Every post published in June 2010, most recent first.
Partnering with PBS NewsHour, SCOTUSblog is again offering live coverage of Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearings before the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Both the NewsHour live video of the event, and our live-blogging narrative and commentary, will appear below.
Ideologues on both the left and right, as well as the public generally, frequently repeat their own received wisdoms that the Supreme Court is an easily categorized institution and that the Justices are committedly “liberal” or “conservative,” with Justice Kennedy as the lone swing vote.
Despite the draw of the Kagan hearings, commentators continued to digest the Court’s most recent decisions. Ilya Somin of the Volokh Conspiracy suggests that McDonald v. Chicago will lead to “little if any change in the actual extent of gun regulation” by the states.
The Court issued its final opinions in argued cases on Monday and its final orders yesterday, concluding the October Term 2009. The Court is now in recess until October.
The news media is awash in coverage of General Kagan’s confirmation hearings. Kagan spoke with Senators for almost nine hours yesterday on a wide range of contentious topics.
The eleventh briefing in our series on nominee Elena Kagan, here, is about the release of executive-branch documents related to Kagan. We have previously released ten other briefs in our nomination series, on abortion, “don’t ask, don’t tell,” working with the right, gender diversity on the Court, Citizens United, diversity hiring, executive power, judicial qualifications, gun rights, and ideology.
The Court yesterday issued its final orders of October Term 2009. The Washington Post’s Robert Barnes characterizes the Term as an “assertive” one for the Court, with Chief Justice Roberts playing a dominant role.
Robert Cottrol is a professor at the George Washington University Law School who has written on the Second Amendment, including a 1991 Georgetown Law Journal article, The Second Amendment: Toward an Afro-Americanist Reconsideration, which was cited by Justice Thomas in his concurring opinion in
Partnering with PBS NewsHour, SCOTUSblog is offering live coverage of Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearings before the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Both the NewsHour live video of the event, and our live-blogging narrative and commentary, will appear below.
Tom snapped a few photos at today’s hearing. They are available after the jump.