Archive for the 'Judicial activism' Category
Bookworm on Jan 04 2012 | Filed under: Judges, Judicial activism, Lefties on Parade
As a dues paying California lawyer, I periodically receive an email from the California State Bar offering random tidbits and squiblets of news some assumes California lawyers might find interesting. The January edition intrigued me because of drive-by punditry that appeared in an ethics analysis of Judge Richard Posner’s latest decision. I wasn’t paying attention, [...]
Bookworm on Sep 13 2011 | Filed under: Free speech, Judges, Judicial activism
Do you have any spare change lying around? Yes? I thought you might. My dollar coins say “In God We Trust.” My dollar bills say “In God We Trust.” My quarters say “In God We Trust.” My dimes say “In God We Trust.” My nickels say “In God We Trust.” My pennies say “In God [...]
Bookworm on May 19 2011 | Filed under: Congress, Judges, Judicial activism
I haven’t been blogging about far Left judicial activist Goodwin Liu, but if you’ve been following the story on your own, you’ll be happy to know that the Senate Republicans successfully filibustered his nomination — a reminder, as if we need one, that the filibuster is an important tool for allowing the minority in Congress [...]
Bookworm on Nov 09 2010 | Filed under: Judges, Judicial activism
People who know me in person also know that nothing is more likely to send my blood pressure spiking than talk about judges. (To any of my readers who are in fact judges, I’m sure you’re the exception to anything nasty I might be about to say about judges.) I dislike judges, something that is [...]
Bookworm on Aug 06 2010 | Filed under: African-Americans, Economics, Israel, Judges, Judicial activism, Media matters, Race
Just random stuff that’s so good you shouldn’t miss it: Shirley Sherrod’s been on a roller coaster. Thanks to a video snippet that Andrew Breitbart posted, she got pilloried as the face of Leftist/NAACP racial intolerance. When it turned out the snippet was out of context, she got sanctified as the face of true racial [...]
Bookworm on Jul 02 2010 | Filed under: African-Americans, Feminism, Identity politics, Judges, Judicial activism, Women
Kim Priestap, who blogs at Up North Mommy, got an impassioned email from the Democratic Party, raving about Elena Kagan. Does it rave about her brains? No (although it mentions as an aside that she’s “among the best legal minds this country has to offer,” which is a depressing comment about legal minds in America). [...]
Bookworm on Jul 01 2010 | Filed under: Israel, Judges, Judicial activism
You’ve probably noticed that I’ve had nothing to say about Kagan. There is nothing to say. She’s a bright, often charming, lady from the far Left who, entirely separate from her anti-Constitutional ideology, is grossly unqualified in terms of professional experience and intellectual heft to be a Supreme Court justice. She is, in other words, [...]
Bookworm on Jun 28 2010 | Filed under: Judges, Judicial activism
The American Prospect has written a little guide for its readers explaining why Republican attacks will fall off Kagan like eggs off Teflon. You and I know that they won’t matter because of the Democratic majority, and maybe the American Prospect knows that too, because its defense is lazy. One aspect of the defense, however, [...]
Bookworm on Jun 09 2010 | Filed under: Judges, Judicial activism
Bookworm on May 19 2010 | Filed under: Judges, Judicial activism
Gentleman of the old school might confirm Kagan. Americans who believe in the Constitution and its freedoms must not: Those [traditional Senate] rules [for confirming Supreme Court Justices] might be summarized as follows: (1) The president is entitled to an appointee who generally shares his views (i.e., a liberal president is entitled to a liberal [...]
Bookworm on May 10 2010 | Filed under: Judges, Judicial activism
To no one’s surprise, Obama nominated Elena Kagan to fill the opening on the Supreme Court. Many have pointed to the fact that she’s never served as a judge before as one of the main reasons Obama did so — she has no paper trail. Since I have a generally low estimation of judges at [...]
Bookworm on Oct 21 2009 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Climate change, Judges, Judicial activism, Media matters, United Nations
Sadie sent me a great trio of stories today, and I want to pass them on to you: The UN wants to make sure that the Western nation’s efforts to protect themselves against cross-dressing jihadists (you know, those guys who don burqas to hide bombs) don’t offend transgendered individuals (who may or may not be [...]
Bookworm on Aug 03 2009 | Filed under: Abortion, Gay marriage, Judges, Judicial activism
Whether you are for or against gay marriage, Robert George issues a sound warning about the dangers that flow from letting the Supreme Court get its hands on the issue: It would be disastrous for the justices to do so [rule against California's Prop. 8 and, by extension, make gay marriage the law of the [...]
Bookworm on May 26 2009 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Identity politics, Judges, Judicial activism
I keep seeing headlines all over the place to the effect that Republican Senators will be afraid to vote against the first proposed Hispanic justice. This may certainly be true for Senators, who are a weaselly, unprincipled bunch, I suspect, though, that for many voters Obama himself is causing the bloom to depart the identity [...]
Bookworm on Nov 21 2008 | Filed under: Abortion, Barack Obama, Free speech, Judges, Judicial activism
Okay, I admit it. I’m easy. Call me “winsome” and write a thoughtful, well-informed, interesting article about the continuing resonance abortion has on the political process — even if it did not serve as the centerpiece of this last political campaign — and of course I’m going to link to the article. In this case, [...]
Bookworm on Nov 20 2008 | Filed under: Judges, Judicial activism
I’m sorry blogging has been so light today, but it’s been a go-go-go kind of day that’s left little time for anything but, well, going. I did have a thought today, which I’ll share with you. Most lawyers I know have little that’s complimentary to say about the average trial court judge, a feeling that [...]
Bookworm on Nov 19 2008 | Filed under: Gay marriage, Judges, Judicial activism
A few months ago, the California Supreme Court overruled the will of the California voters and announced that gay marriage was a fundamental right. The voters responded by changing the California Constitution to state that, in California, marriage is between one man and one woman. As you know, if it were up to me, I’d [...]
Bookworm on Jun 26 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Gun control, Judges, Judicial activism, Strict constructionism
Just in time for July 4th, the Supreme Court confirmed that the Second Amendment says what it means and means what it says. I personally am not now, nor have I ever been, a gun owner. I keep meaning to go the local firing range and take lessons (operating on the principle that, since I’m [...]
Bookworm on Jun 19 2008 | Filed under: Crime and punishment, Judges, Judicial activism
The alternative title for this post would have been: You’re in prison, not a hotel. From Best of the Web Today: He Wouldn’t Hurt a Fly Henry Boateng is an inmate in a Massachusetts State prison. He went to court arguing that his rights were being violated. Yesterday, a federal judge agreed: Boateng, who has [...]
Bookworm on May 29 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Iran, Iraq, Jihad, John McCain, Judges, Judicial activism
I’ve been finding very disturbing the intense hostility that conservatives direct against John McCain. So much so that I wrote a very long rant on the subject, which American Thinker was kind enough to publish and which I reprint below: Perhaps because I’m a neocon, and not a dyed-in-the-wool, native-born conservative, I look at John [...]
Bookworm on May 23 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Gay marriage, John McCain, Judges, Judicial activism
Marriage is not, and never has been, a personal right. In Western society, it operates at two levels. First, it functions at a religious level. This is a deeply personal level, because in every religion, marriage is, or is equivalent to, a sacrament. In America, you have the Constitutional right to be married in the [...]
Bookworm on May 20 2008 | Filed under: Gay marriage, Judges, Judicial activism
Dennis Prager has a good column discussing what will be, in his view, the ramifications of the California Supreme Court decision creating a new right out of thin air. One of the points he makes is that, in the future, to avoid charges of discrimination, homosexual relationships will have to be promoted equally with heterosexual [...]
Bookworm on May 16 2008 | Filed under: Gay marriage, Judges, Judicial activism
Cliff Thier talks about the far-reaching implications of the Court’s (and the government’s) “fundamental rights” language. The WSJ’s editors take on the election ramifications of the decision — a bit of unexpected, and undeserved, good luck for Republicans in a terribly managed campaign season. As was to be expected, National Review quickly put together a [...]
Bookworm on Mar 12 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Judges, Judicial activism, Law
Edward Whelan, after pointing out that a President Obama would have the potential to appoint up to six new Supreme Court justices, looks at Obama’s rhetoric about the Constitution and the law, and uses that information to explain clearly what type of justices Obama would appoint: [I]n setting forth the sort of judges he would [...]
Bookworm on Jan 29 2008 | Filed under: Abortion, Free speech, Judges, Judicial activism
The Ninth Circuit, which is the laughing stock of the federal judiciary because it is overruled so often, did something bizarre yesterday: it issued a Constitutionally correct decision. Not only that, the decision meant that a citizens’ group will be able to engage in free speech that is contrary to the type of speech the [...]
