Supreme Court

Morning Must Reads: Brave Face

Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson –Afghan President Hamid Karzai is in Washington today for meetings with President Obama. Our colleague Tony Karon writes it will be a tense debate over when and how to strike a deal with the Taliban. Marc Ambinder describes the optics: “two parents who tolerate each other and cannot [...]

And The First Kagan Interview Goes To…

…the White House:

Elena Kagan and Health Reform

During Elena Kagan’s Senate confirmation hearing, the American public will get a sneak peak of a particularly contentious case that may reach the Supreme Court – the constitutionality of the new health reform law. Several Republican senators have already indicated they plan to ask Kagan about her view of the law’s mandate that everyone purchase [...]

Morning Must Reads: Empathy and Envy

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images –John Dickerson examines Obama’s argument that Kagan, like Sotomayor, understands the everyman and brings empathy to court. It well may be her (and his) judicial philosophy, but it’s not something well-grounded in Kagan’s credentials or life story. But the purpose of the empathy narrative is not about confirmation; it has [...]

Marshalled Opposition

Updated, see below. Jay has a bit of RNC chair Michael Steele’s skeptical response to Kagan’s Supreme Court nomination, but there’s another facet in the full statement. He implicitly criticizes Kagan for her relationship with Thurgood Marshall, for whom she clerked early in her career (emphasis mine): Given Kagan’s opposition to allowing military recruiters access [...]

First Reactions to Kagan’s Nomination

Clearly, President Obama’s choice of Solicitor General Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court came as no surprise to many. Reactions flooded my inbox before Obama was even done speaking. Here are some excerpts – in order that I received them – of statements reacting to Kagan’s nomination. Some interesting highlights: Mitch McConnell notes her “brief [...]

Morning Must Reads: Kagan

Photo by Ryan Kelly/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images –Conventional wisdom played out; Obama will tap Solicitor General Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court. The White House is rolling out with a 10 a.m. ET event where the president and his pick are both expected to speak. –Never having served on the bench, Kagan’s record is relatively thin [...]

SCOTUS Gets an Education in PDA In More Ways Than One

Listening to arguements today on The City of Ontario v. Quon — a case about whether police officers sexting each other on city-given pagers had an expectation of privacy — the Supreme were struggling a bit with the technology. You know you’re in trouble when the youngest guy on the court, Chief Justice John Roberts, [...]

Morning Must Reads: TGIF

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza –So health care is done for now. Congress is running off on recess and President Obama is headed to Camp David for the weekend. Everyone could probably use a rest. –Majority Leader Reid, caught up in the moment, accidentally voted “no” on health care (again) yesterday before correcting [...]

Are Legal Challenges To Health Reform Credible?

A dispatch from our colleague Alex Altman: Less than an hour after President Obama signed the health-care reform bill into law, attorneys general from 13 states filed a lawsuit challenging the bill’s constitutionality. Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, acting on behalf of 13 states, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Pensacola, alleging that the [...]