Category Archives: Uncategorized

Tuesday Talk*: Scrutiny Of The Veeps (Update)

At some point later today. Democratic presidential candidate (that’s right, the vote’s been taken and the deed is done) Kamala Harris will announce her choice of running mate. It could be one of the worn list of potential vice presidents, or it could be a surprise. Who knows? More importantly, who cares? Why has the scrutiny of Harris’ VP choice engendered such vicious and critical scrutiny?

“Common wisdom” is that the person chosen will be a “signal” of what Harris’ presidency would be about, which raises two questions. First, is it a substantive signal or is it a political choice calculated to help Harris beat Trump in the general election. Continue reading →

Getting To Know Gorsuch

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has a book coming out, so he’s doing what every author does to sell books and what most justices don’t to avoid the appearance of impropriety. Justice Gorsuch sat for an interview with David French. To be fair, David is a lawyer, a never-Trump conservative and deeply religious, so there was little expectation of an interview starting with “j’accuse.”

That said, it was a very interesting interview and revealed some of Gorsuch’s views that are often overlooked by pundits lambasting him for being on the wrong side of a decision. Notably, he served as a judge on the Tenth Circuit from 2006 until 2017, when he was appointed by Trump to the Supreme Court, where he was well-regarded and uncontroversial. But nothing courts hatred like an appointment by Trump, even though a dear friend to SJ, Senior District Judge John Kane, testified on then-Judge Gorsuch’s behalf at his confirmation hearing. Continue reading →

When You Have To Call It “Kamalanomenon”

After the dread of realizing that President Biden was not going to be re-elected president, his withdrawal and the anointment of his successor, Kamala Harris, was sure to cause a reaction. After all, going from near-certain defeat to the possibility of winning is a huge paradigm shift, one that would naturally cause certain cohorts to enthusiastically embrace the change. Viva la difference, right?

And the reaction has been enthusiastic, especially in comparison to the doldrums of a party running an octogenarian of dubious fertility. So it is similarly natural that the opposition do its best to downplay the enthusiasm, and so they did. Continue reading →

Schumer Puts Judicial Supremacy On The Table

Not that it has any chance of passing in the current Congress, but if there is a major shift following the next election, who knows? Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has proposed what he delightfully calls the No Kings Act, the putative purpose of which is to reverse the Supreme Court’s presidential criminal immunity ruling in Trump v. US and strip the president (and vice president, although the Court never mentioned the Veep) of any immunity from prosecution whatsoever.

(1) NO IMMUNITY.—A President, former President, Vice President, or former Vice President shall not be entitled to any form of immunity (whether absolute, presumptive, or otherwise) from criminal prosecution for alleged violations of the criminal laws of the United States unless specified by Congress.

Continue reading →

Essential But Deadly: Free Speech On Campus

For all the cries about free speech when it serves their purpose, 70% of students on campus believe that “speech can be as damaging as physical violence” according to a new Knight Founndation campus survey.

Sixty percent believe that “[t]he climate at my school or on my campus prevents some people from saying things they believe, because others might find it offensive,” which is down from 65% in 2021, but still substantial. At the same time, students believe it has become more difficult to express themselves, with black students feeling it most. Continue reading →

Tuesday Talk*: Why Raise Term Limits Now, Joe?

At the LBJ Presidential Library in Saigon Austin, Texas, President Joe Biden made a major proposal to change the Supreme Court.

President Biden, warning that the country’s courts were being weaponized as part of an “extreme and unchecked” conservative agenda, said on Monday that he would push for legislation that would bring major changes to the Supreme Court, including term limits and an enforceable code of ethics on the justices.

Of course, what Biden means by “extreme and unchecked” might have something to do with the other tribe having greater control than his, and it would be less weaponized if it was the Warren court. But I digress. Continue reading →

Is Masculinity On The Ballot?

When Hulk Hogan spoke at the Republican National Convention, it never occurred to me that he might be anything more than one of a handful of has-been celebrities who would show up for Trump. After all, it was Trump backer Peter Thiel who financed his suit against Gawker, and if nothing else, he owed Thiel a huge debt. Did anyone even know if Hulk Hogan, who no doubt deeply regrets turning down a chance at Dancing with the Stars as his tiny star faded to black, was still alive?

But David French suggests that he was on the dais as an exemplar of the Trumpian exemplar of masculinity. Continue reading →

Karens Defining Kamala

Elizabeth Nolan Brown at Reason was on the call so you (and I) didn’t have to be, not that we were invited.

“Karens for Kamala?” actress Connie Britton joked.

Britton was one of two celebrities, several politicians, and, reportedly, more than 100,000 others on a Zoom call advertised as a way for white women to “show up for Kamala Harris.”

Good white women showed up for this call. Continue reading →