184
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Why are Republicans (unlike Democrats) heavily criticized for their flip-flopping regarding the 2016/2020 US supreme court justice nominations?
The Democrats were in favour of appointing Garland in 2016, but now that the Republicans have set a precedent that Supreme Court Justices should not be appointed in an election year, the Republicans ...
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131
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Why are Republicans (unlike Democrats) heavily criticized for their flip-flopping regarding the 2016/2020 US supreme court justice nominations?
Why are the Republicans being criticized? Because in 2016 they didn't simply say it was party politics as the reason to oppose Obama's choice, nor even that they disagreed with his choice.
They chose ...
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126
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How did the Kavanaugh confirmation move so quickly despite the serious allegations?
The situation is fairly complex so I'm not surprised it was confusing. Here's the general rundown (partially pulled from this article for brevity)
Sometime in July, Ford (Kavanaugh's accuser) wrote a ...
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112
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What do Democrats have to gain, politically, by preventing Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court?
If senators can draw out the nomination process long enough, they have a chance of having a Democratic majority in the Senate during the next confirmation. Then Trump would have to nominate somebody ...
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106
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Why are people protesting against Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett?
There are a number of reasons why people oppose Barrett, among them:
Her stances on political issues: There is a fear that the bodily autonomy of women is under attack (see her stance on Roe v. Wade),...
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88
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Why is the debate on the composition of the U.S. Supreme Court so politicised?
This is the confluence of a large number of factors, several of which appear in other answers, but I'll focus on just two.
Short, vague, and old constitution
The United States has one of the ...
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84
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Why does the government not introduce an amendment to the constitution to allow abortion?
Because it likely wouldn't get passed.
In order for a Constitutional amendment to be passed, it currently needs 38 state legislatures to support it. For practical purposes, it also needs ...
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82
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Did two dissenting Supreme Court justices agree that Trump was "absolutely immune" to the Manhattan DA's subpoena?
For those interested in the gory details, please see the full decision in Trump v. Vance. The first half of the linked document contains the Court's majority opinion and the concurring opinion of ...
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71
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What do Democrats have to gain, politically, by preventing Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court?
Expanding on Elliot's answer.
Even if rushed, there is a process to approving a President's nomination. Nominating and approving another person before the November election would be possible, but it ...
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67
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How did the Kavanaugh confirmation move so quickly despite the serious allegations?
I'm not sure what the standard for evidence is (i.e. for references) on this site.
If you want to know, here's what I inferred from following the Twitters of a couple of (anti-Trump) American lawyers....
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65
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Why are Republicans (unlike Democrats) heavily criticized for their flip-flopping regarding the 2016/2020 US supreme court justice nominations?
The main reason for this is down to one question: who won the argument in 2016?
Because the Republicans had a majority in the Senate in 2016, it was them who decided how Obama's nomination would be ...
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64
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Why are legal decisions in the US so politicized?
There are 2 separate issues in your question, and I'll address them separately.
First: why do people comment on legal cases outside a discussion of the law?
Because law and justice are related, but ...
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63
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Why are legal decisions in the US so politicized?
When you study law and policy, you lose the illusion that there is some apolitical, impartial "Law" that brings about justice - let alone that such a thing exists inside courtrooms. If you'...
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60
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In the United States, why aren't both legislative chambers involved in the Supreme Court confirmation process?
The founders had two models in particularly in mind: the Ancient Roman Senate, and the UK parliament of Monarch/Lords/Commons.
In the UK, the House of Lords functioned as a Supreme Court. The ...
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57
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Why didn't Barack Obama try to force the Senate to hold hearings on SCOTUS nominee Merrick Garland?
In short: separation of (coequal) powers means the President can't order any such thing of Congress. Congress does as it wills, and the constitution has very little to say about whether it does its ...
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57
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Can the Democrats filibuster the vote for a new judge for the Supreme Court?
It is not possible for Democrats to filibuster the nomination under the current Senate rules, due to Mitch McConnell's use of the 'nuclear option' in 2017 which allowed a nomination debate to be ended ...
CDJB♦
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57
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On what grounds would Roe vs. Wade be a "bad law"?
When someone says something was "bad law" they don't literally mean that it was "poorly written." Law isn't a stylistic contest. They are not talking about grammatical mistakes, ...
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55
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Given a 4-4 tie, how would the Supreme Court determine results for a contested election?
Most cases never go straight to the Supreme Court; it only has original jurisdiction over a very small subset of cases, as described in the US Constitution. Outside of those areas, they are always ...
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54
votes
Why isn't the constitutionality of Trump's 2nd impeachment decided by the supreme court?
Because the US Supreme Court does not have the authority to rule on whether an impeachment is constitutional. That power lies solely with the US Senate, as part Article I, Section 3 of the US ...
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53
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Has the Israeli supreme court ever come to a decision that can be seen as pro-Palestine or pro-Arab/anti-Israel/-Jew?
Very much so.
1.
Last year, the supreme court struck down a 2017 law having to do with legalization of illegal housing built in previously Palestinian areas (New York Times source).
Here is a quote ...
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51
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Why didn't Barack Obama try to force the Senate to hold hearings on SCOTUS nominee Merrick Garland?
It's worth noting that Obama actually did attempt an end-run around Congress in declaring that pro-forma Senate sessions were, in fact, a "recess" as defined by the Constitution. As such, he made some ...
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51
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Can the Supreme Court overturn an impeachment?
In Walter L. Nixon v. United States (unrelated to President Richard Nixon), the court held that the judiciary could not review impeachment proceedings. According to the constitution, the House has the ...
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49
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Why is the debate on the composition of the U.S. Supreme Court so politicised?
The Supreme Court has ruled on partisan issues with substantial impact on the country
The Civil Rights cases were a group of five cases that said that the Thirteenth Amendment "merely abolishes ...
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49
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What would happen if an American state didn’t follow a ruling by the Supreme Court?
I don't know if this is the worst case confrontation, but I suppose it ranks pretty high; following Brown v. Board of Education there were numerous attempts to resist, some solved with troops and some ...
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48
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Could the Queen overturn the UK Supreme Court ruling regarding prorogation of Parliament?
No.
I suggest the best source for this is probably the ruling of the Supreme Court itself. I'd encourage you to read it in full - it's not long and surprisingly readable.
The legal argument the ...
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48
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Would a President get to fill a Supreme Court vacancy just after he lost an election in November/December?
A lame duck President could nominate someone to Supreme Court vacancy, but the Senate may or may not confirm.
This happened in 1800 when John Adams lost his re-election. Chief Justice Oliver Elsworth ...
47
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If either party would "pack the Supreme Court", what would be stopping the next administration from just doubling (+1) the number of judges again?
Functionally, nothing except the regular requirements of passing legislation and nominating justices.
Altering the number of judges on the Supreme Court is as simple as passing legislation through the ...
CDJB♦
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47
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Why is changing the size of the Supreme Court considered dangerous today, when it has been done in the past?
The reason for the first three increases in the size of the Supreme Court was related to the size of the country's boundaries growing.
The decrease in 1866 was, reportedly, more an attempt by the ...
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47
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The politicization of the supreme court
How political parties view things is not necessarily commensurate with reality. After all, they have a political agenda to push. In this case the view of (federal) judges—Supreme Court Justices or ...
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47
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Can the President of the United States ignore the Supreme Court?
There are no grounds for the President to declare the Supreme Court 'politically illegitimate' given that the Supreme Court is an institution that is directly established by the Constitution. Such a ...
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