Elena Kagan has spent much the first few days of her Supreme Court confirmation hearings this week mired in meta-questions — questions about the ways in which she answers questions (or, rather, doesn't answer them, in contradiction to her past criticism of nominees who did the exact same thing). The back-and-forth fits a popular narrative about the confirmation ritual: Robert Bork was too candid for his own good in 1987, and nominee evasiveness has been on the rise ever since. The phenomenon even has a name: "the Ginsburg rule," which recalls the first post-Bork would-be justice to figure ... Read More
‘Courts and Kids’ Argues for Equal School Funding
June 24, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
More than 50 years after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education, the nation's schools are still plagued by inequalities, yet the High Court today declines to intervene on behalf of equal educational opportunity for all children. In the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, "... this Court does not sit to ... solve the problems of 'troubled inner city schooling.' ... We are not social engineers." The Supreme Court began its long withdrawal from the civil rights fray in the early 1970s, after two decades of activism on racial integration. Now, ... Read More
Sometimes a Cross Is Not a Cross
June 23, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
When a European court ruled last year that Italy should remove crucifixes from public classrooms, a wave of anti-EU protest spread from Italy to neighboring countries, where people worried — again — about an assault from EU eggheads on their national traditions. The case belongs to Europe's ongoing struggle between a rising, quasi-federal government in Brussels and the national identities of EU member states. "The European court has trodden on our rights, our culture, our history, our traditions and our values," is how one Italian minister, Roberto Calderoli, from the unsavory Northern ... Read More
Expecting Justice and Hoping for Empathy
June 20, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
What kind of justices do the American people want on the U.S. Supreme Court? As the country awaits the Senate's decision on whether Elena Kagan should replace Justice John Paul Stevens on the nation's highest court, discussions about the desirable attributes of judges have been reignited. This debate is particularly important at this point in history because the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court have become an unusually homogeneous bunch. Hailing from Harvard or Yale, having served on the lower federal judiciary, but also having precious little experience in any politics but the politics ... Read More
Wonking Week: Pyramids and Prison Gerrymandering Edition
June 7, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
Pyramids and Prison Gerrymandering Edition ... Read More