How can the Supreme Court escape from the perception that it's partisan?

Lawprof Barry Friedman is working on the theory that people have lost trust in the Court (or so the polls show) because they perceive the C...

Justice Stevens: "that was the day I decided to resign... I learned giving that talk that I had a speech problem."

"That talk" = the announcement of his dissenting opinion in Citizens United , which you can listen to here . From an interview pu...

“Neither Steve Breyer nor Ruth Ginsburg has much of a purchase on Tony Kennedy’s mind.”

That's actually the most embarrassing sentence in Larry Tribe's letter to Obam a about who to nominate to the Supreme Court. I love ...

"In Kagan, it seems to me we have reached a new level of utter blankness."

Says Andrew Sullivan: Her entire career has been about never taking a stand on anything of any substance - free coffee for students! - while...

It's not unconstitutional to make voters show a photo ID.

The Supreme Court rules, 6-3, in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board : The voter ID ruling may turn out to be a significant victory fo...

"Justice Clarence Thomas is the winner of the Partisan Voting Award for the most politically skewed voting pattern."

According to Thomas J. Miles and Cass R. Sunstein. Justice John Paul Stevens is the runner-up... The Judicial Restraint Award, for the most ...

The new Supreme Court cases, especially the new negative Commerce Clause case.

SCOTUSblog gives us a first glimpse: The Supreme Court, in a major victory for Microsoft Corp.... Microsoft Corp. v. AT&T... In a second...

"The liberal justices, or at least their leader, Justice Stevens, may well have decided that refraining at this point was the wiser course...."

Linda Greenhouse has a theory about yesterday's cert. denial in Guantanamo detainees cases (Boumediene v. Bush and Al Odah v. United St...

"Bong Hits 4 Jesus," "Bong Hits 4 Jesus," "Bong Hits 4 Jesus"...

It never gets old, does it? It's funny, and it will always be funny. "Bong Hits 4 Jesus." People will be laughing about that l...

The punitive damages case.

Philip Morris USA v. Williams, the new Supreme Court case on punitive damages and due process looks very important. Here' s Linda Greenh...

"Given the lack of holdings from this Court regarding the potentially prejudicial effect of spectators’ courtroom conduct..."

The Supreme Court issued its opinion today in Carey v. Musladin, the case about spectators at a murder trial who wore buttons showing the p...

Who can sue to force the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases?

Here 's the Linda Greenhouse account of yesterday's oral argument in the global warming case, Massachusetts v. Environmental Protect...

Chief Justice Roberts -- he's telegenic.

And he's helping the home viewer tolerate the power of the judiciary... says Dahlia Lithwick : Unlike Justice David Souter, who loathes ...

"We’re going to be in a kind of bog of mixtures of constitutional law, unclear Oregon state law... et cetera."

Justice Breyer fretted yesterday in the course of the oral argument in a case about the constitutional restrictions on punitive damages. Th...

Why the antagonism toward Ruth Bader Ginsburg?

She won the "Least Favorite Justice" poll with 40 percent of the vote. I understand that who linked had a lot to do with whether ...

The 7th Circuit does not appreciate the State of Wisconsin's tone.

The Seventh Circuit has a new opinion today -- Toeller v. Wisconsin Department of Corrections ( PDF ) -- dealing with an issue we talked abo...

"What sense does it make to take the judge's word about what the law means over the word of the president?"

I've got an op-ed in Wednesday's NYT about ACLU v. NSA, activist judges, and irony. ADDED: I like the illustration -- by David Sute...

Supreme Court invalidates Guantanamo military commissions.

SCOTUSblog reports: The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Congress did not take away the Court's authority to rule on the military co...

"Why is [Scalia] blogging his concurrence....?"

Read Dahlia Lithwick's write-up of yesterday's death penalty case, Kansas v. Marsh , in which the court upholds a state law that re...

Let's say it again: Alito is not "Scalito."

The decision in Gonzalez-Lopez , just handed down, is no surprise. Justice Scalia joined the liberals -- Stevens, Souter, Ginsberg, and Brey...