Tag Archives: handed-down
Waiting for Chicago
Supreme Court handed down a load of opinions today (I lost count, 5-6-7?). Last opinions will be handed down on Monday. Ginsburg got the Skilling decision today, meaning that for the sitting when McDonald was argued, only that case remains, and only Justice Alito has not written an opinion
Full StoryWashington State Supreme Court on incorporation
State v. Sieyes (pdf) , handed down today. Defendant was charged with possession of a handgun by a minor
Full StoryCitizens United
The Court this morning handed down its ruling in Citizens United v. FEC. A preliminary skim: the ban on corporate “electioneering” (corporate funds for an independent expenditure, mentioning a candidate, within 30-60 days of an election) is struck down.
Full StoryBalkanization goes to town on Chicago’s brief
Right here . A few samples: “In the city’s attempt to preserve its weapons ban, it proves too much, essentially urging the Supreme Court to find that protection of the Bill of Rights and other fundamental liberties against state infringement has no basis in constitutional text or history, and is instead achieved solely by judicial implication. To make matters worse, Chicago’s brief makes common cause with precedent that has been properly labeled by civil rights leaders as “among the most misdirected in the history of the Court” and celebrates a post-Civil War Court that looked the other way while Jim Crow perpetuated decades of discrimination and violent rights suppression.” “Chicago’s repeated deference to these decisions of the post-Civil War Court—beyond merely respecting them as precedent, the city’s brief calls them a “venerated” line of decisions—is disconcerting.
Full StoryNew article by Randy Barnett
“Whence Comes Section One? The Abolitionist Origins of the Fourteenth Amendment.” It explores the many ways in which abolitionist legal thought influenced the 14th Amendment. The leadership of the 39th Congress were abolitionists to a man, and shared legal understandings that did not require explanation.
Full Story