Free Republic

... Earlier this year, Trump released a list of eleven potential Supreme Court nominees, later adding ten more names. He has said he will definitely choose his first nominee from those individuals. They are all known as conservative in outlook, but the vetting should go much deeper into their judicial philosophy. In his November 17th Wall Street Journal article, Georgetown University law professor Randy Barnett points out that there should be two crucial desiderata for Trump’s Supreme Court nominations. One is whether the individual adheres to an Originalist view of the Constitution. That is to say, trying to find the...

When the Federalist Society opens its three-day National Lawyers Convention on Thursday, the official topic of conversation will be “the jurisprudence and legacy of Justice Scalia.” Even before his arrival at the Supreme Court in 1986, Antonin Scalia was known for his commitment to “originalism.” As a federal circuit court judge, he rejected the approach of divining the “Framers’ intention,” as Raoul Berger and Robert Bork had advocated. Instead, Scalia insisted that judges seek the public meaning of the text at the time it was enacted. I’m pleased to see that President-elect Trump is echoing Scalia. Last week Mr. Trump’s...

Georgia’s two senators said they will consider Supreme Court nominees based on their individual merits in the new year, effectively rejecting a strategy some Republican colleagues have floated should Hillary Clinton win the presidency on Tuesday.

Some GOP, conservatives, and liberty lovers this election season have convinced themselves that they can simply opt out by throwing their vote to some 3rd party or writing in their preferred primary candidate who lost to salve their wounded egos. They say that they don't like Clinton or Trump and that even if Clinton is corrupt that Trump is more dangerous because he soils the virginity of conservatism or some such fanciful thing as if we have not supported many candidates that were far from conservative purists. I've personally supported every Republican candidate for President since I was voting age save one...

Many years ago, journalist Michael Kinsley secured a place in our history when he observed that “a faux pas is when you blurt out the truth in Washington.” Last Friday, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg committed a faux pas in a New York Times interview, blurting out the truth that she is intensely partisan and decides major cases on ideological grounds. Federal judges are supposed to keep out of the political mud, but Justice Ginsburg opined that Donald Trump would be a national disaster. “I can’t imagine what the country would be with Donald Trump as our president,” she...

Breaking news by Stu Varney. Supreme Court was tied 4 to 4, so the lower court decision stands against Obama's Immigration plan.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/supreme-court-weakens-protections-against-unconstitutional-p?utm_term=.bsYgvzddN#.tlERGMqqX Supreme Court Weakens Protections Against Unconstitutional Police Stops The 5-3 decision prompts a sharp rebuke from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who writes that those targeted by police “warn us that no one can breathe in this atmosphere.” Originally posted on Jun. 20, 2016, at 12:16 p.m. Updated on Jun. 20, 2016, at 1:07 p.m. BuzzFeed News Reporter Chris Geidner/BuzzFeed WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday made it easier for police to get evidence admitted in a prosecution even if that evidence was obtained after an unconstitutional stop. In a 5-3 decision, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the court that...

The Supreme Court Monday morning ruled in favor of a death row inmate in a case concerning race discrimination in jury selection.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest raised eyebrows during today´s press briefing by suggesting that Democrats would be “justified” to take revenge on the GOP blockade against Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland by blocking a possible GOP president’s nomination for the president´s full term. Earnest was recalling a suggestion President Obama made in an interview with Fox News Sunday in which he said if Republicans continued blocking Garland until he left office then “it is almost impossible to expect” that Democrats wouldn’t retaliate if given the opportunity. "What´s to stop Democrats who are in charge of the Senate when a

The Obama administration has reached out to all 100 Senate offices in its effort to convince the Senate to hold a debate and confirmation vote on President Obama's upcoming nominee to the Supreme Court, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Friday. However, Earnest would not reveal how soon Obama will put forward a candidate or discuss how many people the president is considering, and also wouldn't confirm reports about individual potential justices supposedly being vetted. "I just have to manage expectations here," Earnest said. "I do not at any point expect to be in a position to confirm any...

President Barack Obama called Democrats and Republicans to the White House Tuesday to discuss election-year standoff over the vacancy on the Supreme Court. Neither side showed signs of budging. In an awkward Oval Office sit-down that lasted less than an hour, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, delivered their case for refusing to consider any nominee to the highest court during the throes of a presidential election. Their Democratic counterparts, meanwhile, resolved to ´continue beating the drum,´ Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid told reporters after the meeting. The gathering was the first time

The Wall Street Journal reports that the White House is vetting Nevada’s Republican governor Brian Sandoval for the Supreme Court. On Sunday night, Governor Sandoval sat at the president’s head table at a White House dinner in Washington. The next day, the governor requested and secured a meeting with Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate minority leader from his home state. Reid has put Sandoval on the short list of recommended candidates he has sent to the White House. The fix may be in, and it would be horrific news for conservatives: Sandoval is the most liberal of the country’s 29...

The sudden death of conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has added new, crisis-level urgency to an already tense presidential race. Almost as quickly as he announced that he will not attend Justice Scalia's funeral, Obama declared that he will, as a lame-duck president, nominate Scalia's replacement. If his appointments of justices Elena Kagan and Sonya Sotomayor are any guide, he will base his appointment on gender, ethnicity, and most of all on dependable liberalism. Obama's nominee is highly unlikely to be a supporter of free speech, free markets, religious freedom, gun rights, strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, family...

(CNN) -- To hear Jackie Barden and David Wheeler describe their lives today is a master class in hope. On December 14, 2012, Barden's youngest son, 7-year-old Daniel, and Wheeler's son, 6-year-old Ben, were among those killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. "(My husband) Mark and I still have a great life, and we really have to remember that," Barden said, adding that their two children bring the family an enormous amount of love and strength. "We are fortunate with what we have with the two of them." .... "Our families deserve that day in court," said...

President Obama headed up Pennsylvania Avenue Friday afternoon to pay his respects to the-late Justice Antonin Scalia, who is lying in repose at the Supreme Court. Obama and first lady Michelle are attending an event organized by court officials to honor Scalia, who was the longest-serving judge on the court when he died Saturday at a ranch in Texas. The public can also pay their respects to the conservative icon until Friday evening.

I predict the President will nominate DOJ AG Loretta Lynch for Scalia's chair. If the Republican Congress or presidential candidates resist this choice, the President is giving Hillary fodder for rallying the black vote and bashing the Republicans as 'THE RACIST PARTY' and this would be a continuous media feeding frenzy throughout the election!

Under a Trump presidency, Americans would lose their gun rights and religious liberty and see abortion rights dramatically expanded, Cruz said Monday morning on Fox News.

Although rare, 4-4 ties are hardly unheard-of—justices do recuse themselves from time to time. A split decision effectively upholds the ruling of the lower court (presumably a state supreme court). In the event of such a tie, the court typically issues what's known as a per curiam decision. The opinion in such a decision is issued under the court's name, as opposed to consisting of a majority and a minority opinion. Justices, however, may attach dissenting opinions to the per curiam decision if they like—as happened in Bush v. Gore. When a 4-4 deadlock does occur, the case is not...

Hard-wired into the Supreme Court’s DNA is the notion that the court doesn’t reach out to decide a constitutional issue if it can resolve a case by interpreting a statute. “The court will not anticipate a question of constitutional law in advance of the necessity of deciding it,” is how Justice Louis D. Brandeis expressed this principle of judicial restraint 80 years ago in a concurring opinion to which the court often makes reference. Wow. The “guidance” is the memo that established the deferred-action program, issued in November 2014 by Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security. The Take Care...

Liberals won't like it. If Ted Cruz is elected president, he has big plans for the Supreme Court -- namely, picking extremely conservative candidates to fill any vacancies among the nine justices. In an interview with Bloomberg, the Senator and former solicitor general from Texas said that Republicans are generally bad at picking nominees for the high court, and that he'd be different. "Unlike many of the other candidates, I will be willing to spend the capital to ensure that every Supreme Court nominee that I put on the court is a principled judicial conservative," Cruz said. As solicitor general,...