U.S. Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court has announced that it's going to review the New York case about the constitutionality of the judicial selection process.

(Judicial candidates currently get the endorsement of a major party not by running in primaries, but in judicial conventions. More on the initial case here.)

In addition to making it a big day for the Brennan Center, this should be good news for Eliot Spitzer, who has been pushing for judicial primaries as part of a broader reform agenda that includes non-partisan redistricting and new rules on campaign finance and governmental ethics. A victory on this issue in the Supreme Court would hand Spitzer a crushing victory over the party chairs, whose ability to create judges gives them much of their remaining political leverage and influence.

But an attorney working for one of the defendants, the State Supreme Court Justices Association, said Spitzer's calls change are essentially meaningless.  read more »

A state federal court of appeals just upheld Judge Gleeson's ruling that judicial conventions in New York are unconstitutional because they're controlled by party bosses. Gleeson's ruling came out earlier this year, but was set to go into affect next year pending this appeal.

As a reader, who passed on today's ruling, noted, "the defendants could always try to go next to the US Supreme Court."

A copy of the decision is here.

-- Azi Paybarah

Whatever else may be said about the august legislators of South Dakota, who have arrogated unto them  read more »

Whatever else may be said about the august legislators of South Dakota, who have arrogated unto them  read more »

Russ Feingold, heading into the Gore-space on Hillary's left, is also making his way onto her New York turf this Sunday with an address on the Patriot Act.

According to the release, the address will be at "Cardoza Law School."  read more »

By which the Judiciary Committee member presumably means Cardozo, which is named after a guy who was, after all, a justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Beneath a photo of Judge Samuel Alito in Princeton University’s 1972 yearbook, one line prophe  read more »

Beneath a photo of Judge Samuel Alito in Princeton University’s 1972 yearbook, one line prophesied  read more »

Assessing the philosophy, character and fitness of Samuel Alito to sit on the U.S.  read more »

Assessing the philosophy, character and fitness of Samuel Alito to sit on the U.S.  read more »

It's not exactly SCOTUS, but the New York City Bar Association is out with its judicial recommendations, and there's another round of bad news for the Brooklyn Democratic Party.

Three of their favored judicial candidates, including Richard Velasquez, a protege of party leader Vito Lopez, got the "not approved" rating.  read more »

Of course, that never seems to stop anyone in Brooklyn.

It's noon and Mike hasn't gone after Bush's SCOTUS nomination yet, which must mean that he's feeling pretty confident, or that his pollsters are reassured that the Republican line of attack isn't working.

Freddy, meanwhile, seems downright giddy:  read more »

"It's appropriate that this nomination was announced on Halloween, because it's scary."

He wants Mike to "admit he make (sic) a mistake in giving the $7 million to George Bush and right wing Republicans that made this nomination possible."

Well, that didn't take long. As I started to write an item on New York's senior Senator and the new SCOTUS nominee, Judge Samuel Alito, the following popped up from Chuck:

"It is sad that the President felt he had to pick a nominee likely to divide America instead of choosing a nominee in the mold of Sandra Day O'Connor, who would unify us.

"This controversial nominee, who would make the Court less diverse and far more conservative, will get very careful scrutiny from the Senate and from the American people."

Chuck has been saying for years that he wanted a nominee whose views are known, and in this one, he got what he wanted. Alito took what wound up being the losing side in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, as clear a signal as you're going to get that he's a vote against Roe.

On the other hand, Chuck has also said recently that with the President weakened, the Democrats can beat a conservative nominee -- whether by filibuster or on a straight vote.

Sounds like we'll see.  read more »

My first reaction after President George W.  read more »

A bright yellow Lamborghini—the prize in a raffle to benefit the Columbus Citizens Foundation&  read more »

A bright yellow Lamborghini—the prize in a raffle to benefit the Columbus Citizens Foundation—il  read more »

One thing largely absent from the Miers controversy has been the nominee's own voice. But here's a sample, from a defense of Miers by a former White House colleague:

"I like M&Ms and I like sharing."  read more »

The author continues, "Do these things matter at all when it comes to her qualifications for being an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court? Yes. They speak to her character. And in matters of justice, matters of character count."

Hmm. Sure. But this won't help defuse the deadly Church Lady meme.

Has this been a terrible month for George W. Bush?  read more »

It was quiet on Floyd Abrams' side of the thick door leading into the television studio.  read more »

No worse example exists of the moral cowardice of the federal government-implicating all three branc  read more »

NewYork civil-rights lawyer Michael Ratner was in the U.S.  read more »

1) On the Losing Side: It was like the Spanish Republic and the Prague Spring."Even a dog knows the  read more »

I was talking to a friend about infomercials.  read more »

The words of FelixFrankfurter sum up the post-election dilemma: "If you can't be fair, be  read more »

Talk about a Constitutional crisis: When the Supreme Courtthrew out a Georgia law that forced Indian  read more »

Over the past month, we have seen some of the best lawyeringin the country, if not the world.  read more »

May it please the court: What in the world are you doing to our democracy?Forget the judicial robes  read more »

Anybody who says we're not making progress fixing up the criminal justice system is either a damn li  read more »