In a recent opinion piece featured in The New York Times, retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer extended a plea for fellowship among his former colleagues. His sentiment underscores a crucial aspect of the judiciary often overshadowed by the gravity of its decision making: interpersonal relationships across the bench. Ginsburg & Breyer Breyer, [...]
The recent unveiling of the Supreme Court's Code of Conduct seems to based, uncontroversially, on the existing Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges. The Court's code, mirroring the structure and canons of its judicial counterpart, appears as a set of guidelines, with the exclusion of rules more applicable to lower courts. The code largely aligns [...]
Nine Justices make up the current Supreme Court: one Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices. The Honorable John Roberts, Jr. is the 17th Chief Justice of the United States, and there have been 104 Associate Justices in the Court’s history. Supreme Court justices serve lifetime appointments after being nominated by the president and approved by [...]
Rumors of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s possible retirement have shifted to 2018 after news of him telling applicants for the 2018 term that he is considering retirement began circulating in early July. Kennedy is the most senior Associate Justice on the Court and is often the swing vote on the Court’s 5-4 decisions, meaning his retirement [...]
The filibuster led by the Senate Democrats was ultimately futile when the Republicans retaliated by triggering the nuclear option to end the bitter battle over Scalia’s vacant seat and confirm Neil Gorsuch as the next Supreme Court Justice in a 54 to 45 vote last Friday. Gorsuch was sworn in as the 113th Justice on [...]
Dahlia Lithwick from Slate posted another great piece yesterday on whether Republican-appointed Justices should or should not attend the State of the Union address. To read the piece click here.