Are concerns about Supreme Court justices’ ethics an old problem, a new one, political gamesmanship, or something more serious? Yes to all of it.
Winning on Election Day is the best path for any political party to remake the Supreme Court.
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When it comes to the Supreme Court, progressives are now in the position where conservatives found themselves for many years. They’re on the outside looking in.
Lawyers write too much. That’s why the Supreme Court and other U.S. courts impose word limits on them.
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Lawyers submitting briefs to the Supreme Court in the Trump Colorado ballot case must file a ‘certificate of word count.’ Why? As one judge put it, lawyers’ briefs are ‘too long, too long, too long.’
Will the federal law prohibiting the possession of firearms by someone subject to a domestic violence restraining order survive?
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The Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate affirmative action programs sent shock waves across the US and is expected to impact racial diversity throughout society.
President Lyndon Johnson delivers the commencement address at Howard University on June 4, 1965.
Travis Knoll, University of North Carolina – Charlotte
President Lyndon Johnson’s commencement address at Howard University in 1965 offered a compelling argument on the need for affirmative action. His policies have been challenged ever since.
Activists call for ethics reform in the Supreme Court at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on May 2, 2023.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Courts have no army or police force to enforce their decisions. Their power rests on their legitimacy in the public eye. How does scandal affect that?
Thurgood Marshall, left, had a very different view of the purpose of the Supreme Court than his successor, Clarence Thomas.
U.S. Supreme Court via Wikimedia Commons
Throughout Thomas’ tenure on the court, he has pushed the Supreme Court to replace Marshall’s vision with one more amenable to the powerful than the powerless.
Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas speaks at the Heritage Foundation in 2021.
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Most Americans believe that racial inequality is a significant problem. They also believe that affirmative action programs aimed at reducing those inequalities are a problematic tool.
The Respect for Marriage Act will reverse the 1996 law that defines marriage as one between heterosexual couples.
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The Respect for Marriage Act provides exemptions for religious groups, excludes people with disabilities – and could still lead to state-level discrimination laws.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas at the White House on Oct. 26, 2020.
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Black conservative Clarence Thomas’ improbable rise as a powerful US Supreme Court justice today was unimaginable during his controversial confirmation hearings in 1991.
The U.S. Supreme Court Building is shown in September 2022.
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Major Supreme Court decisions and reversals last term are leaving some people, including this scholar on constitutional politics, wondering – what’s going on with the court?
The U.S. Supreme Court is seen behind security fencing on June 28, 2022.
(AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
The combination of crumbling democratic norms in the U.S. Supreme Court appointments process and an ideological court out of step with mainstream America raises questions of how it could be reformed.
A demonstrator outside the Supreme Court building expresses fear that other precedents will fall, too.
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
The justices who decided to overturn the abortion rights precedent of Roe v. Wade explained their reasoning, and signaled other precedents could be reversed as well.
A U.S. Supreme Court decision released on Jun 23, 2022, loosens state restrictions on carrying concealed firearms.
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There is value in observing legal precedent, but sometimes circumstances, logic or judges’ views determine it’s time to overturn it.
Lifetime tenure has pushed the average age of judicial nominees down as presidents appoint younger justices in hopes they will serve for many decades.
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Unlike in most countries, US Supreme Court justices enjoy life tenure. Some legal scholars believe that centuries-old custom, meant to protect judicial independence, no longer serves the public.
The Supreme Court has pushed back three challenges to the Affordable Care Act.
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