Court: Elected Judges Can't Rule on Major Donors

Dispute inspired a John Grisham novel

(NEWSER) - This week, the Supreme Court will hear a case so twisty it inspired a John Grisham novel, the Washington Post reports. At stake: the standards for judicial impartiality. The owner of a small coal company sued a huge one, alleging it illegally drove him out of business. He won, but the larger outfit won on appeal—after its CEO spent $3 million to help elect a new West Virginia Supreme Court justice. More»

The term in review

(NEWSER) - As the Supreme Court wrapped up its first term under Chief Justice John Roberts Friday, the new court's conservative bent was obvious: the Court swung to the right in most of the ideological cases decided this year by a 5-4 margin. Justice Anthony Kennedy delivered the swing vote, making him the key to the new majority. More»

Supreme Court is just following our lead

(NEWSER) - The Supreme Court's ruling upholding prisoner strip-searches is an indicator of a much wider trend. Such searches compromise human dignity, but in the court case, not even the dissenting justices argued against all strip-searches, writes Noah Feldman in Bloomberg . That's because "privacy, as we know it, is dying." And the justices—particularly Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion—"rarely fight the trend of history." And that trend isn't limited to the courtroom. More»

Supreme Court could well strike down controversial law

(NEWSER) - Yesterday's oral arguments in front of the Supreme Court went well for opponents of President Obama's health care law. "The government had in my view as bad a day as it reasonably could," the founder of SCOTUSblog says. "It won't cause the government to have a complete cardiac arrest—they'll just be nauseous for months." But here's what Politico is taking out of the proceedings, as today's final arguments loom:

• It's Roberts or Kennedy: If Obama's going to get a fifth vote, it's going to be from John Roberts or Anthony Kennedy—and both sounded skeptical of the individual mandate yesterday.

All this hot air is meaningless until the court actually rules: Steve Kornacki

(NEWSER) - Based on the breathless commentary after the Supreme Court's oral arguments today, it might have seemed as if the court had already decided to rule against health care reform. Sorry to spoil the fun, but it's way too early for either side to think this is a done deal, writes Steve Kornacki at Salon . "All of this alarmism may well amount to nothing." Yes, Anthony Kennedy sounded skeptical about the individual mandate, for example, but Kornacki points to a detailed recap of arguments by Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog suggesting that Kennedy's opposition isn't as solid as thought. More»