Today’s conservative Roberts Court is a bastion of First Amendment freedom as was the liberal Warren Court half a century ago. But the winners are different. Establishment insiders win today whereas outsiders won most often during the Warren years. On its 200th birthday in 1991, the First Amendment had developed into a powerful shield against government abuse of outsiders, … [Read more...] about Bill of Rights – Well-heeled win today’s First Amendment disputes
Warren Court
Originalism vs. a living Constitution
Is the Constitution dead or alive? The late Justice Antonin Scalia, long the chief advocate of originalism on the Supreme Court, was unequivocal. “The constitution that I interpret is not living but dead,” he said in a 2008 speech. His counterpart, the late Justice William J. Brennan Jr., intellectual leader of the Warren Court, was equally insistent it was a … [Read more...] about Originalism vs. a living Constitution
The Supreme Court is losing legitimacy
The Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade has resulted in the steepest drop in respect for the U.S. Supreme Court in almost a century – the steepest since the Roosevelt court packing crisis of 1937. James L. Gibson, a political science professor at Washington University and national expert on the subject, wrote in September that the Dobbs v. Jackson decision … [Read more...] about The Supreme Court is losing legitimacy