The New Republic

The White House has expanded its search for the next Supreme Court justice; and it is now possible to evaluate the scholarship, opinions and constitutional vision of the candidates. All are able federal judges. But some are more proficient than others at textual and historical analysis, and so better equipped to win over the swing justices and to challenge the Court's most aggressive intellectual, Antonin Scalia, on his own terms. In ascending order: READ MORE >>

Can the state of Arizona pay an interpreter to sign the rosary for James Zobrest, a deaf student at a Catholic high school? Zobrest's parents claim Arizona misinterpreted the religion clauses of the First Amendment ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof") when it decided to put sign language interpreters in secular, but not religious, private schools. At oral argument on February 24, the justices joked about their incoherent doctrine for policing the Establishment Clause and the embarrassing results it has produced. READ MORE >>

“The next real opportunity for the American people to get a good glimpse of me will be the 1992 campaign.”—Dan Quayle Tuesday, September 22, 1992. Air Force Two. “This is the vice president.” READ MORE >>

"No, no, I do not know what is the number of the form. It is the one for a person who has a family to bring to the country. Do you have that one? The one for relatives?... No. I tell you. I do not know the number of the form." READ MORE >>

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Headline, New York Times, September 10, 1962:  GENERAL WALKER SEIZES CAPITAL;    TANKS CIRCLE THE WHITE HOUSE;       NEW JUNTA PROMISES ELECTIONS From a “Letter from Washington, The New Yorker, September 22, 1962. READ MORE >>

The Supreme Court during its present session has the opportunity to strike its mightiest blow against racial prejudice. The nine justices must decide whether segregation of Negro and white pupils in the public schools violates the equal protection provision of the Fourteenth Amendment. READ MORE >>

Alone in the old basement barber shop she sat reading a magazine at her manicure table. Her eyes devoured the story and she lifted them reluctantly to meet a customer. She was arrestingly pretty. She looked out quite gravely at the customer without closing her magazine. "The barber's out to lunch." The visitor hesitated. He could not help being invited by her appearance. "I left my razors," he told her. "Do you think I could find them?" READ MORE >>