SCOTUS

The Supreme Court's Decisions This Term Will Decide its Fate More Powerfully than Biden's Commission

by Ray Brescia

In 1937, the Supreme Court faced a crisis of legitimacy, and responded by clearing the way for broadly popular minimum wage and other employment laws that had previously been struck down. Faced with ideologically loaded cases where strong majorities of the public oppose them, the court's conservative bloc faces a similar choice this term. 

AHA, OAH File SCOTUS Amicus Brief in Mississippi Abortion Ban Case

This brief, based on decades of study and research by professional historians, aims to provide an accurate historical perspective as the Court considers the state of Mississippi’s challenge to a woman’s right to abortion, a right that was affirmed by the Court in Roe v. Wade.

Can Trump Change A Key Census Count? Supreme Court Hears His Claim

Margo Anderson says that the Trump administration's plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census is unprecedented in the history of the count. 

The History of 'Court Packing'

Historian Julian Zelizer discusses the history and fallout of FDR's 1937 plan to "pack" the court, and similarities and differences that might come into play in 2021. 

Pack the Courts

by Larry Kramer

The former Dean of Stanford Law School argues "once cooperation breaks down, the only play to restore it is tit-for-tat. It’s the only way both sides can learn that neither side wins unless they cooperate."

Wisconsin's Ballot Extension Plan Blocked By U.S. Supreme Court

NPR's David Greene talks to election law expert Rick Hasen about Monday's Supreme Court decision that may offer a a window into how the court could rule over a contested Election Day outcome.

Amy Coney Barrett’s Judicial Philosophy Doesn’t Hold Up to Scrutiny

by Angus King and Heather Cox Richardson

"To put it bluntly, the whole premise of originalism is nonsense in that it pretends to make the work of the Supreme Court look straightforward and mechanical, like 'calling balls and strikes,' in Justice John Roberts’s famous phase."

Amy Coney Barrett’s Philosophy Has Far Worse Roots Than Most Americans Know

by Simon Gilhooley

At the core of originalism is a fundamentally conservative effort to limit the possibilities of our constitutional order to the imagination of historical figures from the 18th century, which included racial hierarchy and support for chattel slavery.

FDR Was Right to Propose Enlarging the Court

by James D. Robenalt

Franklin Roosevelt's error in 1937 was not to propose expanding the court, it was to fail to explain and defend his popular political reasons for doing so.

$80 Million Dark Money Group Tied to Trump Supreme Court Advisor Leonard Leo

A picture is emerging, but it will take years to sort out. One thing is clear, though: Leo and his allies have amassed a massive war chest of anonymous donations for their fight to remake the federal judiciary.  

US Justices Won't Take Case Over 1946 Georgia Lynching Records

The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a Circuit Court decision that would have allowed access to the grand jury records of the Moore's Ford Lynchings, the unpunished murder of four Black Georgians in 1946. 

Religious Identity And Supreme Court Justices – A Brief History

by Nomi Stolzenberg

In recent decades, religious influence on the Court has been shaped by conservatives of different faiths, construed as part of a mythical Judeo-Christian tradition, coalescing around a common agenda defined less by affiliation with a religious denomination than with opposition to liberalism and secularism.

The Framers of the Constitution Didn’t Worry about ‘Originalism’

by Jack Rakove

"Some of the key words and terms in our constitutional vocabulary were subject to pounding controversy and reconsideration. One has to engage these debates to understand how Americans were thinking about these issues at the time."

Which Constitution is Amy Coney Barrett Talking About?

by Jamelle Bouie

The Times columnist argues that the original meaning of the Reconstruction Amendments establishes a constitutional vision of equality and civil rights that conservative originalists ignore. 

Coney Barrett’s Moment of Truth

by Garrett Epps

"At the center of this moral swamp is St. Amy, a person whose life gives many real evidences of high morals and deep faith and good works. Why would such a person lend herself to such a tawdry charade?"  

To Tame a Far-Right Supreme Court, Let’s Revive This Forgotten Proposal from 1922

by Leon Fink

Instead of court packing, a Democratic legislative majority should focus on reducing the absolute power of judicial review to check the undemocratic nature of the court's majority bloc. 

How SCOTUS Nominations Became All-Out War

by Robert L. Tsai

The rise of national parties, the use of the judiciary to advance policy goals, and the decision of Republican leadership to consolidate a narrow electoral base have made judicial nominations a partisan battle the Founders did not adequately anticipate, according to American U. Law professor Robert Tsai.

President Washington and the Character of the First Supreme Court

by Lindsay M. Chervinsky

The first Supreme Court was not the magisterial institution we know today. Both Congress and the executive branch saw its role in political terms, and its composition as subject to change to reflect the shifting needs of the nation. 

The Supreme Court Used to be Openly Political. It Traded Partisanship for Power

by Rachel Shelden

Americans once assumed that the constitutionality of a given law was a matter to be settled through legislative politics and elections, and selected judges on a partisan basis. Today's court is no less political or ideological, but can exert more power because of its nominal freedom from partisan politics. 

How the Supreme Court fractured the nation over slavery — and how it threatens to do so again

by H. W. Brands

The issue: abortion. Those who would outlaw abortion today are as convinced of the morality of their position as the abolitionists were of the morality of theirs.