Justices Are Emotional Creatures

Or at least, with parts of it

(NEWSER) - Today the Supreme Court heard the final arguments in the case over Arizona's controversial immigration law, and it's not looking good for the Obama administration. Justices seemed decidedly skeptical about the Justice Department's central argument that the law impinged on the federal government's power to control immigration, the Washington Post reports. "What could possibly be wrong," John Roberts asked, with having police check detainees' immigration status, and pass the information to the federal government? More»

Most seem inclined to let parts of it stand

(NEWSER) - If the individual mandate is deemed unconstitutional , should the rest of President Obama's health care reform die with it? Supreme Court justices wrestled with that question today in the third and final day of arguments, with the challengers' lead attorney stating his case simply: “If the individual mandate is unconstitutional, then the rest of the act cannot stand," said Paul D. Clement. That got a mixed reaction, reports the Washington Post and New York Times :

• Antonin Scalia: He sounded sympathetic. “My approach would be to say that if you take the heart out of this statute, the statute’s gone.”
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg: She disagreed. “There are so many things in this act that are unquestionably OK,” she said. If the choice is between "a wrecking operation and a salvage job, a more conservative approach would be a salvage job."

He also refers to the 'eight' Supreme Court justices

(NEWSER) - Ouch. Rick Perry gave an interview to the Des Moines Register today in which he criticized "activist judges" on the Supreme Court, but he suffered an awkward silence as he struggled to come up with the name of Sonia Sotomayor. In fact, the best he could do was "Montemayor" before a reporter helped him out. More»

Obama too timid on federal nominees, with big issues coming

(NEWSER) - With big issues working their way toward the Supreme Court on such vital issues as health care reform, same-sex marriage, affirmative action, and police stops of undocumented immigrants, liberals need to be on guard, writes longtime court-watcher Emily Bazelon for the New York Times . Sure, there are solid progressives, such as Obama appointees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. But frequent swing vote Anthony Kennedy, while he may side with liberals on occasion, has a voting record on par with Ronald Reagan. More»

High court ruled unanimously against software giant

(AP) - A classic David and Goliath scenario played out today as the Supreme Court ordered Microsoft to pay small Toronto software company i4i a $290 million judgment for infringing on one of its patents in its popular Microsoft Word. Lower courts ruled that Microsoft willfully infringed on the patent, and ordered the world's largest software maker to pay i4i $290 million and stop selling versions of Word containing the infringing technology. More»