The Supreme Court adjourns for the Term with decisions about redistricting, air pollution, and executions. Burt Likko summarizes each of them, and offers a sad observation about judicial comity losing one of its most prominent sentinels,
The legal writing in Obergefell v. Hodges is both a model and a caution for future writers, especially those who, like lawyers, would write to persuade.
Chief Justice Roberts was nearly silent during oral argument, and then wrote the 6-3 majority opinion in today’s Obamacare case. Burt Likko replies to Justice Antonin Scalia’s accusations of through-the-looking-glass judicial activism.
What happens when a fraternal organization, dedicated to commemorating Confederate veterans of the U.S. Civil War, declares “all in” before the U.S. Supreme Court, in a case where there appear to be two directly controlling yet contradictory cases and the ideological alignments of the Justices are apparently inverted? Burt Likko breaks down today’s license plate case.
When a Supreme Court Justice calls an entire city a “delicate subject,” there’s pretty much only one city he could be talking about. Burt Likko breaks down today’s division-of-powers decision.
Wednesday, the Supreme Court will entertain the latest challenge to Obamacare. If you can make it all the way through this post, you’re going to understand what’s going on way better than your neighbors. Added bonus: a significant detour through the jurisprudence of piscene spoliation, which you’ve no doubt all been anxiously awaiting.
One of Burt Likko’s greatest hits, offered in celebration of #judicialreviewday.
Turns out, a Muslim prisoner has a right to grow a beard even if the warden doesn’t want him to. Burt Likko digests today’s big SCOTUS case of Holt v. Hobbs to reveal something about what this means for those of us who aren’t Muslims in prison.
Burt Likko thought he understood this six years ago: religion is religion, and business is business. But the Hobby Lobby case leaves the rules a whole lot blurrier.
Same cast, brand new season! Burt Likko offers a look at some of the high points of the Supreme Court’s docket for the 2014-2015 Term.
Burt Likko wonders whether, despite the unmitigated human rights awfulness that is the nascent would-be state forming in northern Iraq, swallowing our idealism and adopting a strategy of economic containment wouldn’t be a more practical alternative to making war against ISIS.
UPDATE: Reaction to President Obama’s address of September 10.
Burt Likko thinks that Citizens United and McCutcheon were correctly decided. But how can he square that conclusion with his recent Ordinary Court opinion?
The Ordinary Court’s majority moves on to the final issue left in the case, and issues its ruling.
Tim Kowal agrees the Greens have individual standing, but suggests the corporation is the appropriate party to assert their claims.
In Part III of the Ordinary Court’s treatment of the Hobby Lobby case, the Ordinary Justices’ voting pattern shifts, with dramatic results.
Part II of the opinion, dealing substantively with whether Hobby Lobby can state a claim for relief under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The first part of the Ordinary Court’s treatment of one of this year’s most-publicized legal cases. To begin, we must understand the factual and legal landscape.
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on Weekend Plans Post: Pantherine VandalsDate Nite With Maribou was "Wicked". I'd never seen it, never seen the musical, never heard the soun…
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on Open Mic for the week of 3/24/25One full of and run by f*cking idiots. on Open Mic for the week of 3/24/25And we managed to really alienate Canada. What kind of country manages to alienate Canada? on Open Mic for the week of 3/24/25Apologies on Open Mic for the week of 3/24/25You know how, periodically, there's a situation in California that results in house insurance compan… on The HoldoutIs it just thumb wrestling and something you say before the match? It's not a rhyme and googling it… on Open Mic for the week of 3/24/25I've heard someone say that the only problem is that Snow White is a post-George Floyd movie in a po…
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They’re Acting Queer in Cleveland
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A Loaf of Bread, a Container of Milk, and a Stick of Butter
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Bowling — Balling Up the Score
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