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WASHINGTON (AP) - Chief Justice John Roberts urged Congress to raise the pay of federal judges in a year-end report that emphasized improving communications with Capitol Hill and the White House. "The separate branches may not always agree," the chief justice wrote, adding that each should strive "to know and appreciate where the others stand." Roberts' report on the federal judiciary comes at a critical time, with important cases on the court's docket likely to affect the 2008 election and the Bush administration's tactics in the war on terror. Roberts struck a conciliatory tone with Congress, where legislation to raise...

Today the U.S. Supreme Court begins its second full term since President Bush’s appointments of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito. Given the complaints made by many on the left and in the press about the Court’s alleged “radical turn to the right” last year, now is a good time to consider how the Court ought to decide its constitutional cases. This question is made all the more urgent by the fact that on Jan. 20, 2009, six of the nine current justices will be over the age of 70, an age at which many people either...

The division of Supreme Court justices into rigid blocs is unfortunate, because it makes the court seem more like a political body than a legal one.

SAN FRANCISCO - The Supreme Court's most recent term was a difficult one, Justice Stephen Breyer said Saturday, because he found himself on the losing end of several key cases. "I was in dissent quite a lot and I wasn't happy," Breyer said at the American Bar Association's annual meeting. Breyer was one of four liberal justices who dissented in cases involving abortion rights, school integration and pay discrimination. In the school case, in which the court struck down student assignment plans in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, his frustration bubbled over in a lengthy dissent that was twice as long...

Led by Senator Charles Schumer, Senate Democrats are trying to bamboozle the American public into believing that Bush appointees to the Supreme Court are dangerous radicals. Senator Schumer's suggestion and Justice Beyer's unusual and inappropriate complaint to Senator Specter that the newest members of the Supreme Court -- Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito -- are ignoring and overruling established precedent is of a piece with the mandarinate's general and untrue response to the Administration: the Mongols have taken over. I have reviewed the law on stare decisis (the doctrine that judges should rule in accord with past precedent to...

The U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts is "the most conservative in memory," and the Senate should not confirm another nominee to the bench from President Bush "except in extraordinary circumstances," in the view of Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Addressing the fifth annual American Constitution Society convention Friday, Schumer said the Senate had been misled by the "charm of nominee Roberts and the erudition of nominee [Samuel] Alito." "Our fears were more than justified from the ultra-conservative record of [those] two men," said Schumer, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Schumer's comments coincided with a new ABC...

"About half of the public thinks the Supreme Court is generally balanced in its decisions, but a growing number of Americans say the court has become "too conservative" in the two years since President Bush began nominating justices, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Nearly a third of the public -- 31 percent -- thinks the court is too far to the right, a noticeable jump since the question was last asked in July 2005. That's when Bush nominated John G. Roberts Jr. to the court and, in the six-month period that followed, the Senate approved Roberts as...

Democrat charges U.S. justices "duped" Senate By Thomas Ferraro1 hour, 17 minutes ago U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito "duped" the U.S. Senate into confirming them, a top Democratic lawmaker charged on Friday, days after a key Republican questioned if they had lived up to their promises. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, a member of the Judiciary Committee that held hearings on the two, said they staked out moderate positions in congressional testimony but became part of a conservative bloc that issued restrictive rulings on issues from free speech to civil rights. Schumer, in...

WHEN a majority of Supreme Court justices adopt a manifestly ideological agenda, it plunges the court into the vortex of American politics. If the Roberts court has entered voluntarily what Justice Felix Frankfurter once called the “political thicket,” it may require a political solution to set it straight. The framers of the Constitution did not envisage the Supreme Court as arbiter of all national issues. As Chief Justice John Marshall made clear in Marbury v. Madison, the court’s authority extends only to legal issues. When the court overreaches, the Constitution provides checks and balances. In 1805, after persistent political activity...

Because I'm convinced that, come November of 2008, Hillary Clinton will be the presidential candidate of the Socialist Party, so I think it's particularly important that the Republicans nominate Rudy Giuliani. I will admit that I have been waiting to see if Fred Thompson was going to toss his hat in the ring, but I finally got sick and tired of waiting. The guy's about 6-foot-5 and probably weighs 280; which doesn't hurt when he's portraying a New York City D.A., but he's simply not cut out to play a coquette. There are other attractive candidates in the GOP, but...

Helen Thomas: This meaner U.S. Supreme Court sets back the country Helen Thomas Article Last Updated: 07/04/2007 04:02:47 PM MDT WASHINGTON - The new Supreme Court is more conservative than it has been in decades. It's also meaner. It is a dream come true for Republican presidencies dating back to the ''strict constructionist'' court aspirations of President Richard Nixon and now made possible by the conservative George W. Bush. Before closing down for the summer last month, the high court tossed out a flurry of decisions that overturned or reinterpreted long-standing liberal precedents.

The Court’s liberal critics are especially exercised by Justice Alito, who in a few cases voted differently than the justice he replaced, Sandra Day O’Connor. These critics say that the rule of law is eroded when the outcome of a case depends on who’s sitting on the bench. This critique comes a little late in the seasons of our experience. We don’t recall any of the legal experts who are condemning Alito having urged Ruth Bader Ginsburg to follow the example of the justice she replaced, Byron White, who dissented from the liberal constitutional agenda on abortion and gay rights.

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts pledged in his confirmation hearing to seek agreement among the Supreme Court's nine justices. And like President Bush's second nominee to the court, Samuel Alito, Roberts said he would respect legal precedents set by previous courts. So much for confirmation promises. As it wraps up its second term, the Roberts court is sharply divided, with justices on the losing end of a string of 5-4 rulings expressing their frustrations from the bench. Roberts, Alito and their conservative brethren have overturned legal precedents without so much as an explanation. The result, made clear in rulings handed...

It was the Supreme Court that conservatives had long yearned for and that liberals feared. Skip to next paragraph Multimedia Graphic Major 5-4 Decisions of the Term By the time the Roberts court ended its first full term on Thursday, the picture was clear. This was a more conservative court, sometimes muscularly so, sometimes more tentatively, its majority sometimes differing on methodology but agreeing on the outcome in cases big and small. As a result, the court upheld a federal anti-abortion law, cut back on the free-speech rights of public school students, strictly enforced procedural requirements for bringing and appealing...

The next president is likely to appoint 1 to 3 justices, tilting the Supreme Court for decades. Hear from conservative commentators William Kristol, Bay Buchannan and Tony Perkins, who keep their eyes on one of 2008's biggest prizes. Created by Robin & John Productions. Music by Nik Phelps. John Grimes. Fizzdom.com See here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QIAXb2MS_Q

The Supreme Court's decision overturning school desegregation policies in two U.S. cities yesterday culminates a fractious term in which the new Roberts court moved the law significantly to the right, legal analysts said. In a series of 5 to 4 decisions this term, the court also upheld a federal ban on a late-term abortion procedure and gutted a key provision of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. Along with yesterday's schools case, each of these decisions left open the possibility of more change in areas of the law on which the court had seemingly ruled definitively within the past decade. "Conservatives...

Just say no. The Senate's Democratic majority -- joined by all Republicans who purport to be moderate -- must tell President Bush that this will be their answer to any controversial nominee to the Supreme Court or the appellate courts. The Senate should refuse even to hold hearings on Bush's next Supreme Court choice, should a vacancy occur, unless the president reaches agreement with the Senate majority on a mutually acceptable list of nominees. And no Bush nominee to a lower court deserves any deference now that we learn that U.S. Appeals Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh may have misled the...

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Thursday abandoned a 96-year-old ban on manufacturers and retailers setting price floors for products. In a 5-4 decision, the court said that agreements on minimum prices are legal if they promote competition. The ruling means that accusations of minimum pricing pacts will be evaluated case by case.............. "The only safe predictions to make about today's decision are that it will likely raise the price of goods at retail," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in dissent......... Joining Kennedy in the majority were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. With...

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer shook his head. He rolled his eyes. He even grimaced once or twice as he listened to Chief Justice John Roberts read the majority opinion in the school diversity case on Thursday. As the high court ended its term, Breyer showed obvious disappointment with the opinion. For liberal members of the court, it was not the only time this year their emotions surfaced during normally placid readings of the court's opinions.

High court's new majority is a downright mean bunch Monday, June 25, 2007 3:25 AM By Robyn Blumner Often you can sum up the collective actions of the Supreme Court under a particular chief justice with one word. The Warren Court always will be remembered as liberal, the Burger Court as pragmatic and the Rehnquist Court as conservative. The Roberts Court in its short tenure has already earned the moniker mean. The addition of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito to the heartless duo of Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas has cemented a plurality for cruelty. If...

Legal and political conservatives hit for the cycle Monday morning when they "won" four long-awaited rulings from the United States Supreme Court. The Justices further chipped away at the wall that separates church and state, took some of the steam out of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, neutered federal regulators in environmental cases to the benefit of developers and slammed a high school kid who had the temerity to put up a silly sign near his high school. Each of these decisions help establish the true conservative bona fides of this Court. It is more conservative than it was last...

Conservative court watchers have viewed the end of the Supreme Court term with a mixture of hope and dread. The most important decisions are often held over until the very end of the term, as the Justices pore over every word and try to bring more Justices around to their view of the law. And more often than not, it has been conservatives’ feelings of dread that have proved justified. Consider the last two weeks of the 2002 Term, when the Court overruled a 20-year-old precedent and found a constitutional right to engage in sodomy, while also allowing state affirmative...

WASHINGTON - Iraq remains chaotic and immigration overhaul faces an uncertain fate. But if President Bush wants to sing the old tune, “They can’t take that away from me” he can turn to the Supreme Court where his appointees Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito sit. As the high court nears the end of its 2006-2007 term, the impact of Bush’s appointees is becoming clearer. In high profile-decisions, Roberts and Alito have bolstered the conservative wing, which includes Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas and occasionally Justice Anthony Kennedy. Former Reagan administration Justice Department official Doug Kmiec,...

WASHINGTON — It has been two decades in the making, but this is the year Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court's most outspoken dissenter, could emerge as a leader of a new conservative majority. Between now and late June, the court is set to hand down decisions in four areas of law — race, religion, abortion regulation and campaign finance — where Scalia's views may now represent the majority. In each of those areas, the retirement of centrist Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and her replacement with Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. figure to tip the court to the right. That...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 — If Year 1 was the transition for the new Roberts court, Year 2 is likely to be the test. During the first term under the leadership of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the justices were able to find common ground with some regularity by agreeing not to decide much. By the time the term ended in late June, the extent to which the members of the newly configured court were prepared to confront either precedent or one another remained unclear. Chances are high that the new term, which begins on Monday, will be different. The...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In a move that could have abortion implications, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has selected a former colleague and government attorney Jeffrey Minear as his chief of staff. Minear has participated in briefs and written papers on behalf of the White House arguing against abortion. Minear is a longtime attorney in the solicitor general's office and was an attorney there during the Bush administration from 1989-1992. The two collaborated on several cases including the 1991 Supreme Court case of Rust v. Sullivan. The case was significant in that the high court said the government could...

On July 1st, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) finished its term until October. The history books may refer to the present court as the “Roberts Court,” named so after current Chief Justice John Roberts, but many analysts are talking about Justice Kennedy. “It is impossible to overstate the importance of Justice Kennedy,” Greg Stohr of Bloomberg News told the audience at the Heritage Foundation last Thursday. A panel of journalists, including Mr. Stohr, Charles Lane of The Washington Post, and Stephen Henderson of McClatchy Newspapers, focused most of their remarks on “Justice Kennedy’s Hamlet moment,” as Mr....

Young conservatives in DC apparently like intellectual stimulation in a lecture format, but then again the free beer might have been on more than a few minds. Last Wednesday night, more than 80 young conservative intellectuals crowded into a back room of The Brickskeller on 22nd St, NW to listen to a professor talk about vocation, to eat and drink, and to meet their peers and colleagues. It was the first meeting of “Conservatism on Tap” presented by the ISI (Intercollegiate Studies Institute) Young Alumni group of DC founded by Princeton graduate Evan Baehr. The event was a success, with...

At the confirmation hearings for John Roberts, there were two theories about what kind of a chief justice he would be. His critics maintained that he was an extreme conservative whose politics would drive his legal rulings. Judge Roberts, on the other hand, insisted that he was "not an ideologue," and that his judicial philosophy was to be "modest," which he defined as recognizing that judges should "decide the cases before them" and not try to legislate or "execute the laws." Judicial modesty is an intriguing idea, with appeal across the political spectrum. For all the talk of liberal activist...

ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON -- Last October, liberal standard-bearer John Paul Stevens welcomed conservative Chief Justice John Roberts to the Supreme Court by wishing him "a long and happy career in our common calling." In February, it was Roberts' turn to welcome fellow conservative Samuel Alito with exactly the same collegial greeting. Yet for all the talk of consensus and harmony on the new court, plenty of trees had to die to provide enough paper for the justices' fractured rulings on some of the most contentious cases of the court's term. And all sides are betting that this transitional year --...

President Bush finally got to reshape the Supreme Court during its just-completed 2005-06 term, appointing its first two new members in more than a decade. But he didn't have much immediate success in changing its direction. Bush's appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, lived up to expectations that they would ally with the court's conservative faction. The administration's hopes for a rightward shift on an already-conservative court were largely checked, however, by the pivotal figure of Justice Anthony Kennedy. Kennedy's role was illustrated most dramatically Thursday, the final day of the court's term, when he joined a...

WASHINGTON - New Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito broke a tie Monday in a ruling that affirmed a state death penalty law and also revealed the court's deep divisions over capital punishment. ADVERTISEMENT Justices split 5-4 in the term's oldest case, which was argued in December before Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement. The justices are in the final week of their term and handling some of the most contentious and important cases. They meet again Wednesday to announce more decisions. The Kansas case was unique. The state law says juries should impose death sentences if aggravating evidence of a crime's...

The Supreme Court made it easier yesterday for workers in most parts of the country to sue employers for retaliating against them when they complain about sexual harassment or other discrimination. The court ruled that employees may collect damages, even in some cases where the punishment did not involve getting fired or losing wages.The decision, which had the full support of eight justices, expands the legal rights of millions of workers who are covered by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the main federal law against job discrimination, and their employers. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. agreed with...

From a report filed by Tony Mauro in the Legal Times, commenting on yesterday’s announcement in the Rapanos case: On a day that foreshadowed politically charged battles ahead, the Supreme Court on Monday divided sharply on the scope of the Clean Water Act while also agreeing to widen its review of the federal partial-birth abortion ban next fall. … Also on view was a dispirited liberal wing of the Court. Though Stevens, 86, read from his dissent vigorously, the justices who joined him — Stephen Breyer, David Souter, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg — appeared gloomy and fatigued.

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 19, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Supreme Court is set to revisit a second Bush Administration appeal that seeks to reinstate a ban on partial birth abortion, reports the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). The ACLJ, which specializes in constitutional law, said it is pleased the Supreme Court has decided to hear the case, which involves the constitutionality of the national ban on partial-birth abortion. “The Supreme Court took a significant step today that clearly puts the issue of partial-birth abortion front-and-center,” said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ, which litigates pro-life issues. “By taking...

The late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist was praised Thursday by lawyers who practice before the Supreme Court as a man of sharp intellect, quick wit and love of family and friends. Rehnquist, who died last September after a long battle with throat cancer, served nearly 34 years on the court first as an associate justice and then as chief justice. During a special session of the high court, Chief Justice John Roberts, a former Rehnquist law clerk, praised his predecessor not only for his contributions to the law but also for "knowing what was important in life." Speaker after...

Breaking... Major 5-4 decision. This case was reargued and apparently Alito cast the deciding vote.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court has shown a surprising degree of unanimity and harmony since Chief Justice John Roberts took over last fall. But recent signs of tension and a rush to finish the court's work by month's end could fray the justices' tenuous show of unity. "I feel at this point like the fellow who jumped off the Empire State Building, passed the 50th floor and said, 'So far, so good,'" Roberts said recently to a group of lawyers. "But the hard part is coming up." The "hard part" will include issuing rulings in about 31 cases dealing...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday made it harder for government employees to file lawsuits claiming they were retaliated against for going public with allegations of official misconduct. By a 5-4 vote, justices said the nation's 20 million public employees do not have carte blanche free speech rights to disclose government's inner-workings. New Justice Samuel Alito cast the tie-breaking vote. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the court's majority, said the First Amendment does not protect "every statement a public employee makes in the course of doing his or her job." The decision came after the case was argued...

WASHINGTON, May 21 (AP) — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said Sunday that he was seeking greater consensus on the Supreme Court, adding that more consensus would be likely if controversial issues could be decided on the "narrowest possible grounds." In a 15-minute address to Georgetown University law graduates, Chief Justice Roberts, 51, sketched a vision for leading a court sharply divided on issues like abortion, the death penalty and gay rights. "If it is not necessary to decide more to a case, then in my view it is necessary not to decide more to a case," Chief Justice...

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court held a rare mid-May oral argument Thursday on the power of police to search private homes without knocking first – a major privacy-rights case likely to be decided by the vote of the court’s newest member, Justice Samuel Alito. At issue in Hudson v. Michigan is the “knock and announce” rule rooted both in the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution and Anglo-American common law. The rule says that, in normal cases, police with a search warrant must first knock and state their purpose, then wait a reasonable period, before forcing their way in. Most federal...

ALITO’S FIRST OPINION FAVORS MURDER DEFENDANT State Court Must Loosen Evidence Rule, Ex-Prosecutor Says BY DAVID L. HUDSON JR. In his first opinion for the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., a former federal prosecutor, overturned a South Carolina Supreme Court ruling restricting a murder defendant’s right to produce evidence that another person committed the crime. The South Carolina Supreme Court had ruled that since the state had strong forensic evidence of the defendant’s guilt, he was precluded from introducing his evidence of third-party guilt. Writing for a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court in Holmes v. South Carolina, No....

WASHINGTON, May 2 — This is the week that the Supreme Court, done with its regular argument sessions, enters the stretch run. While it is too soon for substantive appraisals of the first year of the Roberts court, it is not too soon for stylistic observations about what is clearly, in the view of lawyers who have appeared there this term, a different court. "The tone has changed," Prof. Richard J. Lazarus of the Georgetown University Law Center, where he runs the Supreme Court Institute and teaches a course on Supreme Court advocacy, said on Tuesday. In common with every...

 The stars must have been aligned that January morning in 1955 when John G. Roberts Jr. was born in Buffalo, N.Y., because almost everything thereafter led him straight to the Supreme Court of the U.S. He graduated from Harvard College, then excelled at Harvard Law School as well as in his work at the U.S. Attorney General's office. It was there that our paths first crossed, for he helped prepare briefing papers for my confirmation hearings to the Supreme Court in 1981. He was later a successful litigator and partner at the Washington firm of Hogan & Hartson. He argued...

Supreme Court justices clashed on Wednesday over how states execute killers, with one court member saying current lethal-injection drugs would not be used on cats and dogs and a second arguing that executions do not have to be pain-free. The court blocked Florida, at the last minute, from executing Clarence Hill in January, as Hill lay on a gurney with IV lines in his arms. The justices took up his case with a lively and sometimes contentious discussion about the way states carry out capital punishment. The court's ruling will determine whether inmates can file last-minute civil rights challenges claiming...

THE PRO-LIFE MOVEMENT has witnessed a stunning turnaround over the past 10 years. A decade ago, on the heels of a 1992 election season dubbed "the year of the woman," the movement was deeply engaged in the fight on Capitol Hill to stop passage of the Freedom of Choice Act, legislation that would have enshrined in law the "right" to abortion on demand at any stage of pregnancy for any reason or no reason. With the pro-abortion Clintons in the White House appointing radical abortion-rights advocates to the Supreme Court and rolling back Reagan-Bush era executive orders limiting abortion, the...

Washington, DC - Today, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed a ruling by a federal court of appeals to stand that declared public schools cannot censor the religious viewpoints of students in class assignments. The case, Baldwinsville School District v. Peck, involved a school district's censorship of a kindergartner's art poster that contained a picture of Jesus. Liberty Counsel represents Antonio Peck, the student whose poster was censored. When attending kindergarten at Baldwinsville Elementary School in Syracuse, New York, Antonio's teacher instructed the class to draw posters regarding their understanding of the environment. Antonio drew a poster depicting children holding hands...

A decent respect for the Constitution should cause the Supreme Court to reconsider some past decisionsAT THE OUTSET OF Samuel Alito's confirmation hearings, Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter asked a series of questions about the rather arcane subject of stare decisis, which is the judicial practice of following prior decisions. Eventually the questions took an odd turn, with Specter asking Alito whether he agreed that the right to abortion had special immunity from reconsideration, that is, whether it is "super-precedent." Alito parried this by declining to "get into categorizing precedents as super-precedents or super-duper precedents." That sort of terminology, Alito...

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr., like his predecessor Sandra Day O'Connor, has joined the justices' so-called "cert pool" ­-- leaving John Paul Stevens once again as the only justice not participating in the controversial case-pooling arrangement. Alito confirmed his action in response to a query from Legal Times. Justices in the pool divide up incoming certiorari petitions among their law clerks, so that one clerk produces a memorandum on each case that is then shared with all the justices in the pool. The pool, created in 1972 to cut down on duplication and cope with increased caseload, was not...

Supreme Court won't review Bush's terrorism powers By James Vicini 1 minute ago A divided Supreme Court declined on Monday to decide whether President George W. Bush has the power in the war on terrorism to order American citizens captured in the United States held in military jails without any criminal charges or a trial. By a 6-3 vote, the court sided with the Bush administration and refused to hear an appeal by Jose Padilla, who was confined in a military brig in South Carolina for more than three years after Bush designated him an "enemy combatant." The court's action...