Christian Legal Society v. Localism

My friends at the Front Porch Republic see dire consequences arising from the Supreme Court’s recent Christian Legal Society v. Martinez ruling, which affirmed a circuit court decision that permits Hastings College of Law (part of the University of California system) to deny recognition to student groups that refuse to abide by the school’s nondiscrimination [...]

Squelching the Whistleblowers

Surprise, surprise — Roberts, Alito, Scalia, and Thomas, plus fellow (but unreliable) Republican Anthony Kennedy, have decided to hand Bush a major victory in his campaign to silence whistleblowers (though the particular case in question had to do with an LA county official, the precedent is one that's sure to make the president very happy [...]

Can the Right Get Any Worse?

Sometimes I think my criticisms of the conservative mainstream are a little too sour. But then I read something like this and realize I don't go nearly far enough: Conservatives need to win in the courts, and we have a much better shot at doing so by embracing the living Constitution and other legal approaches [...]

No-Knock Goes to Court

A friend brings to my attention this Slate article by Radley Balko about no-knock police raids and "the most important Supreme Court case you've never heard about." Quick excerpt: It's impossible to estimate just how many wrong-door raids occur. Police and prosecutors are notoriously inept at keeping track of their own mistakes, and victims of [...]

The Fourth Amendment Under Roberts

If Thomas, Scalia, and Roberts had had their way, our Fourth Amendment rights against warrantless searches would have diminished earlier this week. This editorial from the Roanoke Times is a little crude, but get the principle right. And this part puts the “conservative” justices’ argument in a nutshell: The court Wednesday ruled 5-3 that police [...]

Allan Carlson vs. Ken Mehlman

RNC chief Ken Mehlman seems to be trapped in the closet of 1993. In a piece about the disarray of the Republican agenda — at this point, what can the GOP say beyond “vote for us: better the devil you know!” — the Washington Post quotes Mehlman as saying, “you’re going to have a clear [...]

The Case for Anna Nicole Smith

Joe Sobran makes a good one: I have no dog, or bitch, in this fight [between Anna and E. Pierce Marshall], and I am trying to be strictly impartial. Marshall has a strong legal case, but his stepmother can pose two commonsense questions, both of which will be hard to rebut: Why do you think [...]