Judiciary

Remember all those times during the Barack Obama presidency when the New York Times begged Justice Anthony Kennedy to not retire from the Supreme Court? No? Well, that's probably because it never happened. However, now that Donald Trump is president, the Times is begging Kennedy, considered to be a swing vote, to remain on the High Court bench.

On Wednesday's MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle, host Ruhle worried that President Donald Trump is appointing too many "white male judges" from the conservative Federalist Society who will be on the courts "forever," during a discussion of rapper Meek Mill's release from prison.

Liberal movie critic Jeannette Catsoulis finally found an "earnest" political message movie she didn’t like -- one with a free-market libertarian bent that happens to match up with the Times’ outlier status as an editorial supporter of the Kelo decision (and, a beneficiary of similar eminent domain abuse). The enraging true story pit homeowner Susette Kelo against the town of New London, Conn.,…

More than 30 years after a relentless campaign of character assassination kept Robert Bork from a seat on the Supreme Court, one of the architects of that attack is belatedly crediting its target for his brilliance. Appearing on the popular liberal podcast Pod Save America on March 28, former Vice President Joe Biden revisited his role in derailing Bork's nomination to the court in 1987 while…

Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak was quite aggrieved in his "Sidebar" column about a decision involving allegations of excessive force against an Arizona cop. Liptak couldn’t have made it more clear whose side he was on, and focused almost solely on the two liberal dissents, in “Supreme Court Sides With Police Officer Accused of Using Excessive Force.” Liptak devoted 10 paragraphs of the 20-…

The first questionable habit of the liberal Fact Checkers is to nitpick tweets, especially Trump tweets. There can be outrageous and blatantly false statements in a tweet, but often tweets use a political shorthand. The headline was "AP FACT CHECK: Trump wrongly claims GOP can hold top court". Trump tweeted that "we need more Republicans in 20189 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court" to prevent…

While marking the death of longtime New York Congresswoman Louise Slaughter on Friday, MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell shared her favorite memory of the Democratic lawmaker – when Slaughter and several other liberal House members attempted to derail the 1991 confirmation hearing of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Wednesday, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer opposed the nomination of A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr. as a South Carolina federal district judge. The nominee was confirmed by a 69-28 vote. Schumer's objection, cloaked as complaining about "the overall lack of diversity in President Trump's (judicial) selections": Quattlebaum is white. Any senator opposing a non-white nominee based on…

On Monday, MSNBC's The Beat host Ari Melber lied about the Second Amendment and related Supreme Court decisions, particularly the Heller ruling. Melber claimed that "2A" has never protected AR-15s or so-called assault weapons, and that politicians deferring to it are cowards for pretending it does. Anyone genuinely understanding Heller knows otherwise.

After a brief interlude, the New York Times is getting label-happy again, this time in its Supreme Court coverage. Beat reporter Adam Liptak on Tuesday covered the arguments in an important case involving free speech and government unions -- whether forcing workers to support public unions violates their First Amendment rights -- in “Newest Justice, Seen as Key Vote, Is Silent During Arguments on…

Friday’s New York Times featured a “Sidebar” column by the paper’s left-leaning Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak celebrating Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, “24 Years on the Bench, and Still Putting Them in the Seats.” The online headline gave her the nickname: “On Tour With Notorious R.B.G., Judicial Rock Star.” Liptak is a long-time fan of Ginsburg’s social-justice approach to interpreting the…

The three big networks have been extremely resistant to credit Donald Trump with any policy success. So it was rather surprising to see CBS This Morning on Wednesday tout the President’s “huge impact” in filling the courts with “conservative powerhouses.” Reporter Jan Crawford explained a low key success that has been flying under the media’s radar. 

I do not make it a practice to comment on the work of fellow columnists, though occasionally some care to comment on mine, which is fine. I'm happy to help them make a living. An exception will be made here because of New York Times "conservative" columnist, Bret Stephens.

On Tuesday’s Morning Joe, economic analyst Steve Rattner used a series of charts and graphs to deliver a supposedly straight, facts-oriented report about President Trump’s federal judicial nominations to date. However, Rattner could not help but devolve into standard left-wing talking points impugning Trump as a racist patriarch looking to deliberately exclude non-whites and women from the bench.