Monday round-up

This weekend’s coverage focused on the President’s comments on the Court and the Affordable Care Act, the fallout from those comments, and last week’s opinion in Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders on the constitutionality of jail strip searches.

As Lyle reported last week – and Joshua discussed in Friday’s round-up – the Department of Justice filed a memo last Thursday in response to an order by Judge Jerry Smith of the Fifth Circuit asking the Administration to clarify its views regarding judicial authority to invalidate unconstitutional laws. The San Francisco Chronicle‘s Dan Freedman has additional coverage, while at the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, Joe Palazzolo reports on recent remarks by Laurence Tribe, who characterized the Judge’s actions as a “shocking misuse of power.” Meanwhile, at the Volokh Conspiracy, Randy Barnett applauds the response to the President’s comments by the president of the American Bar Association.

President Obama’s initial contention that a Court ruling against the Affordable Care Act would be “unprecedented” continued to generate commentary. In his column for the Washington Post, E.J. Dionne argues that the President’s statements were simply a liberal twist on the tactics used by conservatives to criticize Court decisions. At the Atlantic, Marvin Ammori urges the President to “run against the Supreme Court” in the coming election by attacking the Court’s five conservative Justices. Jim Powell, in his column for Forbes, writes that “[b]y trying to bully another branch of our government, Obama appears to be challenging our federal system itself, based as it is on a separation of powers.” Similarly, in his column for the Chicago Tribune, Steve Chapman argues that “[t]o pillory or punish judges for doing their job undermines the legitimacy not just of the court, but of our entire constitutional system.”

Additional coverage focused on the Court’s opinion last Monday in Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders, in which the Court held that jail strip searches do not require reasonable suspicion as long the arrestee is being admitted into the general jail population. Michael Kirkland of UPI provides an overview of the case in which he notes that local sheriffs are pleased with the decision. At Bloomberg View, Noah Feldman offers one explanation of Justice Kennedy’s vote to uphold these searches.

Briefly:

• At the New York Times, Kate Murphy interviews Paul Clement about his favorite movies, blogs, and brand of cycling shorts.
• Bruce Schreiner of the Associated Press, Politico‘s Josh Gerstein, and the Lexington Herald-Leader’s Jennifer Hewlett have coverage of Justice Clarence Thomas’s visit to the University of Kentucky.
• At the White Collar Crime Prof Blog, Ellen Podgor discusses whether the Supreme Court will grant cert. in Brown v. United States, a Brady case in which a former Merrill Lynch executive is seeking review of his conviction for perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with his testimony before the Enron grand jury.
• The Washington Post’s Robert Barnes explains the rhetorical power of Lochner v. New York, writing that the 1905 decision “contains something for most everyone” – liberals and conservatives – “to hate.”
• Chris Mondics of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports on Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s recent remarks at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Washington Post’s Sarah Kliff covers Justice Elena Kagan’s remarks at Marquette University.