In an instructive judicial retention election in Iowa, three state supreme court justices were recalled by voters who reacted negatively to the court’s ruling last year approving same-sex marriages, overturning a state law defining marriage as between a man and a woman.  Interestingly, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal had much different views on […]

To the surprise of no one, Elena Kagan was easily confirmed by the Senate to replace John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court and, despite her skimpy paper trail and absence of prior court experience, I suspect that she may be more of a catalyst than many expect.  Beyond a reliable vote with the liberal […]

Now at least there is a pathway to a resolution to the same-sex marriage issue.  With the district court decision overturning California’s Proposition 8 prohibiting such marriages, the stage is set for a process almost certainly leading to the Supreme Court.  Again, as I have noted any number of times, the judiciary has decided to […]

Everywhere one looks there is increasing evidence of considerable pushback from the states and the people to the relentless and overbearing imposition of federal power in all aspects of daily life.  This massive federal intervention is threatening our federal system, our solvency, our culture,  and our way of life in ways that cannot at this […]

This past week we witnessed yet another missed opportunity to educate the body politic on our founding principles, one more casualty of the 1987 confirmation hearing that has now coined the verb form “to bork”.  In spite of the paucity of her written record and the fact that she hasn’t a record from the bench […]

and maybe the most significant aside from the future evaluation of success in Iraq, will be his appointments of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, on which I have previously commented.   More recent evidence here are the decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission and the likely decision in McDonald […]

As I write, the news is that Sonia Sotomayor was finally confirmed by the Senate by a 68-31 vote, with nine Republicans joining all Democrats in confirming.  This is a reasonable outcome and I believe that the conduct of the hearings exhibited about the right balance of rigor, respect, and expository aspects of judicial philosophy, […]

Readers of The Texas Pilgrim are sophisticated enough not to need from me an outline of how the Obama administration is debauching constitutional contract law in the various “bailout” transactions.  Very bright people like Richard A. Epstein are explaining this much better that I am qualified to do.  In fact, I suggest that you “google” […]

The Supreme Court completed its term with what has been described as a conservative tilt, and I certainly applaud the rulings in most of the key decisions, but I regret that more was not accomplished with more substantive decisions in the two most recent critical cases.  In a significant voting rights case, Northwest Austin MUD […]

Well, very soon we won’t have Justice David Souter to kick around anymore.  Arguably George H. W. Bush’s worst decision as President (my choice), even topping the violation of his “no new taxes” pledge, Souter has haunted us for nineteen years with the nightmare of what might have been had Bush not listened to Warren Rudman and […]