Free Republic

JUST IN - U.S. Supreme Court has voted to strike down Roe vs. Wade, an initial draft majority opinion by Justice Alito shows.

Paul (Mirengoff) has already noted one of the strangest incidents in last night’s debate, when Donald Trump repeatedly talked about judges signing “bills.” Before the debate fades into history, let’s go to the tape. It’s short: (the tape will not play) Three times, Trump says his sister and Sam Alito signed the same bill. As Paul politely put it, judges don’t sign bills. I would say, how did this knucklehead get through the eighth grade? We are faced with a likely presidential nominee who has no idea what a bill is, as opposed to a judicial opinion. I never imagined...

According to sources who watch the inner workings of the federal government, a smackdown of Barack Obama by the U.S. Supreme Court may be inevitable. Ever since Obama assumed the office of President, critics have hammered him on a number of Constitutional issues. Critics have complained that much, if not all of Obama’s major initiatives run headlong into Constitutional roadblocks on the power of the federal government. Obama certainly did not help himself in the eyes of the Court when he used the venue of the State of the Union address early in the year to publicly flog the Court...

When Massachusetts elected Senator Scott Brown it was the Scott heard round the world. When Barack Obama attacked the Supreme Court of these United States for upholding Constitutional Law in his State of the Union lecture, it was Obama being a 3rd world thug. When Justice Sam Alito responded to Obama with "NOT TRUE", as the maniacal mob of Democrats were jeering and having bodily secretions like at a cock fight, it was an American Patriot in Sam Alito rekindling the words, "Don't Tread on Me!" This is not about protocols in what Obama did in smashing the decorum of...

Justice Samuel Alito was the featured keynote speaker at the American Spectator’s annual Robert L. Bartley dinner at Washington’s Mandarin Oriental hotel last night. Along with taking a crack at the new vice-president elect (h/t Politico), he also joked about the famous 2008 Obama campaign mantra of “Hope and Change.” (Eyeblast.tv has the audio uploaded here:)

In what may turn out to be the most important Second Amendment ruling since 1939’s hideously misinterpreted Miller - and maybe the most important ruling on the Amendment in American history, the Supreme Court has granted cert to Parker v. D.C. and will be taking up the case in this session. Natch, Glenn Reynolds has tonsalinks. My first take (I have to admit I’m shaking in my boots at the negative possibilities here, given that I thought the SCOTUS would dodge this one) is that the Court will find an individual right, but do so in such a way that...

After calling John G. Roberts Jr. two years ago last month to ask him to serve on the Supreme Court, President Bush hung up and told aides, "I just offered the job to a great, smart, 50-year-old lawyer." The emphasis, of course, was on "50-year-old" -- Bush's way of saying he had just made a choice that would help shape the Supreme Court for three or four decades to come. Or so he thought. Roberts's seizure during a Maine vacation this week may not mean anything in terms of his longevity on the court but it certainly offered a reminder...

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: President and Mrs. Bush are spending the weekend at their ranch in Crawford, TX. They will return to Washington on time for President Bush to participate in the swearing-in of new Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke at the U.S. central bank in Washington. The Fed said in a statement that the ceremony was scheduled for 10 a.m. (1500 GMT). Mr. Bernanke's acceptance remarks will be his first public comments since he took office. Former Chairman Alan Greenspan, members of Congress and the cabinet, and agency officials were among the invited guests, the Fed said. Fed...

Congratulations, Sam Alito! And congratulations, U.S.A.: It now looks like we have four out of nine justices who will not legislate from the bench. But we still have a structural problem in our federal judiciary, one that is hard to solve. For anyone who believes in our natural tendency toward sin, the Supreme Court has always been a troubling institution. The anti-federalist New York Journal complained in 1788, during the debate about whether to ratify the Constitution, that some justices would twist the law as they saw fit: "They will not confine themselves to any fixed or established rules." The...

Last February, as rumors swirled about the failing health of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, a team of conservative grass-roots organizers, public relations specialists and legal strategists met to prepare a battle plan to ensure any vacancies were filled by like-minded jurists. The team recruited conservative lawyers to study the records of 18 potential nominees — including Judges John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr. — and trained more than three dozen lawyers across the country to respond to news reports on the president's eventual pick. "We boxed them in," one lawyer present during the strategy meetings said...

WITH SAMUEL ALITO ABOUT to be confirmed, it's time to take stock of this particular episode in the making of a justice, the nation's 110th. Bear in mind that Alito was not President Bush's first choice to succeed Sandra Day O'Connor. The estimable John Roberts was, but when Chief Justice William Rehnquist died, Bush decided to redesignate Roberts for the center seat. That meant finding another nominee for O'Connor's seat.As it happened, Bush surprised the world by naming White House Counsel Harriet Miers. The Miers nomination proved a major blunder. Bush had opted for a person he knew well who...

WASHINGTON - Senate GOP leaders plan to confirm Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito early next week after dealing with a filibuster threat from Democratic die-hards who worry that the conservative judge would swing the court too far to the right.A final vote making the New Jersey jurist the nation’s 110th Supreme Court justice was scheduled for Tuesday morning, only hours before President Bush begins his State of the Union address to Congress and the nation, if Alito’s bipartisan supporters succeed in rounding up 60 votes to cut off debate on Monday.<SNIP>A Democratic senator who plans to vote against Alito’s confirmation,...

Only days separate Sam Alito from being confirmed as the next Supreme Court Justice. (YEA!) Many years ago a nominee of his caliber, with his knowledge and respect for the constitution and the rule of law, would have been graciously welcomed by both sides. In today’s political climate however, the very thought of his presence on the court has one side of the political arm so seething mad, they're beside themselves. Why? You see, for decades the majority of members on the court reflected a corrupt understanding of the founder’s intent. This led to numerous misinterpretations of the law and...

Contact: Press Office 202-863-8614  “To even suggest a filibuster against a nominee as qualified as Judge Alito reflects a philosophy so out of touch that it’s bordering on reckless. The judicial confirmation process, particularly one for the nation’s highest court, should be insulated from such thoughtless bomb throwing in an effort to remain relevant. One can't help but wonder if the consummate candidate was for Judge Alito, before he was against him.”-Tracey Schmitt, RNC Press Secretary SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA) CALLS IN ALITO FILIBUSTER FROM SWITZERLAND“Sen. John Kerry Has Decided To Support A Filibuster To Block The Nomination Of Judge Samuel...

(Washington - AP) — US Senator Jim Jeffords says he will oppose the nomination of Samuel Alito to the US Supreme Court. Jeffords says that while he believes Alito is qualified to serve on the court, he does not believe the country would be served by his judicial philosophy. The independent senator says that he does not believe Alito fully appreciates the limits on the power of the presidency.

Salazar's Splutterings [Wendy Long 01/26 12:18 PM] Ken Salazar, who has been completely neutered as a political force by his own scheming, twisting, waffling, and blowing whatever way he wrongly thinks a political wind might be blowing, is obviously frustrated. What would be the metaphor? Neutered cat trapped in corner? Never mind.... Salazar is stuck. He can't filibuster Judge Alito, because that would be political suicide with the great majority of Colorado voters who, like the great majority of Americans, want Senators to do their jobs and vote on judicial nominees. But, unfortunately for him, he chose to make his...

Senator Joe Biden (D-Del.) believes Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominees should be abandoned. Biden says the humiliation he and other Democrats suffered at the hands of Roberts and Alito have left him feeling depressed. “These judges are really smart,” complained Biden. “We can’t fake ‘em or shake ‘em. We’re wasting everyone’s time.” Biden told NBC's "Today" show he’d like to see a system wherein the nominee is tied up in a sack and each senator is allowed one whack with a baseball bat. “This would play to our strengths,” said Biden. “If the nominee survives, he gets to...

Judge Samuel Alito Jr., whose entire history suggests that he holds extreme views about the expansive powers of the presidency and the limited role of Congress, will almost certainly be a Supreme Court justice soon. His elevation will come courtesy of a president whose grandiose vision of his own powers threatens to undermine the nation's basic philosophy of government — and a Senate that seems eager to cooperate by rolling over and playing dead.It is hard to imagine a moment when it would be more appropriate for senators to fight for a principle. Even a losing battle would draw the...

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito won commitments from a majority of senators Tuesday, assuring his eventual confirmation and making a rightward tilt of the court likely.  On the same day Alito won a 10-8 party-line approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee, five Republicans announced that they would vote for his confirmation in the full Senate, pushing him over 50 votes in the 100-member chamber. Fifty Senate Republicans, plus one Democrat, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, have publicly committed to vote for Alito through their representatives, interviews with The Associated Press or news releases. No Republicans have opposed him and...

WASHINGTON - Sen. Rick Santorum's leading Democratic challenger, Pennsylvania Treasurer Bob Casey, announced Tuesday that he endorses Judge Samuel Alito's confirmation to the Supreme Court.For weeks, Republicans have called Casey "Silent Bob" and pressed him to say whether he supports Alito's confirmation. Casey and Alito have a family connection because Alito, who serves on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Philadelphia, sided with Casey's father, the late Gov. Bob Casey, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The case challenged a state law requiring women seeking abortions to notify their spouses."I do not agree with everything that Judge Samuel...