Thursday, May 22, 2008

WITHER JUSTICE KENNEDY?

Last year the Supreme Court issued 68 written opinions, 24 decided 5-4, with Justice Kennedy in the majority of all of them. Indeed Kennedy was in the majority of all but two of the opinions issued last year. Quite a batting average.

This year, with 35 written opinions issued so far, there has been one decided 5-4.

While Kennedy has been as dominant as ever, his swing vote on the 5-4 decisions has not been needed.

The NY Times has the article
HERE

The article also has these startling criticisms of the court and the Chief Justice by none other than Conservative Hero (the Times calls him an "Icon") Judge Richard Posner:

"Judge Richard A. Posner, the conservative icon who sits on the federal appeals court in Chicago, offers some pointed and unusually personal criticism of Chief Justice Roberts in his new book, “How Judges Think,” published this year by Harvard University Press. The chief justice’s self-description during his confirmation hearing as a simple baseball umpire might have been a “tactical error” for one who evidently “aspires to remake significant areas of constitutional law,” Judge Posner writes, adding:
“The tension between what he said at his confirmation hearing and what he is doing as a justice is a blow to Roberts’s reputation for candor and a further debasement of the already debased currency of the testimony of nominees at judicial confirmation hearings.”


Stern words indeed.

Meanwhile, ASA David Ranck has some new emails posted on his blog HERE.
In all honesty we couldn't exactly follow the import of the posted documents, but then, we've been known to get an early start on a long weekend before.

So enjoy another Memorial Day long weekend.
And then comes the Tuesday disaster after the long weekend. How well have our chief judges prepared this time? The proof as they say, is in the length of the lines on Tuesday.

See You Tuesday, tanned, rested and ready for another trial.


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