Tag: Karlan’s Court

Strange bedfellows on the bench are a source and a sign of the Constitution’s flexibility.

The framers of the Constitution did not anticipate political parties.

In the marriage and voting rights cases, the world outside powerfully affected the court.

The Constitution assigns the job of carrying out its vision to all the branches of government, not just to the judiciary.

Justice Scalia betrayed originalist interpretation when he defended an individual right to own guns.

Today, the vast majority of felony defendants depend on appointed counsel to represent them, and the quality of representation varies wildly.

When Obama was sworn into office, there were 55 vacancies on the federal bench. There are now more than 75.

The Decades-Long Fight Against Political Money.

Pam Karlan on the Supreme Court’s Health Care Ruling.

“It’s my job to call balls and strikes and not to pitch or bat,” Chief Justice John Roberts once said. So why does his court tell litigants what to argue?

The Supreme Court may be signaling potential wrongdoers that they can infringe rights with impunity.

On New Challenges to the Fourth Amendment.

Ineffective trial lawyers, inconclusive evidence, inconsistent testimony, and impenetrable procedural thickets are not unique to capital cases.

Even if the Supreme Court decided that corporations are in every way like persons, there might be limits on the corporate role in politics.

In contrast to Loving v. Virginia, on the same-sex marriage issue the Court may have to make a decision before a national consensus emerges.

The question is not whether federal judges should strike down popularly enacted policies, but when.

The median lifespan of a national constitution is roughly the life expectancy of a Great Dane. Why has the U.S. Constitution endured?