The federal government really has tried to use the concerns of terrorism in the post-9/11 world to expand its powers and to keep the courts out and say no, the police, the FBI, the CIA need substantially greater discretion, |
The letters just started going out in the last day or so. Up until today, we still see no signs of misuse of the data. Had we discovered earlier that the data was being misused, we would have come out with an announcement much faster. |
The nomination, unless it makes substantial progress, is in jeopardy, |
The president really would need to replace Justice O'Connor with a woman. |
The Supreme Court explained to universities how it is that they can take race into account in admitting students, and it does lay a road map for the next 25 years on how they'll do that, |
The Supreme Court has never confronted the question of an American being held here [in the United States], or where you have a whole group of people who are being held in a U.S. base at one time without access to courts whatsoever. |
There is clear repudiation of the government's absolute position that the courts have no role. The Supreme Court did offer the executive a real change to balance how much procedure the detainees would get, it's not that they have all the rights of a U.S. citizen in every court case, but it does absolutely reject the president's claim that it is only his choice who gets to go to court and when. |
We discovered the tape missing. |
William Rehnquist was well respected by all his colleagues. John Roberts seemingly has that, plus the added strength of his open personality. |
You can't ever label this court as totally conservative. It's always hard to put the court in a box of a particular label. |