The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged judicial activism

Federalist Society Convention Kicks Off With Call to Oppose Obama Judge Picks

By | 11.12.09 | 6:27 pm

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) kicked off the annual Federalist Society convention today with a call to oppose President Obama’s liberal nominees for the federal judiciary, Legal Times reports.

“We are in a long and difficult fight,” Sessions told the gathering of leading conservative lawyers, judges and law professors More…

Sheriff Joe Arpaio Likely to Appeal Abortion Ruling

By | 10.20.09 | 9:01 pm

On Tuesday I reported that an Arizona judge had ordered Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to stop pre-charging female prisoners for the transportation and security costs associated with their obtaining abortion services at a medical clinic. The American Civil Liberties Union had won its argument that More…

Gun Case Could Broaden Legal Basis for Wide Range of Rights

By | 10.02.09 | 4:38 pm

In announcing on Wednesday that it would review a case that asks whether individuals have a fundamental right to bear arms under the U.S. Constitution, the Supreme Court did more than just step into a heated debate over gun control. Although McDonald v. City of Chicago is on its face More…

Sessions Warns Against Sotomayor’s Vulnerability to the ‘Siren Call of Judicial Activism’

By | 07.27.09 | 1:43 pm

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) has taken his case against Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor to the public, explaining why he plans to vote against a nominee that even some in his own party are saying is among the most qualified candidates for the high court in decades.

Still, it’s not More…

Sotomayor Confirmation Hearing As Semiotics Debate

By | 07.13.09 | 12:56 pm

If you just started watching Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing during the statement of Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), you might think you’d stumbled on a debate over semiotics rather than a Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

“I’m deeply concerned by your assertion that the law is uncertain,” said Coburn. “We want justice More…

Sen. Whitehouse Denounces Roberts’ Umpire Theory of Judging

By | 07.13.09 | 12:22 pm

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) just denounced Supreme Court Justice John Roberts’ disingenuous umpire theory of judging — his oft-quoted statement that the role of a judge is just to call “balls and strikes” as he sees them — with a harsh critique of what’s turned out to be remarkable “judicial More…

Another Study of Her Opinions Finds Sotomayor Is No Activist

By | 06.26.09 | 9:45 am

The Congressional Research Service has issued a report analyzing the opinions of Judge Sonia Sotomayor and concluded, just as previous studies of her opinions have, that she is anything but a judicial activist.

Notwithstanding her much-decried “wise Latina woman” claim, it turns out Sotomayor is no liberal More…

Ricci Case As Example of Sotomayor’s Judicial Restraint

By | 06.15.09 | 10:58 am

Amid the debate over Sotomayor’s supposedly “activist” move joining the per curiam opinion in the reverse discrimination case of Ricci v. DeStefano, there’s been little actual analysis of the legal standards the Second Circuit Court of Appeals panel’s decision was based on.

Although that may be because the More…

Surprise! Conservatives Support Conservative Activism by Supreme Court

By | 06.05.09 | 11:11 am

Blogger Big Tent Democrat at TalkLeft makes a great point this morning, writing that the Supreme Court under Chief Judge John Roberts has been an “activist” court — actively striking down legislation that allows for the use of racial classifications in some circumstances to remedy past discrimination — and that’s More…

Supreme Court Nominee Debate Defined by Conservatives

By | 05.18.09 | 6:00 am

With President Obama’s announcement of his first Supreme Court nominee likely to come as early as this week, liberals and conservatives jockeying for position in the confirmation battle have begun to find their roles. So far, it is conservatives who have generally succeeded More…