Supreme Court

Justices order Obamacare back to court

Sheila Liaugminas | 27 November 2012

Had President Obama lost the election, it would have been eliminated and replaced by new healthcare reform. But his win doesn’t assure that his signature legislation will survive intact.

About that Supreme Court Obamacare ruling

Sheila Liaugminas | 29 June 2012

Nearly all the experts predicted it would wind up a 5-4 decision and that Anthony Kennedy would be the swing vote. They got it half right.

College students challenge speech codes

Sheila Liaugminas | 18 March 2011

When you are declared in violation of a speech code in America, do you have the right to speak up and challenge it?

A cause the ACLU won’t push to the high court

Sheila Liaugminas | 21 August 2010

The public display of the Ten Commandments. Maybe they’re noticing that the Supreme Court building displays Moses and the Ten Commandments, along with other important historical symbols of law and lawgivers.

Justice Kagan style

Sheila Liaugminas | 10 August 2010

Now that Elena Kagan has been sworn in as the newest Supreme Court justice, some of the media are musing over what we might expect over the next session or so. Interesting, how they’re framing the issues…

Kagan’s quagmire

Sheila Liaugminas | 14 July 2010

There’s no question Elena Kagan will be confirmed by the Senate to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. But there are plenty of questions about her political ideology and its likely influence on the Court, questions she either dodged artfully, or ones that weren’t asked at all during that show they called a ‘hearing’…

Supreme Court’s ‘Big Monday’

Sheila Liaugminas | 28 June 2010

For Court watchers, this was expected to be a big day. As it wrapped up its session for summer break and released its final decisions, the Court made news early on, while the Senate opened confirmation hearings on the newest court nominee...

Kagan’s confirmation hearings

Sheila Liaugminas | 28 June 2010

Add this to the spectator sports going on right now in exciting arenas….World Cup. Wimbledon. Prelude to the Tour de France. Buildup to the MLB All-Star Break. US Open to the British Open. And now, finally, the Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan begin. Okay, most people don’t care. But we journalists must, and must understand the players and the stakes.

Sex, softball and the Supreme Court

Sheila Liaugminas | 15 May 2010

This is not helping the media image of ridiculous gossip-mongers, nor is it serving the causes of sensibility, human dignity……or girls’ softball.

Stolen cross makes exactly what point?

Sheila Liaugminas | 12 May 2010

Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that the Mojave Desert war memorial cross stays, overturning claims by an anti-Christians that its presence gave offense and (beating the drum with a hole in it again), that it violated the church/state separation clause. The Court’s corrective should have put an end to that dispute.

Cross stays, Court rules

Sheila Liaugminas | 28 April 2010

This post should be called ‘Battle after battle’. First the ones that take the lives of our Armed Forces in active duty. Then the ones that take issue with the crosses in memorials that honor the service of the fallen.

How about ‘most qualified jurist’?

Sheila Liaugminas | 22 April 2010

President Obama is looking for the most choice candidate to fill the upcoming Supreme Court vacancy. That means many things to him, as reports show…

‘The SOTU has degenerated’

Sheila Liaugminas | 10 March 2010

The Supreme Court being a usually quietly deliberative body, couldn’t exactly hold press conferences after President Obama made unprecedented (and unpresidential) remarks harshly rebuking the High Court in Obama’s last SOTU address. The most we got was a camera shot of Justice Samuel Alito silently shaking his head and mouthing the words ‘not true’. But now, after due diligence, Chief Justice Roberts is talking, and taking Obama to task.