Jefferson Smith, the fictional filibustering senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, has captivated the imaginations of many Americans. But when was the last time a senator took a principled stand in the form of an around-the-clock speech, then collapsed with exhaustion, having convinced the crooked political establishment to mend...

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito gave a very illuminating post-election speech recently to the 30th Anniversary Gala of the conservative Federalist Society.

Justice Alito's remarks to the assembled cream of the right-wing legal establishment -- from Robert Bork to Texas Senator-elect Ted Cruz to partners at dozens of big law...

In addition to addressing the impending fiscal cliff, Congress also needs to deal with the judicial cliff.

When the Senate took a break for the election, it left 19 of President Barack Obama's nominees to district courts and circuit courts of appeal cooling their heels on the Senate...

Who would have thought a house party in Boca could upend the political universe? The American people were taken aback last week to learn that almost half of them lack "personal responsibility" and are incapable of taking "care of their lives." A great many of us apparently spend our days...

Increasing numbers of people are concerned that the Supreme Court has become overtly political. Now, where could anyone get that crazy idea?

Maybe they're reading Justice Antonin Scalia's dissent (jeremiad?) in Monday's decision in the Arizona immigration case, which would sound right at home on talk radio. Here's...

Poor Chief Justice John Roberts. Those mean liberals are picking on him again.

Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker wrote a commentary this week melodramatically entitled, "The Public Trial of Justice Roberts." The Wall Street Journal editorial page chimed in with its own pearl-clutcher called, "Targeting...

All the way back in the distant misty past of 2005, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia found himself espousing a rather broad interpretation of the Constitution's Commerce Clause in the case of Gonzales v. Raich, as a way to justify strict federal regulation of marijuana. He wrote that,...

Earlier this week, the United States Senate was tied up in a contentious, but long overdue, legislative showdown over President Obama's judicial nominees. We witnessed the almost unbelievable spectacle of a Republican filibuster of 17 district court nominees, almost all of whom are utterly uncontroversial. Filibusters against district court nominees...

Yesterday, Chief Justice John Roberts told Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy and the American people that the Supreme Court of the United States, apparently alone among all institutions of American government, doesn't need formally binding ethics rules and has no intention of adopting any. In a terse...

This is going to be a big year for the Supreme Court. Its decisions will be intensely scrutinized and will precipitate profound disagreements in American society, no matter which way they go. If there ever was a time for the Court to buttress public confidence in its propriety and objectivity,...

Last night was the occasion of the Federalist Society 2011 Annual Dinner, a black-tie fundraising event in Washington, D.C., that serves as the gathering of the conservative legal clans -- the powerhouse law firms, think tank staff, big funders, politicians, former attorneys general, academics, torture-memo writers, and conservative media.

This is going to be a big year for the Supreme Court. This election cycle is going to remind everyone of the effects of its infamous Citizens United decision, as vast sums of corporate money flood the electoral system. The blockbuster healthcare case could be heard and decided right in...

As the Occupy Wall Street movement grows in size and intensity by the day, it's worth noting that Saturday marks the twentieth anniversary of the confirmation of Clarence Thomas as an associate justice on the United States Supreme Court. In our view, one has led directly to the other.

While Congress is consumed with a bitter fight over the federal budget deficit, the federal judge deficit continues to fester. Today, there are 115 federal district and circuit court judgeships currently or soon-to-be vacant -- that's one out of seven seats. Tragically, that's actually more vacancies than existed at the...

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is an adamant believer in the original intent of the Constitution, so much so that the two centuries between its adoption and our own time might as well not have happened. For him, American law is frozen in amber like a fossilized centipede from the...

Today was another bad day for the women who work, have worked, or will work at Wal-Mart. In addition to having faced a clear pattern of gender discrimination throughout the company's thousands of stores, they now have to contend with a Supreme Court decision that will make it impossible for...

The Corporate Court is at it again. This time the case is AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, and this week's 5-4 decision in favor of the cell-phone giant is yet another far-reaching betrayal of some of the most fundamental principles of American justice.

In this case, big business,...

What's it like to be a female employee of Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer?

According to Betty Dukes, it's frustrating, as well as economically and psychologically debilitating. Ms. Dukes was an enthusiastic Wal-Mart employee, eager to work her way up from store "greeter" to a position in management. But after...

Today marks the one-year anniversary of one of the most notorious and unpopular Supreme Court decisions of recent years. Citizens United v. FEC overturned long-standing precedent and policy, unleashing a torrent of corporate money into American elections that threatens to further distort a political process that is already disproportionately beholden...

No one who has followed the career of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is surprised that he has agreed to participate in a meeting of the so-called "Constitutional Conservative Caucus," organized by extremist Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).

The decision by Justice Antonin Scalia to serve as a featured speaker in...