Wednesday round-up
on Feb 17, 2016 at 2:04 pm
As Lyle Denniston reports for this blog, ceremonies in honor of Justice Antonin Scalia will be held on Friday and Saturday; Tony Mauro also reports on the services for The National Law Journal (subscription or registration required). Mark Walsh reports for this blog on the draping of Scalia’s chair at the Court, while Tony Mauro does the same for The National Law Journal (subscription or registration required).
“Stripped away of all the jiggery-pokery, Justice Scalia was one of the most masterful legal writers in the history of the Supreme Court,” writes Sajid Shahriar at BC Law: Impact. For The National Law Journal (subscription or registration required), Marcia Coyle profiles the nuances in Scalia’s personality, noting that “little in his office revealed the wicked pen, quick wit and, yes, often modest and charming justice-at-work.” At CNN, Carolyn Shapiro lauds Scalia’s emphasis on statutory language but also hopes for a “more honest discussion of the reality that Supreme Court justices legitimately make value-laden decisions.” Lastly, Andrew Koppelman of Salon considers Scalia through the lens of the tragic figure Othello and “with deep regret” concludes, “Oh, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown” (N.B., the line is from Hamlet, not Othello).
In The National Law Journal (subscription or registration required), Marcia Coyle looks back at Scalia’s influence on the Court, especially his “writing style and his profound impact on oral argument,” and in another post for The National Law Journal, she looks ahead at what’s next this Term. In a UCI Law Talks podcast, Erwin Chemerinsky and Rick Hasen also address the future of the Supreme Court.
iIn City Journal, Mark Pulliam argues that President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace Scalia will not be Kamala Harris, the California attorney general, while at Energy Wire Robin Bravender reviews seven potential nominees for their records on the environment. In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Catherine Rampell criticizes resistance to confirming a successor to Justice Scalia in an election year. The editorial board at Bloomberg View argues that Chief Justice John Roberts has a “unique opportunity to affirm the Supreme Court’s rightful place in American politics: keeping the law above politics.”
A bit tongue in cheek, Lisa McElroy in Slate suggests that an episode from the television program The West Wing twelve years ago featured the same political and judicial situation today, and, in keeping with the program, McElroy suggests a liberal Justice retire so that two new Justices may join the Court. Howard Wasserman at PrawfsBlawg criticizes her proposal (again, tongue in cheek).
In other news, Erin Ryan discusses the challenge to the administration’s Clean Power Plan and the Court’s stay of its implementation at ACSblog, while at National Resources Today Hank Lacey characterizes the stay as an “ill-advised intervention.”
Briefly:
- At NYU Law Review Online, Matthew Christiansen previews next week’s oral argument in Hughes v. Talen Energy Marketing and urges the Court to “evaluate Maryland’s [energy] regulation under a conflict-preemption, as opposed to a field-preemption, standard.”
