The first day of June marks the centennial of Pierce v. Society of Sisters, a landmark civil liberties decision in which the US Supreme Court struck down an amendment to the Oregon constitution mandating compulsory public education for all children between the ages of 8 and 16 who had not yet completed the eighth grade. [...]
The US Supreme Court in some ways is a more prominent issue in this year’s election than it has been in most previous elections, although its influence on voters is uncertain. As in every presidential race for the past forty years, abortion is the focal point of discussions about how the election might affect the [...]
President Biden’s recent proposal for eighteen-year term limits for U.S. Supreme Court Justices is a watershed in the perennial controversy over the composition and powers of the U.S. Supreme Court insofar as it is the first time that a sitting President has called for institutional reform of the Court. Although Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Court-packing plan [...]
June 4 marks the centennial of Meyer v. Nebraska, in which the US Supreme Court commenced its modern role as the guardian of non-economic personal liberties by striking down laws in Nebraska, Iowa, and Ohio that prohibited the teaching of German to elementary school children. Meyer itself remains a vital cornerstone for the protection of [...]
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of President Biden’s speech criticizing the Supreme Court’s rejection of Roe v. Wade is that he gave the speech at all. Presidents historically have wisely refrained from commenting on Supreme Court decisions. Biden’s delivery of the speech on the very same morning that the Court delivered its opinion in Dobbs [...]
Court packing, an idea that seemed forever discredited for 80 years after President Franklin Roosevelt’s notorious plan went down in flames in 1937, is back on the table. President Biden has appointed a commission to study the possibility of increasing the number of U.S. Supreme Court Justices, a response to calls from various Democrats to [...]
The U.S. Supreme Court last week issued its first ruling against coronavirus containment measures, invoking the First Amendment’s guarantee of free exercise of religion to enjoin an executive order by New York’s governor limiting attendance at religious services to 10 or 25 persons in areas classified as having a high risk for infections. The Court’s [...]
The U.S. Supreme Court has emerged as a significant election issue for the first time in more than fifty years. The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett has riveted the nation’s attention on the Court in a way that rarely if ever has occurred during a presidential campaign. [...]
The tumultuous controversy about whether President Trump and the Senate should try to fill the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat before the upcoming election presents high stake political and constitutional risks for both Republicans and Democrats. It also presents risks for long-term public confidence in the integrity of the Supreme Court. Republicans can hardly [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist William G. Ross of Samford University's Cumberland School of Law discusses the constitutional legacy of the First World War... American entry into the First World War one hundred years ago, on April 6, 1917, generated significant constitutional...
