The Supremes

[Mary]

This is not about the singing group; it's about the Court.

I decided Supreme Court junkies needed their own thread!

So, to get the ball rolling, here's a link to an interesting article (and much has been written recently on this subject) about how Justice Kennedy is now the single most important man on the Court, and how we can expect briefs, arguments, and justices' conferences in future major and controversial cases to be geared almost entirely toward winning over Kennedy:

www.slate.com/id/2144875

Whether this is a good thing (or, from my perspective, a comforting thing given the obvious rightward shift on the Court with Roberts' and Alito's appointments) is open to debate.... but for now, well, I'm glad Kennedy is there to at least make it an open question how the Court will go on major issues.... as evidenced, especially, by Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.

On a completely separate note, in preparing for the con law class I'm teaching in the fall, I just wanted to say that I've fallen head over heels in love with Justice Brennan. I think he might be my all-time favorite Justice.

Cheers,
M

[shin]

mary said:

On a completely separate note, in preparing for the con law class I'm teaching in the fall, I just wanted to say that I've fallen head over heels in love with Justice Brennan. I think he might be my all-time favorite Justice.

NERD!

[chrisfan]

I fell head over heals in love with Justice Scalia one time. But that had more to do with his walking through the White House Correspondents Dinner with a bottle of Corona than it did his judicial philosophy. Of course, his judicial philosophy certainly wasn't a turn off for me. But it was the attitude it takes to drink a beer from a bottle at a hoity toity black tie affair like that which did it for me.

[Mary]

My love affair with Brennan stems from the fact that he is the most articulate defender of a liberal approach to constitutional interpretation I've ever encountered. I think it's actually much harder to defend non-originalist philosophies of interepretation - originalism gives you what seems like a solid foundation and an ability to claim you are respecting the law and the distinction between the judiciary and the legislature. Of course there are numerous problems with originalism, so it's not too difficult to criticize it, but I think it's a lot harder to offer a solid theoretical grounding for other approaches, rather than simply expose the difficulties of originalism. Brennan is the one who does it best. For that, I love him. It doesn't take much

Cheers,
M