Judiciary

Tuesday’s New York Times piece on how the problematic phrase “established by the state” got into and stayed in the Affordable Care Act provoked a great many blasts from lefty bloggers at the plaintiffs’ case in King v. Burwell. Two especially heated posts came from MSNBC’s Steve Benen and Esquire’s Charles Pierce. Benen, a producer for The Rachel Maddow Show and the primary writer for the show’s…

On Tuesday night, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC neglected to mention news that the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled earlier in the day against President Obama’s executive amnesty and denied another request that the injunction on the plan should be lifted. While the networks ignored this story, the Fox News Channel's Special Report with Bret Baier led its Tuesday show with a…

CNN's Chris Cuomo made an eyebrow-raising argument about the First Amendment in a Wednesday post on Twitter. Cuomo replied to a post that decried that "too many people are trying to say hate speech (isn't equal to) free speech," and claimed that "it doesn't. hate speech is excluded from protection. don't (sic) just say you love the constitution...read it."

Taylor Wofford spotlighted how Pope Francis "publicly affirmed his stance on so-called traditional marriage between men and women" in a Wednesday item for Newsweek. Wofford did his best to indicate that the pontiff was commenting about the recent oral arguments on same-sex "marriage" at the Supreme Court: "Though he made no specific mention of the case before the court during his daily general…

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin blasted Antonin Scalia in a Tuesday column for The New Yorker, after the conservative Supreme Court justice cracked a joke during the oral arguments regarding the same-sex "marriage" cases. Toobin asserted that Justice Scalia's "rather refreshing" line in reaction to a pro-traditional marriage activist's disruption during the hearing was a "shocking, ugly moment…

Introducing a segment on Wednesday's NBC Today about the Supreme Court set "to weigh the historic arguments in a case that could bring same-sex marriage to all fifty states," co-host Matt Lauer hyped the political implications of the ruling: "...the issue is quickly becoming a major factor in the 2016 presidential race."

All three of the network evening newscasts offered coverage on Tuesday of the Supreme Court’s oral arguments regarding the gay marriage that was proclaimed to be a “landmark case” that was certain to produce “a watershed ruling” on “marriage equality.” On ABC’s World News Tonight, anchor David Muir began the show’s coverage by declaring the “landmark case” will answer whether or not “gay couples…

Ahead of Tuesday's Supreme Court hearing on gay marriage, all three network morning shows hailed the "landmark cases" involved in the "historic arguments." On CBS This Morning, correspondent Jan Crawford proclaimed: "You know, for many people this is the civil rights issue of our time, whether or not gays and lesbians are going to be treated equally and allowed to marry just like heterosexual in…

The title of a famous essay by Jonathan Swift and that of Tuesday's article by Brian Beutler each starts with “A Modest Proposal.” There are, however, many differences concerning the two pieces. One is that Swift’s was a satire, whereas Beutler’s is a fantasy. Another is that pretty much anyone who somehow took Swift’s proposal seriously would find it horrifying, while Beutler’s suggestion --…

On Wednesday night, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC declined to cover the latest in the legal battle over President Obama’s executive action on illegal immigration as U.S. District Judge denied the Obama administration’s request for an injunction that would have allowed his plan to go forward. Announced late Tuesday night, U.S. District Judge Hanen blasted the request and declared that the…

Mark Joseph Stern argues that a crucial shortcoming of John Strand’s play The Originalist is its out-of-date portrayal of Scalia as “a principled conservative, a brilliant and complex man who resists partisan classification.” Nowadays, however, Scalia’s “ideology…looks less conservative than Republican…Twenty years ago Scalia was the unpredictable justice, the renegade who thought both flag…

Former New York Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse, pontificating from her regular perch at nytimes.com, unapologetically urged the conservative Supreme Court justices to embrace left-wing emotional and political symbolism on voting rights: "Would the court really have had the nerve to do it, with the memories of the march’s veterans still echoing for the world to hear and with…

Veteran journalist Steven Waldman, a former Washington correspondent for Newsweek and a senior adviser to the Federal Communications Commission for two years during Obama’s first term, argues that an Obama nomination would be “good for [Hillary], and very good for progressives. Would he want it? It’s possible he’d view it as too confining, but it may be the only job a former president can get…