Judge Kavanaugh and the Public’s Health: Existing & Emerging Challenges
President Donald Trump’s recent nomination of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh as Associate Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court from a list of potential candidates has ignited immediate support and criticism from conservatives and liberals respectively. An undergrad and law alum at Yale University, Judge Kavanaugh clerked for the departing Justice Anthony Kennedy, practiced law privately [...]
NIFLA Decision Affirms First Amendment’s Purpose: Protect Minority Viewpoints
An inherent feature of democracy is majority rule. And with that, as you may recall from civics, comes the risk of tyranny of the majority—the danger that a controlling popular viewpoint will oppress opposing views in society. Foreseeing this, the Framers set up a number of constitutional mechanisms to protect minority interests. Among these early institutional protections [...]
US President Donald Trump on Monday nominated Brett M. Kavanaugh of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to the US Supreme Court to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who will retire on July 31st. Kennedy was nominated in 1987 by then-president Ronald Reagan. He was seen as having a relatively neutral ideology and methodology of interpretation. Throughout his [...]
The retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy this week represents the end of an era and the beginning of the entrenchment of a more conservative Supreme Court, probably for years to come. That much seems clear. But there are actually many more sides to Justice Kennedy’s retirement than that simple statement implies. Justice Kennedy was nominated [...]
Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement announcement yesterday rightfully set off shock waves across the country. For the past three decades, Justice Kennedy has gone from one of the more moderate justices who could sometimes swing an important vote, to the lone decider on monumental issues from gay marriage (siding with the liberals) to campaign finance and [...]
US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement Wednesday, effective July 31. In a letter to President Donald Trump, Kennedy wrote: For a member of the legal profession it is the highest of honors to serve on this Court. Please permit me by this letter to express my profound gratitude for having had the [...]
Supreme Court rules public sector unions cannot compel payments from nonmembers
The US Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in Janus vs. AFSCME that public sector unions cannot collect what the court calls “agency fee i.e., a percentage of the full union dues” from non-members. In a 5-4 ruling, the court, citing the First Amendment, held that the payment of agency fees forces nonmembers to “endorse ideas they [...]
Supreme Court strikes down California crisis pregnancy center regulations
The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a regulation requiring crisis pregnancy centers to give women certain information concerning free or low-cost abortion services and disclose if the center was unlicensed to provide medical services was unconstitutional. In a 5-4 ruling in NIFLA v. Becerra , the court decided that the California Reproductive Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care, and Transparency [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Tuesday in Trump v. Hawaii that President Donald Trump’s proclamation restricting entry from particular Muslim-majority countries was within in his authority. The court also found that plaintiffs challenging the proclamation were unlikely to succeed on their claim that the ban violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Chief [...]
Supreme Court rules warrant generally needed to track cell phone location
The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Friday in Carpenter v. United States that police must generally obtain a warrant in order to obtain cell phone location data. This case arose from petitioner Timothy Carpenter’s conviction for armed robbery, for which he was sentenced to 116 days in prison. At trial, the prosecution offered evidence of [...]
