The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged scalia

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…

All Hands in the Corporate Cookie Jar

By | 09.08.09 | 5:05 pm

Brenda Wright, Director of Democracy Program at Demos, has posted some insights at the American Constitution Society’s blog on the big campaign finance case, Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, to be argued before the Supreme Court tomorrow. Here’s her take:

Overruling those cases would mean that corporate

More…

Rehnquist, Scalia and Thomas Cited Foreign Law

By | 07.16.09 | 11:09 am

Here’s an interesting discovery by Rick Pildes, law professor at New York University, posted on Balkinization.

Turns out Justice O’Connor wrote an opinion in 1998, joined by her conservative colleagues William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, that cited as persuasive an aspect of foreign law, notwithstanding Republicans’ More…

Jason Mattera Defends Himself

By | 07.14.09 | 5:15 pm

After Matt Corley of ThinkProgress picked up my post about Jason Mattera’s tongue-in-cheek “ghetto” joke about Sonia Sotomayor, Mattera posted a response at HotAir.com. HotAir’s Ed Morrissey asked “why TP and the WI spends its time trolling Jason’s Facebook account,” and speaking for myself, I’m friends with More…

Justice O’Connor Was Influenced by ‘the Perspective of a Woman’ Too

By | 05.29.09 | 12:46 pm

While Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s being pilloried on the right for a 2001 speech in which she said her race and gender inevitably impact her judgments, it turns out retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said much the same thing, Greg Sargent reports.

In an interview with

More…