Was there racial bias in the jury rooms of Ferguson and New York's Staten Island? We’ll probably never know — and if we did, it wouldn’t change the outcome in the cases tied to the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
Read More »Commentary: Why CIA interrogators won’t face trial for torture
Serious crimes were committed. They’re going to go unpunished.
Read More »Commentary: Free speech in the age of Facebook and gangsta rap
Free speech doesn’t permit you to make a true threat against the safety of another person. But what’s a true threat? The Supreme Court has considered this First Amendment question in the past, but now it’s taking it up in the age of Facebook and gangsta rap — and the answer may well be different to fit a different era.
Read More »Commentary: Court may kill Obamacare to save same-sex marriage
If Justice Kennedy issues an important liberal decision — in the case of same-sex marriage, possibly the most important one of his career — he will also try to maintain his conservative bona fides with a corresponding conservative decision.
Read More »Commentary: Two Supreme Court cases highlight divide on statutory interpretation
Two cases taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court illustrate how policy and law constantly interact for a court deeply divided about the nature of statutory interpretation.
Read More »Commentary: Class action details draw Supreme Court’s interest
When the U.S. Supreme Court takes up an important question of how these class actions will proceed, as it is doing currently, it's worth taking notice of what the court is doing — and why.
Read More »Commentary: Supreme Court just isn’t ready for gay marriages
The court made it very clear in June 2013 that it was in no rush to announce a constitutional right to gay marriage.
Tagged with: same-sex marriage U.S. Supreme Court
Read More »Commentary: Obamacare has an up-and-down day in federal court
Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the water, the judges in Washington took another big chomp out of the Affordable Care Act.
Tagged with: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Read More »Commentary: Gays have constitutional rights, the pill doesn’t
The difference between requiring federal contractors not to discriminate against gay people and a religious exemption from providing contraception insurance is the difference between the privilege of getting a federal contract and government coercion.
Read More »Commentary: Court conservatives keep the faith in Hobby Lobby
In the U.S. Supreme Court's much-anticipated Hobby Lobby case, swing Justice Anthony Kennedy tried to cut the unborn baby in half.
Tagged with: Religious Freedom U.S. Supreme Court
Read More »Commentary: Justices don’t want their smartphones under search
The court held that digital information stored on a mobile phone may not be read by police without a warrant as part of a search incident to arrest.
Tagged with: privacy
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