By Ilya Shapiro
Cato’s third Supreme Court brief in the Obamacare litigation concerns the issue of whether the federal tax Anti-Injunction Act prevents federal courts from timely reviewing Congress’s most egregious attempt to exceed its power to regulate interstate commerce. The AIA bars courts from enjoining “any tax” before that tax is assessed or collected. One would think [...]
Obamacare Challenge Not Barred By a Weird Technicality is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
No Comments »
By Ilya Shapiro
FantasySCOTUS.net, a project of the Constitution-educating Harlan Institute (on whose non-profit board I sit), has been tracking its 12,000+ members’ predictions in the Obamacare case before the Supreme Court. You can read more in-depth about the current state of the prediction market — with fancy graphs! – but here’s a summary: 90.6% predict that the lawsuit can [...]
The Wise Crowds Say Individual Mandate Is Unconstitutional is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
No Comments »
Is the Constitution out of date? That’s the impression that comes across from an article in yesterday’s New York Times, written by the paper’s crack Supreme Court reporter, Adam Liptak. It comes in turn from an article he points to by two law professors, David S. Law at Washington University in St. Louis and Mila [...]
Our Constitution Is Out of Step with the Rest of the World is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
No Comments »
One of our oldest laws, the Alien Tort Statute (1789), grants federal courts jurisdiction over lawsuits brought by aliens for actions “in violation of the law of nations.” Courts have differed in their method of interpreting this “law of nations” — an old way of saying “international law” – and thus in their decisions on what [...]
The ‘Law of Nations’ Is What It Was in 1789 is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
No Comments »
By Ilya Shapiro
If the First Amendment means anything, then school officials cannot prohibit students from handing out gifts with Christmas messages due to the religious content of those messages. Nonetheless, the Fifth Circuit …
The First Amendment Protects Students’ Rights to Speak on Religious Subjects is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
No Comments »
On Monday, the Supreme Court issued an important ruling on the subject of surveillance in light of today’s technologies. Its opinion in United States v. Jones makes the rules for surveillance much less clear, which perhaps is not surprising given the rapid technological change and the need for further legislative and judicial action to address these complex new issues. Law enforcement long has used surveillance to track the comings and goings of suspects, probationers, and parolees as well as suspected spies, terrorists, and the like. Surveillance was oftentimes necessary and … More
No Comments »
Testifying on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, the National Park Service made clear its legal position for declining to enforce laws against camping on federal land with respect to the Occupy DC protest group. But the Supreme Court has already weighed in on a near-identical case and found that enforcing laws against camping does not violate First Amendment rights, as the NPS claims. “The core of [Occupy DC’s] First Amendment activity is that they occupy the site,” explained NPS director Jonathan Jarvis. In other words, “occupying,” or camping on the land … More
No Comments »
Certain Supreme Court cases haunt the American people. When particular issues land on the Court’s docket, some Americans proclaim that, of course, the Court will rule this way because, don’t you know, there is a precedent for that. Free speech, free exercise, the Commerce Clause, and abortion—these are only a few of the issues that cause Americans on the left and the right to hold their breaths and wonder, “Will this be the case where the Court overturns (fill in the blank case). Is Americans’ concern with precedents misplaced? Is … More
No Comments »
Today, the Supreme Court tossed out the work of a district court that attempted to force its own electoral maps on the state of Texas, while ignoring the maps drawn by the Texas legislature. The unanimous decision is a major victory for constitutional federalism, and a blow to runaway judicial activism. Drawing electoral districts is one of the core responsibilities of state legislatures, and a vital part of the democratic process, and the federal courts have at least paid lip service to the principle that legislator-passed electoral maps are due significant … More
No Comments »
By Ilya Shapiro
Two weeks ago I wrote about the emergency appeal of Texas’s new redistricting maps that reached the Supreme Court last month and was argued early last week. The state argued that the interim maps a three-judge district court in San Antonio drew didn’t defer sufficiently to the maps passed by the Texas legislature (which could [...]
Supreme Court Rejects Texas Redistricting Maps, Showing That Modern Voting Rights Act Is Outmoded and Unworkable is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
No Comments »