the standards for counting provisional, absentee, and military ballots, as well as for the use of different voting machines. Within days, Laurence Tribe and James Baker are filing petitions to the Supreme Court, arguing that Bush v. READ MORE >>