Supreme Court of the United States

Supreme Court of the United States
Established 1789
Jurisdiction United States
Location Washington, D.C.
Composition method Presidential nomination with Senate confirmation
Authorized by U.S. Constitution
Judge term length Life tenure
Number of positions 9, by statute
Website supremecourt.gov
Chief Justice of the United States
Currently John G. Roberts
Since September 29, 2005
United States
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The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate (but largely discretionary) appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases.[1] The Court, which meets in the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C., consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices who are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Once appointed, justices have life tenure unless they are removed after impeachment.[2][3]

Contents

History

Earliest beginnings to Marshall

Under Chief Justices Jay, Rutledge, and Ellsworth (1789–1801), the Court heard few cases; its first decision was West v. Barnes (1791), a case involving a procedural issue.[4] The Court lacked a home of its own and had little prestige,[5] a situation not helped by the highest-profile case of the era, Chisholm v. Georgia, which was immediately repudiated by the Eleventh Amendment.

The Court's power and prestige waxed during the Marshall Court (1801–1835).[6] Under Marshall, the Court established the principle of judicial review, including specifying itself as the supreme expositor of the Constitution (Marbury v. Madison)[7][8] and made several important constitutional rulings giving shape and substance to the balance of power between the federal government and the states (prominently, Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, McCulloch v. Maryland and Gibbons v. Ogden).[9][10][11][12]

The Marshall Court also ended the practice of each justice issuing his opinion seriatim,[13] a remnant of British tradition,[14] and instead issuing a single majority opinion.[13] Also during Marshall's tenure, although beyond the Court's control, the impeachment and acquittal of Justice Samuel Chase in 1804-1805 helped cement the principle of judicial independence.[15][16]

From Taney to Taft

The Taney Court (1836–1864) made several important rulings, such as Sheldon v. Sill, which held that while Congress may not limit the subjects the Supreme Court may hear, it may limit the jurisdiction of the lower federal courts to prevent them from hearing cases dealing with certain subjects.[17] Nevertheless, it is primarily remembered for its ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford,[18] which may have helped precipitate the Civil War.[19] In the Reconstruction era, the Chase, Waite, and Fuller Courts (1864–1910) interpreted the new Civil War amendments to the Constitution[12] and developed the doctrine of substantive due process (Lochner v. New York;[20] Adair v. United States).[21]

Under the White and Taft Courts (1910–1930), the Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment had incorporated some guarantees of the Bill of Rights against the states (Gitlow v. New York),[22] grappled with the new antitrust statutes (Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States), upheld the constitutionality of military conscription (Arver v. United States)[23] and brought the substantive due process doctrine to its first apogee (Adkins v. Children's Hospital).[24]

The New Deal era

During the Hughes, Stone, and Vinson Courts (1930–1953), the Court gained its own accommodation in 1935[25] and changed its interpretation of the Constitution, giving a broader reading to the powers of the federal government to facilitate President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal (most prominently West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, Wickard v. Filburn, United States v. Darby and United States v. Butler).[26] [27][28] During World War II, the Court continued to favor government power, upholding the internment of Japanese citizens (Korematsu v. United States) and the mandatory pledge of allegiance (Minersville School District v. Gobitis). Nevertheless, Gobitis was soon repudiated (West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette), and the Steel Seizure Case restricted the pro-government trend.

Warren and Burger

The Warren Court (1953–1969) dramatically expanded the force of Constitutional civil liberties.[29] It held that segregation in public schools violates equal protection (Brown v. Board of Education, Bolling v. Sharpe and Green v. County School Bd.)[30] and that traditional legislative district boundaries violated the right to vote (Reynolds v. Sims). It created a general right to privacy (Griswold v. Connecticut),[31] limited the role of religion in public school (most prominently Engel v. Vitale and Abington School District v. Schempp),[32][33] incorporated most guarantees of the Bill of Rights against the States—prominently Mapp v. Ohio (the exclusionary rule) and Gideon v. Wainwright (right to appointed counsel),[34][35]—and required that criminal suspects be apprised of all these rights by police (Miranda v. Arizona);[36] At the same time, however, the Court limited defamation suits by public figures (New York Times v. Sullivan) and supplied the government with an unbroken run of antitrust victories.[37]

The Burger Court (1969–1986) expanded Griswold's right to privacy to strike down abortion laws (Roe v. Wade),[38] but divided deeply on affirmative action (Regents of the University of California v. Bakke)[39] and campaign finance regulation (Buckley v. Valeo),[40] and dithered on the death penalty, ruling first that most applications were defective (Furman v. Georgia),[41] then that the death penalty itself was not unconstitutional (Gregg v. Georgia).[41][42][43]

Rehnquist and Roberts

The Rehnquist Court (1986–2005) was noted for its revival of judicial enforcement of federalism,[44] emphasizing the limits of the Constitution's affirmative grants of power (United States v. Lopez) and the force of its restrictions on those powers (Seminole Tribe v. Florida, City of Boerne v. Flores).[45][46][47][48][49] It struck down single-sex state schools as a violation of equal protection (United States v. Virginia), laws against sodomy as violations of substantive due process (Lawrence v. Texas),[50] and the line item veto (Clinton v. New York), but upheld school vouchers (Zelman v. Simmons-Harris) and reaffirmed Roe's restrictions on abortion laws (Planned Parenthood v. Casey).[51] The Court's decision in Bush v. Gore, which ended the electoral recount during the presidential election of 2000, became controversial.[52]

The Roberts Court (2005–present) is regarded by some as more conservative than the Rehnquist Court.[53][54] Some of its major rulings have concerned federal preemption (Wyeth v. Levine), civil procedure (Bell-Iqbal), abortion (Gonzales v. Carhart),[55] and the Bill of Rights, prominently Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (First Amendment),[56] Heller-McDonald (Second Amendment),[57] and Baze v. Rees (Eighth Amendment).[58][59]

Composition

Size of the Court

Article III of the United States Constitution leaves it to Congress to fix the number of justices. The Judiciary Act of 1789 called for the appointment of six justices, and as the nation's boundaries grew, Congress added justices to correspond with the growing number of judicial circuits: seven in 1807, nine in 1837, and ten in 1863.

In 1866, at the behest of Chief Justice Chase, Congress passed an act providing that the next three justices to retire would not be replaced, which would thin the bench to seven justices by attrition. Consequently, one seat was removed in 1866 and a second in 1867. In 1869, however, the Circuit Judges Act returned the number of justices to nine,[60] where it has since remained.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to expand the Court in 1937. His proposal envisioned appointment of one additional justice for each incumbent justice who reached the age of 70 years 6 months and refused retirement, up to a maximum bench of 15 justices. The proposal was ostensibly to ease the burden of the docket on elderly judges, but the actual purpose was widely understood as an effort to pack the Court with justices who would support Roosevelt's New Deal.[61] The plan, usually called the "Court-packing Plan", failed in Congress and proved a fiasco for Roosevelt.[62] Nevertheless, the Court's balance began to shift within months when Justice van Devanter retired and was replaced by Senator Hugo Black. By the end of 1941, Roosevelt had appointed seven justices and elevated Harlan Fiske Stone to Chief Justice.[63]

Appointment and confirmation

The President of the United States appoints justices "by and with the advice and consent of the Senate."[64] Most presidents nominate candidates who broadly share their ideological views, although a justice's decisions may end up being contrary to a president's expectations. Because the Constitution sets no qualifications for service as a justice, a president may nominate anyone to serve, subject to Senate confirmation.

In modern times, the confirmation process has attracted considerable attention from the press and advocacy groups, which lobby senators to confirm or to reject a nominee depending on whether their track record aligns with the group's views. The Senate Judiciary Committee conducts hearings and votes on whether the nomination should go to the full Senate with a positive, negative or neutral report. The committee's practice of personally interviewing nominees is relatively recent. The first nominee to appear before the committee was Harlan Fiske Stone in 1925, who sought to quell concerns about his links to Wall Street, and the modern practice of questioning began with John Marshall Harlan II in 1955.[65] Once the committee reports out the nomination, the full Senate considers it. Rejections are relatively uncommon; the Senate has explicitly rejected twelve Supreme Court nominees, most recently Robert Bork in 1987.

Nevertheless, not every nominee has received a floor vote in the Senate. Although Senate rules do not necessarily allow a negative vote in committee to block a nomination, a nominee may be filibustered once debate has begun in the full Senate. No nomination for associate justice has ever been filibustered, but President Lyndon Johnson's nomination of sitting Associate Justice Abe Fortas to succeed Earl Warren as Chief Justice was successfully filibustered in 1968. A president may also withdraw a nominee's name before the actual confirmation vote occurs, typically because it is clear that the Senate will reject them, most recently Harriet Miers in 2006.

Once the Senate confirms a nomination, the president must prepare and sign a commission, to which the Seal of the Department of Justice must be affixed, before the new justice can take office.[66] The seniority of an associate justice is based on the commissioning date, not the confirmation or swearing-in date.[67]

Before 1981, the approval process of justices was usually rapid. From the Truman through Nixon administrations, justices were typically approved within one month. From the Reagan administration to the present, however, the process has taken much longer. Some believe this is because Congress sees justices as playing a more political role than in the past.[68]

Recess appointments

When the Senate is in recess, a president may make temporary appointments to fill vacancies. Recess appointees hold office only until the end of the next Senate session (at most, less than two years). The Senate must confirm the nominee for them to continue serving; of the two chief justices and six associate justices who have received recess appointments, only Chief Justice John Rutledge was not subsequently confirmed.

No president since Dwight Eisenhower has made a recess appointment to the Court, and the practice has become rare and controversial even in lower federal courts.[69] In 1960, after Eisenhower had made three such appointments, the Senate passed a "sense of the Senate" resolution that recess appointments to the Court should only be made in "unusual circumstances."[70] Such resolutions are not legally binding but are an expression of Congress's views in the hope of guiding executive action.[70][71]

Tenure

The Constitution provides that justices "shall hold their offices during good behavior" (unless appointed during a Senate recess). The term "good behavior" is well understood to mean justices may serve for the remainder of their lives, although they can voluntarily resign or retire. A justice can also be removed by Congressional impeachment and conviction. However, only one justice has been impeached by the House (Samuel Chase, in 1805) and he was acquitted in the Senate. Moves to impeach sitting justices have occurred more recently (for example, William O. Douglas was the subject of hearings twice, once in 1953 and again in 1970), but they have not reached a vote in the House. No mechanism presently exists for removing a justice who is permanently incapacitated by illness or injury, both unable to resign and unable to resume service.[72]

Because justices have indefinite tenure, timing of vacancies can be unpredictable. Sometimes vacancies arise in quick succession, as in the early 1970s when Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. and William Rehnquist were nominated to replace Hugo Black and John Marshall Harlan II, who retired within a week of each other. Sometimes a great length of time passes between nominations such as the eleven years between Stephen Breyer's nomination in 1994 and the nomination of John Roberts in 2005 to fill the seat of Sandra Day O'Connor (though Roberts' nomination was withdrawn and resubmitted for the role of Chief Justice after Rehnquist died).

Despite the variability, all but four Presidents have been able to appoint at least one justice. President William Henry Harrison died a month after taking office, though his successor (John Tyler) made an appointment during that presidential term. President Zachary Taylor likewise died early in his presidential term, although his successor (Millard Fillmore) also made a Supreme Court nomination before the end of that term. President Andrew Johnson was denied the opportunity to appoint a justice by a contraction in the size of the Court (see Size of the Court above). President Jimmy Carter is the only President who completed at least one full term in office without making a nomination to the Court during his presidency.

Three presidents have appointed justices who collectively served more than 100 years: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln.[73]

Membership

Current justices

Name Born Appt. by Senate conf. vote Age at appt. First day /
Length of service
Previous positions

Roberts, JohnJohn Roberts (Chief Justice)

01955-01-27 January 27, 1955
(age &1000000000000005700000057)
in Buffalo, New York
Bush, George W.George W. Bush 78–22 50 02005-09-29 September 29, 2005
6 years, 4 months
Circuit Judge, Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (2003–2005); Private practice (1993–2003); Professor, Georgetown University Law Center (1992–2005); Principal Deputy Solicitor General (1989–1993); Private practice (1986–1989); Associate Counsel to the President (1982–1986); Special Assistant to the Attorney General (1981–1982)

Scalia, AntoninAntonin Scalia

01936-03-11 March 11, 1936
(age &1000000000000007500000075)
in Trenton, New Jersey
Reagan, RonaldRonald Reagan 98–0 50 01986-09-26 September 26, 1986
25 years, 4 months
Circuit Judge, Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (1982–1986); Professor, University of Chicago Law School (1977–1982); Assistant Attorney General (1974–1977); Professor, University of Virginia School of Law (1967–1974); Private practice (1961–1967)

Kennedy, AnthonyAnthony Kennedy

01936-07-23 July 23, 1936
(age &1000000000000007500000075)
in Sacramento, California
Reagan, RonaldRonald Reagan 97–0 51 01988-02-18 February 18, 1988
23 years
Circuit Judge, Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (1975–1988); Professor, McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific (1965–1988); Private practice (1963–1975)

Thomas, ClarenceClarence Thomas

01948-06-23 June 23, 1948
(age &1000000000000006300000063)
in Pin Point, Georgia
Bush, George H. W.George H. W. Bush 52–48 43 01991-10-23 October 23, 1991
20 years, 3 months
Circuit Judge, Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (1990–1991); Chairman, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (1982–1990); legislative assistant for Missouri Senator John Danforth (1979–1981); employed by Monsanto Company Inc. (1977–1979); Assistant Attorney General in Missouri under State Attorney General John Danforth (1974–1977)

Ginsburg, Ruth BaderRuth Bader Ginsburg

01933-03-15 March 15, 1933
(age &1000000000000007800000078)
in New York City
Clinton, BillBill Clinton 96–3 60 01993-08-10 August 10, 1993
18 years, 6 months
Circuit Judge, Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (1980–1993); General Counsel, American Civil Liberties Union (1973–1980); Professor, Columbia Law School (1972–1980); Professor, Rutgers University School of Law (1963–1972)

Breyer, StephenStephen Breyer

01938-08-15 August 15, 1938
(age &1000000000000007300000073)
in San Francisco, California
Clinton, BillBill Clinton 87–9 56 01994-08-03 August 3, 1994
17 years, 6 months
Chief Judge, Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1990–1994); Circuit Judge, Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1980–1990); Professor, Harvard Law School (1967–1980)

Alito, SamuelSamuel Alito

01950-04-01 April 1, 1950
(age &1000000000000006100000061)
in Trenton, New Jersey
Bush, George W.George W. Bush 58–42 55 02006-01-31 January 31, 2006
6 years
Circuit Judge, Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1990–2006); Professor, Seton Hall University School of Law (1999–2004); U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey (1987–1990); Deputy Assistant Attorney General (1985–1987); Assistant to the Solicitor General (1981–1985); Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey (1977–1981)

Sotomayor, SoniaSonia Sotomayor

01954-06-25 June 25, 1954
(age &1000000000000005700000057)
in New York City
Obama, BarackBarack Obama 68–31 55 02009-08-08 August 8, 2009
2 years, 6 months
Circuit Judge, Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1998–2009); District Judge, District Court for the Southern District of New York (1992–1998); Private practice (1984–1991); Assistant District Attorney, New York County, New York (1979–1984)

Kagan, ElenaElena Kagan

01960-04-28 April 28, 1960
(age &1000000000000005100000051)
in New York City
Obama, BarackBarack Obama 63–37 50 02010-08-07 August 7, 2010
1 year, 6 months
Solicitor General of the United States (2009–2010); Dean of Harvard Law School (2003–2009); Professor, Harvard Law School (2001–2003); Visiting Professor, Harvard Law School (1999–2001); Associate White House Counsel (1995–1999); Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council (1995–1999); Professor, University of Chicago Law School (1995); Associate Professor, University of Chicago Law School (1991–1995)

Court demographics

The Court currently has six male and three female justices. One justice is African American, one is Latino, and two are Italian-Americans; six justices are Roman Catholics, and three are Jewish. The average age is 66 years, 2 months, and every current justice has an Ivy League background.[74]

In the 19th century, every justice was a Caucasian male, and concerns about diversity focused on geography, to represent all regions of the country, rather than ethnic, religious, or gender diversity.[75] Thurgood Marshall became the first African American Justice in 1967, and Sandra Day O'Connor became the first female Justice in 1981. O'Connor, whose appointment fulfilled Ronald Reagan's campaign promise to place a woman on the Court, was later joined by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, appointed by Bill Clinton in 1993. Marshall was succeeded by Clarence Thomas, and in 2009, Ginsburg was joined by Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latino justice.

Most justices have been Protestants, including thirty-five Episcopalians, nineteen Presbyterians, ten Unitarians, five Methodists, and three Baptists.[76][77] The first Catholic justice was Roger Taney in 1836, and 1916 saw the appointment of the first Jewish justice, Louis Brandeis. In recent years this situation has reversed: upon the retirement of Justice Stevens, the Court is without a Protestant for the first time in its history.[78]

Retired justices

There are three living retired justices: John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, and David Souter. They may be designated to sit on panels of the United States Courts of Appeals, but never sit as members of the Supreme Court itself.

Seniority and seating

Many of the internal operations of the Court are organized by the seniority of the justices; the Chief Justice is considered the most senior member of the Court, regardless of the length of his or her service. The Associate Justices are then ranked by the length of their service.

During Court sessions, the justices sit according to seniority, with the Chief Justice in the center, and the Associate Justices on alternating sides, with the most senior Associate Justice on the Chief Justice's immediate right, and the most junior Associate Justice seated on the left farthest away from the Chief Justice. Therefore, the current court sits as follows from left to right when looking at the bench from the perspective of a lawyer arguing before the Court: Sotomayor, Breyer, Thomas, Scalia (most senior Associate Justice), Roberts (Chief Justice), Kennedy, Ginsburg, Alito, and Kagan. In the official yearly Court photograph, justices are arranged similarly, with the five most senior members sitting in the front row in the same order as they would sit during Court sessions (Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy, Ginsburg), and the four most junior justices standing behind them, again in the same order as they would sit during Court sessions (Sotomayor, Breyer, Alito, Kagan).

In the justices' private conferences, the current practice is for them to speak and vote in order of seniority from the Chief Justice first to the most junior Associate Justice last. The most junior Associate Justice in these conferences is tasked with any menial labor the justices may require as they convene alone, such as answering the door of their conference room, serving coffee, and transmitting the orders of the Court to the court's clerk.[79] Justice Joseph Story served the longest as the junior justice, from February 3, 1812, to September 1, 1823, for a total of 4,228 days. Justice Stephen Breyer follows close behind, with 4,199 days when Samuel Alito joined the court on January 31, 2006.[80]

Salary

For the years 2009 and 2010, associate justices have been paid $213,900 and the chief justice $223,500.[81] Article III, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution prohibits Congress from reducing the pay for incumbent justices. Once a justice meets age and service requirements, the justice may retire and earn his or her final salary for life, plus cost of living increases.

Judicial leanings

While justices do not represent or receive official endorsements from political parties, as is accepted practice in the legislative and executive branches, jurists are informally categorized in legal and political circles as being judicial conservatives, moderates, or liberals. Such leanings, however, refer to legal outlook rather than a political or legislative one, because Supreme Court justices are not members of the executive or legislative branches.

As of the October 2010 term of the Court, the Court consists of five justices appointed by Republican Presidents, and four appointed by Democratic Presidents. It is popularly accepted that Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito comprise the Court's conservative wing. Justices Ginsburg and Breyer are generally thought of as the Court's liberal wing; after one term on the Court, Justice Sotomayor is also seen as a member of the liberal wing, voting much as her predecessor, Justice Souter, might have voted.[82][83] John McGinnis, a law professor at Northwestern University School of Law, stated that Sotomayor "appears to be a typical member of the liberal wing", but noted that experts have said justices do not come into their own until they have served five years or so, pointing to Souter's first year as an example;[83] however, McGinnis also noted that Sotomayor has a longer judicial track record than Souter did. According to statistics compiled by SCOTUSblog, during the 2009 term Sotomayor agreed most often with Ginsburg and Breyer (90% of the time in full, in part, or in judgment, second only to the 92% agreement between Scalia and Thomas), and disagreed most often with Scalia and Alito (31% of the time).[84] Justice Anthony Kennedy, generally considered a conservative who "occasionally vote[s] with the liberals",[85] is often the swing vote that determines the outcome of close cases.[86]

In an article in SCOTUSblog,[87] Tom Goldstein argues that the popular view of the Supreme Court as sharply divided along ideological lines and each side pushing an agenda at every turn is "in significant part a caricature designed to fit certain preconceptions." He points out that in the 2009 term, almost half the cases were decided unanimously, and only about 20% decided by a 5-to-4 vote; barely one in ten cases involved the narrow liberal/conservative divide (fewer if the cases where Sotomayor recused herself are not included). He also points to several cases that seem to fly against the popular conception of the ideological lines of the Court.[88][89] Goldstein argues that the large number of pro-criminal-defendant summary dismissals (usually cases where the justices decide that the lower courts significantly misapplied precedent and reverse the case without briefing or argument) are an illustration that the conservative justices have not been aggressively ideological. Likewise, Goldstein states that the critique that the liberal justices are more likely to invalidate acts of Congress, show inadequate deference to the political process, and be disrespectful of precedent, also lacks merit: Thomas has most often called for overruling prior precedent (even if long standing) that he views as having been wrongly decided, and during the 2009 term Scalia and Thomas voted most often to invalidate legislation.

According to statistics compiled by SCOTUSblog,[90][91] the Court decided 86 cases in the October 2010 term, including 75 signed opinions, 5 summary reversals (where the Court reverses a lower court without arguments and without issuing an opinion on the case), four were decided with unsigned opinions, two cases affirmed by an equally divided Court, and two cases were dismissed as improvidently granted. Justice Kagan recused herself from 26 of those cases due to her prior role as United States Solicitor General. Of the 80 cases, 38 (about 48%, the highest percentage since the October 2005 term) were decided unanimously (9-0 or 8-0), and only 16 decisions were made by a 5-4 vote (about 20%, compared to 18% in the October 2009 term, and 29% in the October 2008 term).[92] However, in the 5-4 decisions, the Court divided along the traditional ideological lines (with Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan on one side, and Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito on the other, with Kennedy providing the "swing vote") in 14 of those 16 cases (87% of the time, the highest rate in the past 10 years). The conservative bloc, joined by Kennedy, formed the majority in 63% of the 5-4 decisions, the highest cohesion rate of that bloc in the Roberts court.[90][93][94][95][96]

Politicization of the Court

Clerks hired by each of the justices of the Supreme Court are often given considerable leeway in the opinions they draft. "Supreme Court clerkship appeared to be a nonpartisan institution from the 1940s into the 1980s", according to a study published in 2009 by the law review of Vanderbilt University Law School.[97][98] "As law has moved closer to mere politics, political affiliations have naturally and predictably become proxies for the different political agendas that have been pressed in and through the courts", former federal court of appeals judge J. Michael Luttig said.[97] David J. Garrow, professor of history at the University of Cambridge, stated that the Court had thus begun to mirror the political branches of government. "We are getting a composition of the clerk workforce that is getting to be like the House of Representatives", Professor Garrow said. "Each side is putting forward only ideological purists."[97]

According to the Vanderbilt Law Review study, this politicized hiring trend reinforces the impression that the Supreme Court is "a superlegislature responding to ideological arguments rather than a legal institution responding to concerns grounded in the rule of law."[97]

Facilities

The Supreme Court first met on February 1, 1790, at the Merchants' Exchange Building in New York City. When Philadelphia became the capital, the Court met briefly in Independence Hall before settling in Old City Hall from 1791 until 1800. After the government moved to Washington, D.C., the Court occupied various spaces in the United States Capitol building until 1935, when it moved into its own purpose-built home. The four-story building was designed by Cass Gilbert in a classical style sympathetic to the surrounding buildings of the Capitol and Library of Congress, and is clad in marble. The building includes the courtroom, justices' chambers, an extensive law library, various meeting spaces, and auxiliary services including a gymnasium. The Supreme Court building is within the ambit of the Architect of the Capitol, but maintains its own police force separate from the Capitol Police.[99]

Located across the street from the United States Capitol at One First Street NE and Maryland Avenue,[100][101] the building is open to the public from 9 am to 4:30 pm weekdays but closed on weekends and holidays.[100] Visitors may not tour the courtroom itself unaccompanied. There is a cafeteria, a gift shop, exhibits, and a half-hour informational film.[99] When the Court is not in session, lectures about the courtroom are held hourly from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm and reservations are not necessary.[99] When the Court is in session the public may attend oral arguments, which are held twice each morning (and sometimes afternoons) on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays in two-week intervals from October through late April, with breaks during December and February. Visitors are seated on a first-come first-served basis. One estimate is there are about 250 seats available.[102] The number of open seats varies from case to case; for important cases, some visitors arrive the day before and wait through the night. From mid-May until the end of June, the court releases orders and opinions beginning at 10 am, and these 15 to 30-minute sessions are open to the public on a similar basis.[99] Supreme Court Police are available to answer questions.[100]

Jurisdiction

Section 2 of Article Three of the United States Constitution outlines the jurisdiction of the federal courts of the United States:

The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority; to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls; to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction; to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party; to Controversies between two or more States; between a State and Citizens of another State; between Citizens of different States; between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.

The jurisdiction of the federal courts was further limited by the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, which forbade federal courts from hearing cases "commenced or prosecuted against [a State] by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State." However, states may waive this immunity, and Congress may abrogate the states' immunity in certain circumstances (see Sovereign immunity). In addition to constitutional constraints, Congress is authorized by Article III to regulate the court's appellate jurisdiction: for example, the federal courts may hear cases only if one or more of the following conditions are met:

Exercise of this power (for example, 28 U.S.C. § 2241(e)(1), as amended by the Detainee Treatment Act, provides that "No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination.") can become controversial; see Jurisdiction stripping.

The Constitution specifies that the Supreme Court may exercise original jurisdiction in cases affecting ambassadors and other diplomats, and in cases in which a state is a party. In all other cases, however, the Court has only appellate jurisdiction. It considers cases based on its original jurisdiction very rarely; almost all cases are brought to the Supreme Court on appeal. In practice, the only original jurisdiction cases heard by the Court are disputes between two or more states.

The power of the Supreme Court to consider appeals from state courts, rather than just federal courts, was created by the Judiciary Act of 1789 and upheld early in the Court's history, by its rulings in Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (1816) and Cohens v. Virginia (1821). The Supreme Court is the only federal court that has jurisdiction over direct appeals from state court decisions, although there are several devices that permit so-called "collateral review" of state cases.

Since Article Three of the United States Constitution stipulates that federal courts may only entertain "cases" or "controversies", the Supreme Court avoids deciding cases that are moot and does not render advisory opinions, as the supreme courts of some states may do. For example, in DeFunis v. Odegaard, 416 U.S. 312 (1974), the Court dismissed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a law school affirmative action policy because the plaintiff student had graduated since he began the lawsuit, and a decision from the Court on his claim would not be able to redress any injury he had suffered. The mootness exception is not absolute. If an issue is "capable of repetition yet evading review", the Court will address it even though the party before the Court would not himself be made whole by a favorable result. In Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), and other abortion cases, the Court addresses the merits of claims pressed by pregnant women seeking abortions even if they are no longer pregnant because it takes longer than the typical human gestation period to appeal a case through the lower courts to the Supreme Court.

Justices as Circuit Justices

The United States is divided into thirteen circuit courts of appeals, each of which is assigned a "Circuit Justice" from the Supreme Court. Although this concept has been in continuous existence throughout the history of the republic, its meaning has changed through time.

Under the Judiciary Act of 1789, each Justice was required to "ride circuit", or to travel within the assigned circuit and consider cases alongside local judges. This practice encountered opposition from many Justices, who cited the difficulty of travel. Moreover, several individuals opposed it because a Justice could not be expected to be impartial in an appeal if he had previously decided the same case while riding circuit. Circuit riding was abolished in 1891. Today, the duties of a "Circuit Justice" are generally limited to receiving and deciding requests for stays in cases coming from the circuit or circuits to which the Justice is assigned, and other clerical tasks such as addressing certain requests for extensions of time. A Circuit Justice may (but in practice almost never does) sit as a judge of that circuit. When he or she does so, a Circuit Justice has seniority over the Chief Judge of that circuit.

The Chief Justice is traditionally assigned to the District of Columbia Circuit, the Federal Circuit and the Fourth Circuit, which includes Maryland and Virginia, the states surrounding the District of Columbia. Each Associate Justice is assigned to one or two judicial circuits.

As of September 28, 2010, the allotment of the justices among the circuits is:[109]

Circuit Justice
District of Columbia Circuit Chief Justice Roberts
First Circuit Justice Breyer
Second Circuit Justice Ginsburg
Third Circuit Justice Alito
Fourth Circuit Chief Justice Roberts
Fifth Circuit Justice Scalia
Sixth Circuit Justice Kagan
Seventh Circuit Justice Kagan
Eighth Circuit Justice Alito
Ninth Circuit Justice Kennedy
Tenth Circuit Justice Sotomayor
Eleventh Circuit Justice Thomas
Federal Circuit Chief Justice Roberts

Four of the current Justices are assigned to circuits on which they once sat as circuit judges: Chief Justice Roberts (D.C. Circuit), Justice Breyer (First Circuit), Justice Alito (Third Circuit), and Justice Kennedy (Ninth Circuit).

Process

A term of the Supreme Court commences on the first Monday of each October, and continues until June or early July of the following year. Each term consists of alternating periods of approximately two weeks known as "sittings" and "recesses." Justices hear cases and deliver rulings during sittings; they discuss cases and write opinions during recesses.

Case selection

Nearly all cases come before the court by way of petitions for writs of certiorari, commonly referred to as "cert". The Court may review any case in the federal courts of appeals "by writ of certiorari granted upon the petition of any party to any civil or criminal case".[110] The Court may only review "final judgments rendered by the highest court of a state in which a decision could be had" if those judgments involve a question of federal statutory or constitutional law.[111] The party that lost in the lower court is the petitioner and the party that prevailed is the respondent. All case names before the Court are styled petitioner v. respondent, regardless of which party initiated the lawsuit in the trial court. For example, criminal prosecutions are brought in the name of the state and against an individual, as in State of Arizona v. Ernesto Miranda. If the defendant is convicted, and his conviction then is affirmed on appeal in the state supreme court, when he petitions for cert the name of the case becomes Miranda v. Arizona.

There are situations where the Court has original jurisdiction, such as when two states have a dispute against each other, or when there is a dispute between the United States and a state. In such instances, a case is filed with the Supreme Court directly. Examples of such cases include United States v. Texas, a case to determine whether a parcel of land belonged to the United States or to Texas, and Virginia v. Tennessee, a case turning on whether an incorrectly drawn boundary between two states can be changed by a state court, and whether the setting of the correct boundary requires Congressional approval. Although it has not happened since 1794 in the case of Georgia v. Brailsford, parties in an action at law in which the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction may request that a jury determine issues of fact.[112] Two other original jurisdiction cases involve colonial era borders and rights under navigable waters in New Jersey v. Delaware, and water rights between riparian states upstream of navigable waters in Kansas v. Colorado.

The common shorthand name for cases is typically the first party (the petitioner). For example, Brown v. Board of Education is referred to simply as Brown, and Roe v. Wade as Roe. The exception to this rule is when the name of a state, or the United States, or some government entity, is the first listed party. In that instance, the name of the second party is the shorthand name. For example, Iowa v. Tovar is referred to simply as Tovar, and Gonzales v. Raich is referred to simply as Raich, because the first party, Alberto Gonzales, was sued in his official capacity as the United States Attorney General.

A cert petition is voted on at a session of the court called a conference. A conference is a private meeting of the nine Justices by themselves; the public and the Justices' clerks are excluded. If four Justices vote to grant the petition, the case proceeds to the briefing stage; otherwise, the case ends. Except in death penalty cases and other cases in which the Court orders briefing from the respondent, the respondent may, but is not required to, file a response to the cert petition.

The court grants a petition for cert only for "compelling reasons", spelled out in the court's Rule 10. Such reasons include:

When a conflict of interpretations arises from differing interpretations of the same law or constitutional provision issued by different federal circuit courts of appeals, lawyers call this situation a "circuit split". If the court votes to deny a cert petition, as it does in the vast majority of such petitions that come before it, it does so typically without comment. A denial of a cert petition is not a judgment on the merits of a case, and the decision of the lower court stands as the final ruling in the case.

To manage the high volume of cert petitions received by the Court each year (of the more than 7,000 petitions the Court receives each year, it will usually request briefing and hear oral argument in 100 or fewer), the Court employs an internal case management tool known as the "cert pool." Currently, all justices except for Justice Alito participate in the cert pool.[113][114][115]

Oral argument

When the Court grants a cert petition, the case is set for oral argument. At this point, both parties file briefs on the merits of the case, as distinct from reasons the parties may urge for granting or denying the cert petition. With the consent of the parties or approval of the Court, amici curiae, or "friends of the court", may also file briefs. The Court holds two-week oral argument sessions each month from October through April. Each side has thirty minutes to present its argument, and during that time, the Justices may interrupt the advocate and ask questions. The petitioner gives the first presentation, and may reserve some time to rebut the respondent's arguments after the respondent has concluded. Amici curiae may also present oral argument on behalf of one party if that party agrees. The Court advises counsel to assume that the Justices are familiar with and have read the briefs filed in a case.

Decision

At the conclusion of oral argument, the case is submitted for decision. Cases are decided by majority vote of the Justices. It is the Court's practice to issue decisions in all cases argued in a particular Term by the end of that Term. Within that Term, however, the Court is under no obligation to release a decision within any set time after oral argument. At the conclusion of oral argument, the Justices retire to another conference at which the preliminary votes are tallied, and the most senior Justice in the majority assigns the initial draft of the Court's opinion to a Justice on his or her side. Drafts of the Court's opinion, as well as any concurring or dissenting opinions,[116] circulate among the Justices until the Court is prepared to announce the judgment in a particular case.

It is possible that, through recusals or vacancies, the Court divides evenly on a case. If that occurs, then the decision of the court below is affirmed, but does not establish binding precedent. In effect, it results in a return to the status quo ante. For a case to be heard, there must be a quorum of at least six justices.[117] If a quorum is not available to hear a case and a majority of qualified justices believes that the case cannot be heard and determined in the next term, then the judgment of the court below is affirmed as if the Court had been evenly divided. For cases brought directly to the Supreme Court by direct appeal from a United States District Court, the Chief Justice may order the case remanded to the appropriate U.S. Court of Appeals for a final decision there.[118] This has only occurred once in U.S. history, in the case of United States v. Alcoa.[119]

Published opinions

The Court's opinions are published in three stages. First, a slip opinion is made available on the Court's web site and through other outlets. Next, several opinions are bound together in paperback form, called a preliminary print of United States Reports, the official series of books in which the final version of the Court's opinions appears. About a year after the preliminary prints are issued, a final bound volume of U.S. Reports is issued. The individual volumes of U.S. Reports are numbered so that users may cite this set of reports—or a competing version published by another commercial legal publisher—to allow those who read their pleadings and other briefs to find the cases quickly and easily.

As of February 2010, there are 548 volumes of U.S. Reports. Lawyers use an abbreviated format to cite cases, in the form vvv U.S. ppp (yyyy). The number before the "U.S." refers to the volume number, and the number after the U.S. refers to the page within that volume. The number in parentheses is the year in which the case was decided. For instance, the citation for Roe v. Wade is 410 U.S. 113 (1973) and it means the case was decided in 1973 and appears on page 113 of volume 410 of U.S. Reports. For hot-from-the-press judgments, the volume and page numbers are replaced with "___".

Institutional powers and constraints

The Constitution does not explicitly grant the Supreme Court the power of judicial review; nevertheless, the power of this Court to overturn laws and executive actions it deems unlawful or unconstitutional is a well-established precedent. Many of the Founding Fathers accepted the notion of judicial review; in Federalist No. 78, Alexander Hamilton wrote: "A Constitution is, in fact, and must be regarded by the judges, as a fundamental law. It therefore belongs to them to ascertain its meaning, as well as the meaning of any particular act proceeding from the legislative body. If there should happen to be an irreconcilable variance between the two, that which has the superior obligation and validity ought, of course, to be preferred; or, in other words, the Constitution ought to be preferred to the statute." The Supreme Court first established its power to declare laws unconstitutional in Marbury v. Madison (1803), consummating the system of checks and balances. This power allows judges to have the last word on allocation of authority among the three branches of the federal government, which grants them the ability to set bounds to their own authority, as well as to their immunity from outside checks and balances.

The Supreme Court cannot directly enforce its rulings; instead, it relies on respect for the Constitution and for the law for adherence to its judgments. One notable instance of nonacquiescence came in 1832, when the state of Georgia ignored the Supreme Court's decision in Worcester v. Georgia. President Andrew Jackson, who sided with the Georgia courts, is supposed to have remarked, "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!";[120] however, this alleged quotation has been disputed. Some state governments in the South also resisted the desegregation of public schools after the 1954 judgment Brown v. Board of Education. More recently, many feared that President Nixon would refuse to comply with the Court's order in United States v. Nixon (1974) to surrender the Watergate tapes. Nixon, however, ultimately complied with the Supreme Court's ruling.

Some argue that the Supreme Court is "the most separated and least checked of all branches of government."[121] Justices are not required to stand for election by virtue of their tenure "during good behavior", and their pay may "not be diminished" while they hold their position (Section 1 of Article Three). Though subject to the process of impeachment, only one Justice has ever been impeached and no Supreme Court Justice has been removed from office. Supreme Court decisions have been purposefully overridden by constitutional amendment in only four instances: the Eleventh Amendment overturned Chisholm v. Georgia (1793); the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments in effect overturned Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857); the Sixteenth Amendment reversed Pollock v. Farmers' Loan and Trust Co. (1895); and the Twenty-sixth Amendment overturned some portions of Oregon v. Mitchell (1970). However, when the Court rules on matters involving the interpretation of laws rather than of the Constitution, simple legislative action can reverse the decisions (for example, in 2009 Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter act, superseding the limitations given in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. in 2007). Also, the Supreme Court is not immune from political and institutional restraints: lower federal courts and state courts sometimes resist doctrinal innovations, as do law enforcement officials.[122]

In addition, the other two branches can restrain the Court through other mechanisms. Congress can increase the number of justices, giving the President power to influence future decisions by appointments (as in Roosevelt's Court Packing Plan discussed above). Congress can pass legislation that restricts the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and other federal courts over certain topics and cases: this is suggested by language in Section 2 of Article Three, where the appellate jurisdiction is granted "with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make." The Court sanctioned such congressional action in the Reconstruction case ex parte McCardle (1869), though it rejected Congress' power to dictate how particular cases must be decided in United States v. Klein (1871).

On the other hand, through its power of judicial review, the Supreme Court has defined the scope and nature of the powers and separation between the legislative and executive branches of the federal government; for example, in United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. (1936), Dames & Moore v. Regan (1981), and notably in Goldwater v. Carter (1979), (where it effectively gave the Presidency the power to terminate ratified treaties without the consent of Congress or the Senate). The Court's decisions can also impose limitations on the scope of Executive authority, as in Humphrey's Executor v. United States (1935), the Steel Seizure Case (1952), and United States v. Nixon (1974).

Criticism

Some criticisms leveled at the Supreme Court are:

See also

Supreme Court of the United States portal
Government of the United States portal
Law portal

Notes

  1. ^ "A Brief Overview of the Supreme Court" (PDF). United States Supreme Court. http://www.supremecourt.gov/about/briefoverview.pdf. Retrieved 2009-12-31. 
  2. ^ "U.S. Constitution, Article III, Section 1". http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/article03/. Retrieved 2007-09-21. 
  3. ^ See, in dicta Northern Pipeline Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co., 458 U.S. 50, 59 (1982); United States ex rel. Toth v. Quarles, 350 U.S. 11, 16 (1955).
  4. ^ Ashmore, Anne (August 2006). "Dates of Supreme Court decisions and arguments, United States Reports volumes 2-107 (1791–1882)" (PDF). Library, Supreme Court of the United States. http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/datesofdecisions.pdf. Retrieved 2009-04-26. 
  5. ^ Scott Douglas Gerber (editor) (1998). "Seriatim: The Supreme Court Before John Marshall". New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-3114-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=0tEkU5LiYsQC&pg=PA1. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "(page 3) Finally, many scholars cite the absence of a separate Supreme Court building as evidence that the early Court lacked prestige." 
  6. ^ Garrett Epps (October 24, 2004). "Don't Do It, Justices". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56446-2004Oct23.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "The court's prestige has been hard-won. In the early 1800s, Chief Justice John Marshall made the court respected" 
  7. ^ Jeffrey Rosen (book review of "Packing the Court" by James MacGregor Burns) (July 5, 2009). "Black Robe Politics". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070202033.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "From the beginning, Burns continues, the Court has established its "supremacy" over the president and Congress because of Chief Justice John Marshall's "brilliant political coup" in Marbury v. Madison (1803): asserting a power to strike down unconstitutional laws." 
  8. ^ "The People's Vote: 100 Documents that Shaped America -- Marbury v. Madison (1803)". US News & World Report. 1803. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/documents/docpages/document_page19.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "With his decision in Marbury v. Madison, Chief Justice John Marshall established the principle of judicial review, an important addition to the system of "checks and balances" created to prevent any one branch of the Federal Government from becoming too powerful...A Law repugnant to the Constitution is void." 
  9. ^ Cliff Sloan and David McKean (February 21, 2009). "Why Marbury V. Madison Still Matters". Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/id/185803. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "More than 200 years after the high court ruled, the decision in that landmark case continues to resonate." 
  10. ^ "The Constitution In Law: Its Phases Construed by the Federal Supreme Court" (PDF). New York Times. February 27, 1893. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D0CEFDE1031E033A25754C2A9649C94629ED7CF. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "The decision ... in Martin vs. Hunter's Lessee is the authority on which lawyers and Judges have rested the doctrine that where there is in question, in the highest court of a State, and decided adversely to the validity of a State statute... such claim is reviewable by the Supreme Court ..." 
  11. ^ Justices Ginsburg, Stevens, Souter Breyer (2000-12-13). "Dissenting opinions in Bush v. Gore". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/news/vote2000/pres246.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "Rarely has this Court rejected outright an interpretation of state law by a state high court ... The Virginia court refused to obey this Court's Fairfax's Devisee mandate to enter judgment for the British subject's successor in interest. That refusal led to the Court's pathmarking decision in Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 1 Wheat. 304 (1816)." 
  12. ^ a b "Decisions of the Supreme Court -- Historic Decrees Issued in One Hundred an Eleven Years" (PDF). New York Times. February 3, 1901. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9E03EED8133EE333A25750C0A9649C946097D6CF. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "Very important also was the decision in Martin vs. Hunter's lessee, in which the court asserted its authority to overrule, within certain limits, the decisions of the highest State courts." 
  13. ^ a b "The Supreme Quiz". Washington Post. October 2, 2000. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A58066-2000Oct2&notFound=true. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "According to the Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States, Marshall's most important innovation was to persuade the other justices to stop seriatim opinions -- each issuing one -- so that the court could speak in a single voice. Since the mid-1940s, however, there's been a significant increase in individual "concurring" and "dissenting" opinions." 
  14. ^ Dan Slater (April 18, 2008). "Justice Stevens on the Death Penalty: A Promise of Fairness Unfulfilled". Wall Street Journal. http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/04/18/justice-stevens-on-the-death-penalty-a-promise-of-fairness-unfulfilled/. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "The first Chief Justice, John Marshall set out to do away with seriatim opinions–a practice originating in England in which each appellate judge writes an opinion in ruling on a single case. (You may have read old tort cases in law school with such opinions). Marshall sought to do away with this practice to help build the Court into a coequal branch." 
  15. ^ Claire Suddath (Dec. 19, 2008). "A Brief History Of Impeachment". Time Magazine. http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1867783,00.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "Congress tried the process again in 1804, when it voted to impeach Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase on charges of bad conduct. As a judge, Chase was overzealous and notoriously unfair ... But Chase never committed a crime — he was just incredibly bad at his job. The Senate acquitted him on every count." 
  16. ^ Linda Greenhouse (April 10, 1996). "Rehnquist Joins Fray on Rulings, Defending Judicial Independence". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/10/us/rehnquist-joins-fray-on-rulings-defending-judicial-independence.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "the 1805 Senate trial of Justice Samuel Chase, who had been impeached by the House of Representatives ... This decision by the Senate was enormously important in securing the kind of judicial independence contemplated by Article III" of the Constitution, Chief Justice Rehnquist said" 
  17. ^ Edward Keynes, with Randall K. Miller (1989). "The Court vs. Congress: Prayer, Busing, and Abortion". Duke University Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=_Ebb2wsxkF4C&pg=PA115. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "(page 115)... Grier maintained that Congress has plenary power to limit the federal courts' jurisdiction." 
  18. ^ Sherrilyn A. Ifill (May 27, 2009). "Sotomayor's Great Legal Mind Long Ago Defeated Race, Gender Nonsense". US News & World Report. http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/2009/05/27/sotomayors-great-legal-mind-long-ago-defeated-race-gender-nonsense.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "But his decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford doomed thousands of black slaves and freedmen to a stateless existence within the United States until the passage of the 14th Amendment. Justice Taney's coldly self-fulfilling statement in Dred Scott, that blacks had "no rights which the white man [was] bound to respect", has ensured his place in history—not as a brilliant jurist, but as among the most insensitive" 
  19. ^ Irons, Peter; Howard Zinn (wrote foreword) (2006). A People's History of the Supreme Court: The Men and Women Whose Cases and Decisions Have Shaped Our Constitution. United States: Penguin Books. pp. 176, 177. ISBN 0143037372. "The rhetorical battle that followed the Dred Scott decision, as we know, later erupted into the gunfire and bloodshed of the Civil War (p.176)... his opinion (Taney's) touched off an explosive reaction on both sides of the slavery issue... (p.177)" 
  20. ^ "Liberty of Contract?". Exploring Constitutional Conflicts. 2009-10-31. http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/libertyofk.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "The term "substantive due process" is often used to describe the approach first used in Lochner--the finding of liberties not explicitly protected by the text of the Constitution to be impliedly protected by the liberty clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In the 1960s, long after the Court repudiated its Lochner line of cases, substantive due process became the basis for protecting personal rights such as the right of privacy, the right to maintain intimate family relationships." 
  21. ^ "Adair v. United States 208 U.S. 161". Cornell University Law School. 1908. http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0208_0161_ZS.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "No. 293 Argued: October 29, 30, 1907 --- Decided: January 27, 1908" 
  22. ^ Bodenhamer, David J.; James W. Ely (1993). The Bill of Rights in modern America. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. p. 245. ISBN 978-0-253-35159-3. http://books.google.com/?id=L-_9mFCeBSIC&pg=PA245. "... of what eventually became the 'incorporation doctrine,' by which various federal Bill of Rights guarantees were held to be implicit in the Fourteenth Amendment due process or equal protection." 
  23. ^ Edward Douglass White. "Opinion for the Court, Arver v. U.S. 245 U.S. 366". http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=245&invol=366. "Finally, as we are unable to conceive upon what theory the exaction by government from the citizen of the performance of his supreme and noble duty of contributing to the defense of the rights and honor of the nation, as the result of a war declared by the great representative body of the people, can be said to be the imposition of involuntary servitude in violation of the prohibitions of the Thirteenth Amendment, we are constrained to the conclusion that the contention to that effect is refuted by its mere statement." 
  24. ^ Bernard H. Siegan (1987). The Supreme Court's Constitution. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 9780887386718. http://books.google.com/?id=XABdIe1foccC&pg=PA146. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "In the 1923 case of Adkins v. Children's Hospital, the court invalidated a classification based on gender as inconsistent with the substantive due process requirements of the fifth amendment. At issue was congressional legislation providing for the fixing of minimum wages for women and minors in the District of Columbia. (p.146)"  | pages = 146 | isbn = 0-88738-127-8
  25. ^ Joan Biskupic (2005-03-29). "Supreme Court gets makeover". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2005-03-28-high-court-makeover_x.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "The building is getting its first renovation since its completion in 1935." 
  26. ^ Justice Roberts (September 21, 2005). "Responses of Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. to the Written Questions of Senator Joseph R. Biden". Washington Post. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=com.ubuntu%3Aen-US%3Aunofficial&q=%22west+coast+hotel+co.+v.+parrish%22+(site%3Anewsweek.com+OR+site%3Apost-gazette.com+OR+site%3Ausatoday.com+OR+site%3Awashingtonpost.com+OR+site%3Atime.com+OR+site%3Areuters.com+OR+site%3Aeconomist.com+OR+site%3Amiamiherald.com+OR+site%3Alatimes.com+OR+site%3Asfgate.com+OR+site%3Achicagotribune.com+OR+site%3Anytimes.com+OR+site%3Awsj.com+OR+site%3Ausnews.com+OR+site%3Amsnbc.com+OR+site%3Anj.com+OR+site%3Atheatlantic.com)&aq=o&oq=&aqi=. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "I agree that West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish correctly overruled Adkins. Lochner era cases - Adkins in particular - evince an expansive view of the judicial role inconsistent with what I believe to be the appropriately more limited vision of the Framers." 
  27. ^ Seth lipsky (October 22, 2009). "All the News That's Fit to Subsidize". Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704597704574486242417039358.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "He was a farmer in Ohio ... during the 1930s, when subsidies were brought in for farmers. With subsidies came restrictions on how much wheat one could grow—even, Filburn learned in a landmark Supreme Court case, Wickard v. Filburn (1942), wheat grown on his modest farm." 
  28. ^ Adam Cohen (December 14, 2004). "What's New in the Legal World? A Growing Campaign to Undo the New Deal". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/opinion/14tue4.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "Some prominent states' rights conservatives were asking the court to overturn Wickard v. Filburn, a landmark ruling that laid out an expansive view of Congress's power to legislate in the public interest. Supporters of states' rights have always blamed Wickard ... for paving the way for strong federal action..." 
  29. ^ United Press International (September 25, 1971). "Justice Black Dies at 85; Served on Court 34 Years". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0227.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "Justice Black developed his controversial theory, first stated in a lengthy, scholarly dissent in 1947, that the due process clause applied the first eight amendments of the Bill of Rights to the states." 
  30. ^ "100 Documents that Shaped America Brown v. Board of Education (1954)". US News & World Report. May 17, 1954. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/documents/docpages/document_page87.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "On May 17, 1954, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous ruling in the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. State-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th amendment and was therefore unconstitutional. This historic decision marked the end of the "separate but equal" ... and served as a catalyst for the expanding civil rights movement..." 
  31. ^ "Essay: In defense of privacy". Time. July 15, 1966. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,836012-3,00.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "The biggest legal milestone in this field was last year's Supreme Court decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, which overthrew the state's law against the use of contraceptives as an invasion of marital privacy, and for the first time declared the "right of privacy" to be derived from the Constitution itself." 
  32. ^ Nancy Gibbs (Dec. 9, 1991). "America's Holy War". Time. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,974430,00.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "In the landmark 1962 case Engel v. Vitale, the high court threw out a brief nondenominational prayer composed by state officials that was recommended for use in New York State schools. "It is no part of the business of government", ruled the court, "to compose official prayers for any group of the American people to recite."" 
  33. ^ William R. Mattox Jr., Katrina Trinko (August 17, 2009). "Teach the Bible? Of course.". USA Today. http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/column-teach-the-bible-of-course-.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "Public schools need not proselytize — indeed, must not — in teaching students about the Good Book ... In Abington School District v. Schempp, decided in 1963, the Supreme Court stated that "study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education", was permissible under the First Amendment." 
  34. ^ "The Law: The Retroactivity Riddle". Time Magazine. June 18, 1965. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,898882,00.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "Last week, in a 7 to 2 decision, the court refused for the first time to give retroactive effect to a great Bill of Rights decision—Mapp v. Ohio (1961)." 
  35. ^ "The Supreme Court: Now Comes the Sixth Amendment". Time. April 16, 1965. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,841844,00.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "Sixth Amendment's right to counsel (Gideon v. Wainwright in 1963). ... the court said flatly in 1904: 'The Sixth Amendment does not apply to proceedings in state criminal courts." But in the light of Gideon ... ruled Black, statements 'generally declaring that the Sixth Amendment does not apply to states can no longer be regarded as law.'" 
  36. ^ "Guilt and Mr. Meese". New York Times. January 31, 1987. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/31/opinion/guilt-and-mr-meese.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "1966 Miranda v. Arizona decision. That's the famous decision that made confessions inadmissible as evidence unless an accused person has been warned by police of the right to silence and to a lawyer, and waived it." 
  37. ^ Fed-soc.org
  38. ^ Karen O'Connor (January 22, 2009). "Roe v. Wade: On Anniversary, Abortion Is out of the Spotlight". US News & World Report. http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/2009/01/22/roe-v-wade-on-anniversary-abortion-is-out-of-the-spotlight.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "The shocker, however, came in 1973, when the Court, by a vote of 7 to 2, relied on Griswold's basic underpinnings to rule that a Texas law prohibiting abortions in most situations was unconstitutional, invalidating the laws of most states. Relying on a woman's right to privacy..." 
  39. ^ "Bakke Wins, Quotas Lose". Time. July 10, 1978. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,946798,00.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "Split almost exactly down the middle, the Supreme Court last week offered a Solomonic compromise. It said that rigid quotas based solely on race were forbidden, but it also said that race might legitimately be an element in judging students for admission to universities. It thus approved the principle of 'affirmative action'..." 
  40. ^ "Time to Rethink Buckley v. Valeo". New York Times. November 12, 1998. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/12/opinion/time-to-rethink-buckley-v-valeo.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "...Buckley v. Valeo. The nation's political system has suffered ever since from that decision, which held that mandatory limits on campaign spending unconstitutionally limit free speech. The decision did much to promote the explosive growth of campaign contributions from special interests and to enhance the advantage incumbents enjoy over underfunded challengers." 
  41. ^ a b Staff writer (June 29, 1972). "Supreme Court Justice Rehnquist's Key Decisions". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/rehnquist/rehnquist_key_decisions.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "Furman v. Georgia ... Rehnquist dissents from the Supreme Court conclusion that many state laws on capital punishment are capricious and arbitrary and therefore unconstitutional." 
  42. ^ History of the Court, in Hall, Ely Jr., Grossman, and Wiecek (eds) The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. Oxford University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-19-505835-6
  43. ^ "A Supreme Revelation". Wall Street Journal. April 19, 2008. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120856145124627875.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "Thirty-two years ago, Justice John Paul Stevens sided with the majority in a famous "never mind" ruling by the Supreme Court. Gregg v. Georgia, in 1976, overturned Furman v. Georgia, which had declared the death penalty unconstitutional only four years earlier." 
  44. ^ Linda Greenhouse (January 8, 2009). "The Chief Justice on the Spot". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/opinion/09greenhouse.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "The federalism issue at the core of the new case grows out of a series of cases from 1997 to 2003 in which the Rehnquist court applied a new level of scrutiny to Congressional action enforcing the guarantees of the Reconstruction amendments." 
  45. ^ Linda Greenhouse (September 4, 2005). "William H. Rehnquist, Chief Justice of Supreme Court, Is Dead at 80". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E01E2DF1531F937A3575AC0A9639C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=5. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "United States v. Lopez in 1995 raised the stakes in the debate over federal authority even higher. The decision declared unconstitutional a Federal law, the Gun Free School Zones Act of 1990, that made it a federal crime to carry a gun within 1,000 feet of a school." 
  46. ^ Linda Greenhouse (June 12, 2005). "The Rehnquist Court and Its Imperiled States' Rights Legacy". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/12/weekinreview/12green.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "Intrastate activity that was not essentially economic was beyond Congress's reach under the Commerce Clause, Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote for the 5-to-4 majority in United States v. Morrison." 
  47. ^ Linda Greenhouse (March 22, 2005). "Inmates Who Follow Satanism and Wicca Find Unlikely Ally". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A02E6DC1F3CF931A15750C0A9639C8B63. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "His (Rehnquist's) reference was to a landmark 1997 decision, City of Boerne v. Flores, in which the court ruled that the predecessor to the current law, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, exceeded Congress's authority and was unconstitutional as applied to the states." 
  48. ^ Vikram David Amar (July 27, 2005). "Casing John Roberts". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/27/opinion/27amar.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "SEMINOLE TRIBE v. FLORIDA (1996) In this seemingly technical 11th Amendment dispute about whether states can be sued in federal courts, Justice O'Connor joined four others to override Congress's will and protect state prerogatives, even though the text of the Constitution contradicts this result." 
  49. ^ Linda Greenhouse (April 1, 1999). "Justices Seem Ready to Tilt More Toward States in Federalism". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/01/us/justices-seem-ready-to-tilt-more-toward-states-in-federalism.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "The argument in this case, Alden v. Maine, No. 98-436, proceeded on several levels simultaneously. On the surface ... On a deeper level, the argument was a continuation of the Court's struggle over an even more basic issue: the Government's substantive authority over the states." 
  50. ^ Michael A. Lindenberger (Michael A. Lindenberger). "The Court's Gay Rights Legacy". Time Magazine. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1818504,00.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "The decision in the Lawrence v. Texas case overturned convictions against two Houston men, whom police had arrested after busting into their home and finding them engaged in sex. And for the first time in their lives, thousands of gay men and women who lived in states where sodomy had been illegal were free to be gay without being criminals." 
  51. ^ Justice Sotomayor (July 16, 2009). "Retire the 'Ginsburg rule' -- The 'Roe' recital". USA Today. http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/07/retire-the-ginsburg-rule-.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "The court's decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey reaffirmed the court holding of Roe. That is the precedent of the court and settled, in terms of the holding of the court." 
  52. ^ Charles Krauthammer (Dec. 18, 2000). "The Winner in Bush v. Gore?". Time Magazine. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,998788,00.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31. "Re-enter the Rehnquist court. Amid the chaos, somebody had to play Daddy. ... the Supreme Court eschewed subtlety this time and bluntly stopped the Florida Supreme Court in its tracks--and stayed its willfulness. By 5-4, mind you, ..." 
  53. ^ Charles Babington and Peter Baker (September 30, 2005). "Roberts Confirmed as 17th Chief Justice". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/29/AR2005092900859.html. Retrieved 2009-11-01. "John Glover Roberts Jr. was sworn in yesterday as the 17th chief justice of the United States, enabling President Bush to put his stamp on the Supreme Court for decades to come, even as he prepares to name a second nominee to the nine-member court." 
  54. ^ Linda Greenhouse (July 1, 2007). "In Steps Big and Small, Supreme Court Moved Right". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/washington/01scotus.html. Retrieved 2009-11-01. "It was the Supreme Court that conservatives had long yearned for and that liberals feared ... This was a more conservative court, sometimes muscularly so, sometimes more tentatively, its majority sometimes differing on methodology but agreeing on the outcome in cases big and small." 
  55. ^ Charlie Savage (July 14, 2009). "Respecting Precedent, or Settled Law, Unless It's Not Settled". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/us/politics/15abortion.html. Retrieved 2009-11-01. "Gonzales v. Carhart — in which the Supreme Court narrowly upheld a federal ban on the late-term abortion procedure opponents call "partial birth abortion" — to be settled law." 
  56. ^ "A Bad Day for Democracy". The Christian Science Monitor. http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2010/0122/Supreme-Court-s-campaign-ruling-a-bad-day-for-democracy. Retrieved January 22, 2010. 
  57. ^ Robert Barnes (October 1, 2009). "Justices to Decide if State Gun Laws Violate Rights". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/30/AR2009093001723.html. Retrieved 2009-11-01. "The landmark 2008 decision to strike down the District of Columbia's ban on handgun possession was the first time the court had said the amendment grants an individual right to own a gun for self-defense. But the 5 to 4 opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller..." 
  58. ^ Linda Greenhouse (April 18, 2008). "Justice Stevens Renounces Capital Punishment". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/washington/18memo.html. Retrieved 2009-11-01. "His renunciation of capital punishment in the lethal injection case, Baze v. Rees, was likewise low key and undramatic." 
  59. ^ Linda Greenhouse (June 26, 2008). "Supreme Court Rejects Death Penalty for Child Rape". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/washington/26scotuscnd.html. Retrieved 2009-11-01. "The death penalty is unconstitutional as a punishment for the rape of a child, a sharply divided Supreme Court ruled Wednesday ... The 5-to-4 decision overturned death penalty laws in Louisiana and five other states." 
  60. ^ 16 Stat. 44
  61. ^ Mintz, S. (2007). "The New Deal in Decline". Digital History. University of Houston. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=479. Retrieved 2009-10-27. 
  62. ^ Hodak, George (2007). "February 5, 1937: FDR Unveils Court Packing Plan". ABAjournal.com. American Bar Association. http://abajournal.com/magazine/february_5_1937/. Retrieved 2009-01-29. 
  63. ^ "Justices, Number of", in Hall, Ely Jr., Grossman, and Wiecek (editors), The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. Oxford University Press 1992, ISBN 0-19-505935-6
  64. ^ See Article Two of the United States Constitution.
  65. ^ "United States Senate. "Nominations"". http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Nominations.htm. 
  66. ^ See 5 U.S.C. § 2902.
  67. ^ 28 U.S.C. § 4. If two justices are commissioned on the same date, then the oldest one has precedence.
  68. ^ Balkin, Jack M.. "The passionate intensity of the confirmation process". Jurist. http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forum/symposium-jc/balkin.php. Retrieved 2008-02-13. 
  69. ^ See, e.g., Evans v. Stephens, 387 F.3d 1220 (11th Cir. 2004), which concerned the recess appointment of William Pryor. Concurring in denial of certiorari, Justice Stevens observed that the case involved "the first such appointment of an Article III judge in nearly a half century" 544 U.S. 942 (2005) (Stevens, J., concurring in denial of cert) (internal quotation marks deleted).
  70. ^ a b Fisher, Louis (2001-09-05). "Recess Appointments of Federal Judges" (PDF). CRSN Report for Congress. Congressional Research Service (The Library of Congress) RL31112: 16–18. http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RL31112.pdf. Retrieved 2010-08-06. "Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the making of recess appointments to the Supreme Court of the United States may not be wholly consistent with the best interests of the Supreme Court, the nominee who may be involved, the litigants before the Court, nor indeed the people of the United States, and that such appointments, therefore, should not be made except under unusual circumstances and for the purpose of preventing or ending a demonstrable breakdown in the administration of the Court's business." 
  71. ^ The resolution passed by a vote of 48 to 37, mainly along party lines; Democrats supported the resolution 48-4, and Republicans opposed it 33-0.
  72. ^ Appel, Jacob M. (2009-08-22). "Anticipating the Incapacitated Justice". Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-m-appel/anticipating-the-incapaci_b_266179.html. Retrieved 2009-08-23. 
  73. ^ Ali, Ambreen (2010-06-16). "How Presidents Influence the Court". Congress.org. http://www.congress.org/news/2010/06/16/how_presidents_influence_the_court. Retrieved 2010-06-16. 
  74. ^ Baker, Peter (August 7, 2010). "Kagan Is Sworn in as the Fourth Woman, and 112th Justice, on the Supreme Court". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/us/08kagan.html. Retrieved August 8, 2010. 
  75. ^ Storm Center: The Supreme Court in American Politics (6th ed.). W.W. Norton & Company. 2003. p. 46. ISBN 0393932184. 
  76. ^ "Religion of the Supreme Court". adherents.com. 2006-01-31. http://www.adherents.com/adh_sc.html. Retrieved 2010-07-09. 
  77. ^ Segal, Jeffrey A.; Spaeth, Harold J. (2002). The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model Revisited. Cambridge Univ. Press.. p. 183. ISBN 0-521-78971-0. 
  78. ^ Gibson, David (2010-05-10). "No Protestants: A New Order in the Supreme Court". Politics Daily. http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/05/10/no-protestants-a-new-order-in-the-supreme-court/. Retrieved 2010-07-08. 
  79. ^ See for example Sandra Day O'Connor:How the first woman on the Supreme Court became its most influential justice, by Joan Biskupic, Harper Collins, 2005, p. 105. Also Rookie on the Bench: The Role of the Junior Justice by Clare Cushman, Journal of Supreme Court History 32 no. 3 (2008), pp. 282–296.
  80. ^ "Breyer Just Missed Record as Junior Justice". http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1199873130560. Retrieved 2008-01-11. 
  81. ^ "Judicial Salaries Since 1968". United States Courts. http://www.uscourts.gov/Viewer.aspx?doc=/uscourts/JudgesJudgeships/docs/JudicialSalarieschart.pdf. Retrieved 2010-09-25. 
  82. ^ Toobin, Jeffrey (2010-03-22). "After Stevens. What will the Supreme Court be without its liberal leader?". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/03/22/100322fa_fact_toobin. Retrieved 2010-03-16. "So far, Sotomayor seems to be voting much like Souter, an ally of Stevens, whom she replaced." 
  83. ^ a b barnes, robert (2010-07-11). "The un-routine sets apart Sotomayor's first term". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/10/AR2010071002968.html?sid=ST2010071002894. Retrieved 2010-07-12. "It is hard to find a significant case in which Sotomayor's replacement of Souter made a difference in the outcome." 
  84. ^ "Justice agreement, Stat Pack 09" (PDF). SCOTUSblog. 2010-07-07. http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Final-Charts-070710-JA.pdf. Retrieved 2010-07-08. 
  85. ^ Toobin, Jeffrey. The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, Doubleday, 2007 ISBN 0-385-51640-1
  86. ^ Lane, Charles (2006-01-31). "Kennedy Seen as The Next Justice In Court's Middle". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/30/AR2006013001356.html?nav=hcmodule. Retrieved 2008-02-14. 
  87. ^ Golstein, Tom (2010-06-30). "Evertyhing you read about the Supreme Court is wrong (except here, maybe)". SCOTUSblog. http://www.scotusblog.com/2010/06/everything-you-read-about-the-supreme-court-is-wrong/. Retrieved 2010-07-07. 
  88. ^ Among the examples mentioned by Goldstein are:
    • Dolan v. United States, which interpreted judges' prerogatives broadly, typically a "conservative" result, in which the majority consisted of the five junior Justices: Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer, Alito, and Sotomayor.
    • Magwood v. Patterson, expanding habeas corpus petitions, a "liberal" result, in an opinion by Thomas, joined by Stevens, Scalia, Breyer, and Sotomayor.
    • Shady Grove Orthopedic Associates v. Allstate Insurance Co., which yielded a pro-plaintiff result in an opinion by Scalia joined by Roberts, Stevens, Thomas, and Sotomayor.
  89. ^ Golstein notes that in the 2009 term, the justice most consistently pro-government was Alito, and not the commonly perceived "arch-conservatives" Scalia and Thomas.
  90. ^ a b "Final October 2010 Stat Pack available". SCOTUSblog. 2011-06-27. http://www.scotusblog.com/2011/06/final-october-term-2010-stat-pack-available/. Retrieved 2011-06-28. 
  91. ^ "End of Term statistical analysis - October 2010" (PDF). SCOTUSblog. 2011-07-01. http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/SB_Summary_Memo_OT10.pdf. Retrieved 2011-07-02. 
  92. ^ "Cases by Vote Split" (PDF). SCOTUSblog. 2011-06-27. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/SB_votesplit_OT10_final.pdf. Retrieved 2011-06-28. 
  93. ^ "Justice agreement - Highs and Lows" (PDF). SCOTUSblog. 2011-06-27. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/SB_agreement_highs_and_lows_OT10_final.pdf. Retrieved 2011-06-28. 
  94. ^ "Justice agreement" (PDF). SCOTUSblog. 2011-06-27. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/SB_agreement_OT10_final.pdf. Retrieved 2011-06-28. 
  95. ^ "Frequency in the majority" (PDF). SCOTUSblog. 2011-06-27. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/SB_frequency_OT10_final.pdf. Retrieved 2011-06-28. 
  96. ^ "Five-to-Four cases" (PDF). SCOTUSblog. 2011-06-27. http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/SB_five-to-four_OT10_final.pdf. Retrieved 2011-06-28. 
  97. ^ a b c d Adam Liptak (September 7, 2010). "Polarization of Supreme Court Is Reflected in Justices' Clerks". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/us/politics/07clerks.html?pagewanted=1&hpw. Retrieved September 7, 2010. 
  98. ^ William E. Nelson, Harvey Rishikof, I. Scott Messinger, Michael Jo (Vol. 62:6:1749). "The Liberal Tradition of the Supreme Court Clerkship: Its Rise, Fall, and Reincarnation?". Vanderbilt Law Review. http://www.vanderbiltlawreview.org/articles/2009/11/Nelson-et-al.-Supreme-Court-Clerkships-62-Vand.-L.-Rev.-1749-2009.pdf. Retrieved September 7, 2010. 
  99. ^ a b c d "Plan Your Trip (quote:) "In mid-May, after the oral argument portion of the Term has concluded, the Court takes the Bench Mondays at 10AM for the release of orders and opinions."". US Senator John McCain. 2009-10-24. http://mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=VisitingWashingtonDC.PlanYourTrip#supremecourt. Retrieved 2009-10-24. 
  100. ^ a b c "Visiting the Court". Supreme Court of the United States. 2010-03-18. http://www.supremecourt.gov/visiting/visiting.aspx. Retrieved 2010-03-19. 
  101. ^ "Visiting-Capitol-Hill". docstoc. 2009-10-24. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/11663498/Visiting-Capitol-Hill. Retrieved 2009-10-24. 
  102. ^ "How The Court Works". The Supreme Court Historical Society. 2009-10-24. http://www.supremecourthistory.org/works/supremecourthistory_works_howthecourtworks_05.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-24. 
  103. ^ "United States Code: Title 28,1330. Actions against foreign states". http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/28/usc_sec_28_00001330----000-.html. Retrieved October 7, 2010. 
  104. ^ "United States Code: Title 28,1332. Diversity of citizenship; amount in controversy; costs". http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/28/usc_sec_28_00001332----000-.html. 
  105. ^ "United States Code: Title 28,1331. Federal question". http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/28/usc_sec_28_00001331----000-.html. 
  106. ^ "United States Code: Title 28,1339. Postal matters". http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/28/usc_sec_28_00001339----000-.html. 
  107. ^ "United States Code: Title 28,1345. United States as a Plaintiff". http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/28/usc_sec_28_00001345----000-.html. 
  108. ^ "United States Code: Title 28,1346. United States as a Defendant". 
  109. ^ Allotment Order dated September 28, 2010.
  110. ^ 28 U.S.C. § 1254
  111. ^ 28 U.S.C. § 1257; see also Adequate and independent state grounds
  112. ^ 28 U.S.C. § 1872 See Georgia v. Brailsford, 3 U.S. 1 (1794), in which the Court conducted a jury trial.
  113. ^ Tony Mauro (2005-10-21). "Roberts Dips Toe Into Cert Pool". Legal Times. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1129799113829. Retrieved 2007-10-31. 
  114. ^ Tony Mauro (2006-07-04). "Justice Alito Joins Cert Pool Party". Legal Times. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1144330162287. Retrieved 2007-10-31. 
  115. ^ Adam Liptak (2008-09-25). "A Second Justice Opts Out of a Longtime Custom: The 'Cert. Pool'". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/washington/26memo.html?ex=1380168000&en=d58acbfb583fd4f2&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink. Retrieved 2008-10-17. 
  116. ^ See generally, Tushnet, Mark, ed. (2008) I Dissent: Great Opposing Opinions in Landmark Supreme Court Cases, Malaysia: Beacon Press, pp. 256, ISBN 978-0-8070-0036-6
  117. ^ 28 U.S.C. § 1
  118. ^ 28 U.S.C. § 2109
  119. ^ Pepall, Lynne; Richards, Daniel L.; Norman, George (1999). Industrial Organization: Contemporary Theory and Practice. Cincinnati: South-Western College Publishing. pp. 11–12. 
  120. ^ The American Conflict by Horace Greeley (1873), p. 106; also in The Life of Andrew Jackson (2001) by Robert Vincent Remini
  121. ^ Mendelson, Wallace (1992). "Separation of Powers". In Hall, Kermit L.. The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. Oxford University Press. p. 775. ISBN 0195058356. 
  122. ^ Vile, John R. (1992). "Court curbing". In Hall, Kermit L.. The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. Oxford University Press. p. 202. ISBN 0195058356. 
  123. ^ a b c See for example "Judicial activism" in The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States, edited by Kermit Hall; article written by Gary McDowell
  124. ^ Damon W. Root (September 21, 2009). "Lochner and Liberty". Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204488304574427193229878748.html. Retrieved 2009-10-23. 
  125. ^ Peter Steinfels (May 22, 2005). "'A Church That Can and Cannot Change': Dogma". New York Times: Books. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/22/books/review/22STEINFE.html. Retrieved 2009-10-22. 
  126. ^ David G. Savage (October 23, 2008). "Roe vs. Wade? Bush vs. Gore? What are the worst Supreme Court decisions?". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/23/nation/na-scotus23. Retrieved 2009-10-23. "a lack of judicial authority to enter an inherently political question that had previously been left to the states" 
  127. ^ Neil A. Lewis (September 19, 2002). "Judicial Nominee Says His Views Will Not Sway Him on the Bench". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/19/us/judicial-nominee-says-his-views-will-not-sway-him-on-the-bench.html. Retrieved 2009-10-22. "he has written scathingly of Roe v. Wade" 
  128. ^ "Election Guide 2008: The Issues: Abortion". New York Times. 2008. http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/issues/abortion.html. Retrieved 2009-10-22. 
  129. ^ Pat Buchanan (July 6, 2005). "The judges war: an issue of power". Townhall.com. http://townhall.com/columnists/PatBuchanan/2005/07/06/the_judges_war_an_issue_of_power. Retrieved 2009-10-23. "The Brown decision of 1954, desegregating the schools of 17 states and the District of Columbia, awakened the nation to the court's new claim to power." 
  130. ^ Adam Clymer (May 29, 1998). "Barry Goldwater, Conservative and Individualist, Dies at 89". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/04/01/specials/goldwater-obit.html. Retrieved 2009-10-22. 
  131. ^ Abraham Lincoln (March 4, 1861). "First Inaugural Address". National Center. http://www.nationalcenter.org/LincolnFirstInaugural.html. Retrieved 2009-10-23. "At the same time, the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal." 
  132. ^ George F. Will (May 27, 2009). "Identity Justice: Obama's Conventional Choice". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/26/AR2009052602348.html. Retrieved 2009-10-22. "Thurgood Marshall quote taken from the Stanford Law Review, summer 1992" 
  133. ^ Irons, Peter. A People's History of the Supreme Court. London: Penguin, 1999. ISBN 0-670-87006-4
  134. ^ Adam Liptak (January 31, 2009). "To Nudge, Shift or Shove the Supreme Court Left". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/weekinreview/01liptak.html. Retrieved 2009-10-23. "Every judge who's been appointed to the court since Lewis Powell...in 1971...has been more conservative than his or her predecessor" 
  135. ^ Charles Babington (April 5, 2005). "Senator Links Violence to 'Political' Decisions". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26236-2005Apr4.html. Retrieved 2009-10-22. 
  136. ^ Adam Liptak (February 2, 2006). "A Court Remade in the Reagan Era's Image". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/02/politics/politicsspecial1/02conservatives.html?pagewanted=print. Retrieved 2009-10-22. 
  137. ^ David G. Savage (July 13, 2008). "Supreme Court finds history is a matter of opinions". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/13/nation/na-scotus13. Retrieved 2009-10-22. 
  138. ^ Andrew P. Napolitano (February 17, 2005). "No Defense". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/17/opinion/17napolitano.html. Retrieved 2009-10-23. 
  139. ^ Thomas B. Edsall and Michael A. Fletcher (September 5, 2005). "Again, Right Voices Concern About Gonzales". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/04/AR2005090401338.html. Retrieved 2009-10-23. 
  140. ^ Charles Lane (March 20, 2005). "Conservative's Book on Supreme Court Is a Bestseller". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50246-2005Mar19.html. Retrieved 2009-10-23. 
  141. ^ Mark I. Sutherland; Dave Meyer, William J. Federer, Alan Keyes, Ed Meese, Phyllis Schlafly, Howard Phillips, Alan E. Sears, Ben DuPre, Rev. Rick Scarborough, David C. Gibbs III, Mathew D. Staver, Don Feder, Herbert W. Titus (2005). Judicial Tyranny: The New Kings of America. St. Louis, Missouri: Amerisearch Inc.. p. 242. ISBN 0-9753455-6-7. http://books.google.com/?id=VBrjcQkzV94C&pg=PA96. 
  142. ^ a b Michiko Kakutani (July 6, 2009). "Appointees Who Really Govern America". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/books/07kaku.html. Retrieved 2009-10-27. 
  143. ^ By Emily Bazelon (July 6, 2009). "The Supreme Court on Trial: James MacGregor Burns takes aim at the bench.". Slate. http://www.slate.com/id/2222028/. Retrieved 2009-10-27. 
  144. ^ Special keynote address by President Ronald Reagan, November 1988, at the second annual lawyers convention of the Federalist Society, Washington, D.C.
  145. ^ Stuart Taylor Jr. (October 15, 1987). "Reagan Points to a Critic, Who Points Out It Isn't So". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/15/us/reagan-points-to-a-critic-who-points-out-it-isn-t-so.html. Retrieved 2009-10-23. 
  146. ^ Kelley Beaucar Vlahos (September 11, 2003). "Judge Bork: Judicial Activism Is Going Global". Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,97117,00.html. Retrieved 2009-10-23. "What judges have wrought is a coup d’etat – slow moving and genteel, but a coup d’etat nonetheless." 
  147. ^ a b c Naftali Bendavid (July 13, 2009). "Franken: ‘An Incredible Honor to Be Here’". Wall Street Journal. http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/07/13/franken-an-incredible-honor-to-be-here/. Retrieved 2009-10-22. 
  148. ^ Hazard, Geoffrey C. Jr. (1978-79). Supreme Court as a Legislature. 64. Cornell L. Rev.. p. 1. http://heinonlinebackup.com/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/clqv64&section=7 
  149. ^ James Madison aka "Publius" (1789). "The Federalist Papers/No. 45 The Alleged Danger From the Powers of the Union to the State Governments Considered". Wikisource. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Federalist_Papers/No._45. Retrieved 2009-10-24. "the States will retain, under the proposed Constitution, a very extensive portion of active sovereignty" 
  150. ^ Alexander Hamilton (aka Publius) (1789). "Federalist No. 28". Independent Journal. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed28.asp. Retrieved 2009-10-24. "Power being almost always the rival of power; the General Government will at all times stand ready to check the usurpations of the state government; and these will have the same disposition toward the General Government." 
  151. ^ James Madison (January 25, 1788). "The Federalist". Independent Journal (44 (quote: 8th para)). http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa44.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-27. "seems well calculated at once to secure to the States a reasonable discretion in providing for the conveniency of their imports and exports, and to the United States a reasonable check against the abuse of this discretion." 
  152. ^ James Madison (February 16, 1788). "The Federalist No. 56 (quote: 6th para)". Independent Journal. http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa56.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-27. "In every State there have been made, and must continue to be made, regulations on this subject which will, in many cases, leave little more to be done by the federal legislature, than to review the different laws, and reduce them in one general act." 
  153. ^ Alexander Hamilton (December 14, 1787). "The Federalist No. 22 (quote: 4th para)". New York Packet. http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa22.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-27. "The interfering and unneighborly regulations of some States, contrary to the true spirit of the Union, have, in different instances, given just cause of umbrage and complaint to others, and it is to be feared that examples of this nature, if not restrained by a national control, would be multiplied and extended till they became not less serious sources of animosity and discord than injurious impediments to the intercourse between the different parts of the Confederacy." 
  154. ^ Madison (January 22, 1788). "Federalist Papers". New York Packet. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed42.asp. Retrieved 2009-10-27. "The regulation of commerce with the Indian tribes is very properly unfettered from two limitations in the articles of Confederation, which render the provision obscure and contradictory. The power is there restrained to Indians, not members of any of the States, and is not to violate or infringe the legislative right of any State within its own limits." 
  155. ^ Akhil Reed Amar (1998). "The Bill of Rights -- Creation and Reconstruction". New York Times: Books. http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/a/amar-rights.html. Retrieved 2009-10-24. "many lawyers embrace a tradition that views state governments as the quintessential threat to individual and minority rights, and federal officials--especially federal courts--as the special guardians of those rights." 
  156. ^ Scott Gold (June 14, 2005). "Justices Swat Down Texans' Effort to Weaken Species Protection Law". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jun/14/nation/na-cavebugs14. Retrieved 2009-10-30. "Purcell filed a $60-million lawsuit against the U.S. government in 1999, arguing that cave bugs could not be regulated through the commerce clause because they had no commercial value and did not cross state lines. 'I'm disappointed,' Purcell said." 
  157. ^ a b Robert B. Reich (September 13, 1987). "The Commerce Clause; The Expanding Economic Vista". New York Times Magazine. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/13/magazine/the-commerce-clause-the-expanding-economic-vista.html. Retrieved 2009-10-27. 
  158. ^ FDCH e-Media (January 10, 2006). "U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Judge Samuel Alito's Nomination to the Supreme Court". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/10/AR2006011001087.html. Retrieved 2009-10-30. "I don't think there's any question at this point in our history that Congress' power under the commerce clause is quite broad, and I think that reflects a number of things, including the way in which our economy and our society has developed and all of the foreign and interstate activity that takes place -- Samuel Alito" 
  159. ^ Adam Cohen (December 7, 2003). "Editorial Observer; Brandeis's Views on States' Rights, and Ice-Making, Have New Relevance". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/07/opinion/editorial-observer-brandeis-s-views-states-rights-ice-making-have-new-relevance.html. Retrieved 2009-10-30. "But Brandeis's dissent contains one of the most famous formulations in American law: that the states should be free to serve as laboratories of democracy" 
  160. ^ Lino Graglia (July 19, 2005). "Altering 14th Amendment would curb court's activist tendencies". University of Texas School of Law. http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2005/071905_court.html. Retrieved 2009-10-23. 
  161. ^ Jacob C. Hornberger (2009-10-30). "Freedom and the Fourteenth Amendment". The Future of Freedom Foundation. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=com.ubuntu%3Aen-US%3Aunofficial&q=%22misused+the+fourteenth+amendment%22&aq=f&oq=&aqi=. Retrieved 2009-10-30. "Fourteenth Amendment. Some argue that it is detrimental to the cause of freedom because it expands the power of the federal government. Others contend that the amendment expands the ambit of individual liberty. I fall among those who believe that the Fourteenth Amendment has been a positive force for freedom." 
  162. ^ David G. Savage (October 23, 2008). "Roe vs. Wade? Bush vs. Gore? What are the worst Supreme Court decisions?". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/23/nation/na-scotus23. Retrieved 2009-10-23. "UC Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu described the decision as 'utterly lacking in any legal principle" and added that the court was "remarkably unashamed to say so explicitly.'" 
  163. ^ reporter from the Baltimore Sun (September 5, 2005). "Here are eight people who could be considered the fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist -- Michael McConnell (biography)". Chicago Tribune. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/bal-scotus-candidates0905,0,2713818.story. Retrieved 2009-10-22. "criticized the Supreme Court for its decision in Bush v. Gore" 
  164. ^ CQ Transcriptions (Senator Kohl) (July 14, 2009). "Key Excerpt: Sotomayor on Bush v. Gore". Washington Post. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/supreme-court/2009/07/key_excerpt_sotomayor_on_bush.html. Retrieved 2009-10-23. "Many critics saw the Bush v. Gore decision as an example of the judiciary improperly injecting itself into a political dispute"" 
  165. ^ Adam Cohen (Opinion section) (March 21, 2004). "Justice Rehnquist Writes on Hayes vs. Tilden, With His Mind on Bush v. Gore". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/21/opinion/21SUN4.html. Retrieved 2009-10-23. "The Bush v. Gore majority, made up of Mr. Rehnquist and his fellow conservatives, interpreted the equal protection clause in a sweeping way they had not before, and have not since. And they stated that the interpretation was 'limited to the present circumstances,' words that suggest a raw exercise of power, not legal analysis." 
  166. ^ a b c Kevin McNamara (letter to the editor) (June 3, 2009). "Letters -- Supreme Court Activism?". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/opinion/lweb04douthat.html. Retrieved 2009-10-23. 
  167. ^ David Margolick (September 23, 2007). "Meet the Supremes". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/books/review/Margolick-t.html?pagewanted=print. Retrieved 2009-10-23. "Beat reporters and academics initially denounced the court's involvement in that case, its hastiness to enter the political thicket and the half-baked and strained decision that resulted." 
  168. ^ CQ Transcriptions (January 13, 2006). "U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Judge Samuel Alito's Nomination to the Supreme Court". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/13/AR2006011300802.html. Retrieved 2009-10-28. "...Baker v. Carr, the reapportionment case. We heard Justice Frankfurter who delivered a scathing dissent in that..." 
  169. ^ William Safire (April 24, 2005). "Dog Whistle". New York Times Magazine. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/magazine/24ONLANGUAGE.html. Retrieved 2009-10-22. 
  170. ^ David G. Savage (October 23, 2008). "Roe vs. Wade? Bush vs. Gore? What are the worst Supreme Court decisions?". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/23/nation/na-scotus23. Retrieved 2009-10-23. 
  171. ^ Laura Mansnerus (October 16, 2005). "Diminished Eminence In a Changed Domain". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9802EED9173FF935A25753C1A9639C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2009-10-22. 
  172. ^ Ronald Smothers (October 16, 2005). "In Long Branch, No Olive Branches". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A03EED9173FF935A25753C1A9639C8B63. Retrieved 2009-10-22. 
  173. ^ David Templeton (March 12, 2006). "Reporter fights to air her story -- Article on choking game pulled from student newspaper". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06071/667880-58.stm. Retrieved 2009-10-22. 
  174. ^ Adam Cohen (January 15, 2008). "Editorial Observer -- A Supreme Court Reversal: Abandoning the Rights of Voters". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/opinion/15tue4.html. Retrieved 2009-10-23. 
  175. ^ David G. Savage (July 13, 2008). "Supreme Court finds history is a matter of opinions". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/13/nation/na-scotus13. Retrieved 2009-10-30. "This suggests that the right of habeas corpus was not limited to English subjects ... protects people who are captured ... at Guantanamo ... Wrong, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in dissent. He said English history showed that the writ of habeas corpus was limited to sovereign English territory" 
  176. ^ George F. Will (May 27, 2009). "Identity Justice: Obama's Conventional Choice". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/26/AR2009052602348.html. Retrieved 2009-10-22. 
  177. ^ a b James Taranto (June 9, 2009). "Speaking Ruth to Power". Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124456827959598503.html. Retrieved 2009-10-22. 
  178. ^ Woodward, Bob; Scott Armstrong (1979). The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court. United States of America: Simon & Schuster. p. 541. ISBN 978-0-7432-7402-9. http://books.google.com/?id=6JtJ23GmD3AC. "A court which is final and unreviewable needs more careful scrutiny than any other" 
  179. ^ a b c d Larry Sabato (September 26, 2007). "It's Time to Reshape the Constitution and Make America a Fairer Country". Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-sabato/its-time-to-reshape-the-c_b_66030.html. Retrieved 2009-10-23. 
  180. ^ Christopher Moore (November 1, 2008). "Our Canadian Republic -- Do we display too much deference to authority ... or not enough?". Literary Review of Canada. http://reviewcanada.ca/essays/2008/11/01/our-canadian-republic/. Retrieved 2009-10-23. 
  181. ^ Tomkins, Adam (2002). "In Defence of the Political Constitution". United Kingdom: 22 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 157. "Bush v. Gore" 
  182. ^ a b c "C-SPAN Supreme Court Week". CSPAN. 2009-10-04. http://supremecourt.c-span.org. Retrieved 2009-10-25. 
  183. ^ James Vicini (April 24, 2008). "Justice Scalia defends Bush v. Gore ruling". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2443345820080424. Retrieved 2009-10-23. "The nine-member Supreme Court conducts its deliberations in secret and the justices traditionally won't discuss pending cases in public" 
  184. ^ "Public Says Televising Court Is Good for Democracy". PublicMind.fdu.edu. 2010-03-09. http://publicmind.fdu.edu/courttv/. Retrieved 2010-12-14. 
  185. ^ Mauro, Tony (2010-03-09). "Poll Shows Public Support for Cameras at the High Court". National Law Journal. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202445941834. Retrieved 2010-12-18. 
  186. ^ James Vicini (April 24, 2008). "Justice Scalia defends Bush v. Gore ruling". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2443345820080424. Retrieved 2009-10-23. "Scalia was interviewed for the CBS News show "60 Minutes" 
  187. ^ a b Alex Altman (book reviewer) (Jan. 27, 2009). "Life Without Lawyers: Liberating Americans From Too Much Law By Philip K. Howard". Time. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1874370,00.html. Retrieved 2009-10-23. 
  188. ^ Philip K. Howard (January 26, 2009). "How Modern Law Makes Us Powerless". Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123293018734014067.html. Retrieved 2009-10-28. "The idea of freedom as personal power got pushed aside in recent decades by a new idea of freedom -- where the focus is on the rights of whoever might disagree." 
  189. ^ Peter Friedman (March 26, 2009). "Taking care of people and keeping standards high". Geniocity.com. http://blogs.geniocity.com/friedman/tag/philip-k-howard/. Retrieved 2009-10-30. "Nor does Howard dig deep enough to explain the excesses of American tort law and the eagerness to seek vast damages for civil injuries. He blames the overreaching of Earl Warren's Supreme Court in its sympathy for the little man, and the mood of antipathy to large institutions starting in the 1960s." 
  190. ^ "Philip K. Howard, New York Sun". Common Good. June 4, 2007. http://commongood.org/learn-reading-cgpubs-opeds.html. Retrieved 2009-10-30. "Common Good Chair Philip K. Howard discusses the Supreme Court's recent repudiation of Conley v. Gibson, a 1957 case which opened the floodgates to abusive litigation, and argues that the Court should take responsibility for a shift in judicial approach towards affirmative assertion of values of reasonableness" 
  191. ^ Linda Greenhouse (September 10, 2007). "New Focus on the Effects of Life Tenure". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/washington/10scotus.html. Retrieved 2009-10-10. 
  192. ^ Sanford Levinson (9 February 2009). "Supreme court prognosis -- Ruth Bader Ginsburg's surgery for pancreatic cancer highlights why US supreme court justices shouldn't serve life terms". London: guardian.co.uk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/feb/09/supreme-court-ruth-bader-ginsburg. Retrieved 2009-10-10. 
  193. ^ See also Arthur D. Hellman, "Reining in the Supreme Court: Are Term Limits the Answer?", in Roger C. Cramton and Paul D. Carrington, eds., Reforming the Court: Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices (Carolina Academic Press, 2006), p. 291.
  194. ^ Richard Epstein, "Mandatory Retirement for Supreme Court Justices", in Roger C. Cramton and Paul D. Carrington, eds., Reforming the Court: Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices (Carolina Academic Press, 2006), p. 415.
  195. ^ Alexander Hamilton (June 14, 1788). "The Federalist No. 78". Independent Journal. http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa78.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-28. "and that as nothing can contribute so much to its firmness and independence as permanency in office, this quality may therefore be justly regarded as an indispensable ingredient in its constitution, and, in a great measure, as the citadel of the public justice and the public security." 

References

Further reading

External links