Everyone talks about (and bemoans) judicial activism, but few realize, as Robert McCloskey shows in The American Supreme Court, that the Supreme Court has historically followed the political winds. As FDR put it while trying to pack the Court in 1937, the American people expect the unelected third branch of government to fall in line behind the elected other two. Today, this ironic notion is given life by Anthony Kennedy, about whom law professor Michael Klarman observes, "Any court on which [he] is the median voter will never do anything to provoke dramatic backlashes, because Justice Kennedy has his finger on the pulse of Middle America."
Since 1937, the Supreme Court has comprised nine justices. But as Jean Edward Smith argues, "there is nothing sacrosanct" about the number nine. To the contrary, "Roosevelt’s 1937 chicanery has given court-packing a bad name, but it is a hallowed American political tradition participated in by Republicans and Democrats alike," including Adams, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln and Grant. Note: I'm blogging Smith's op-ed not because I condone court-packing, which politicizes and destabilizes the law, but because of its interesting history.
Ward Churchill, aka Chief Lies-alot, is unrepentant. Of his "little Eichmanns" essay, he declares, "The only thing I regret is that I didn't take a harder line." Note: Churchill was fired not for this essay, which academic freedom protects, but for academic fraud in his "scholarly" work.
Who says reporters have to be poor? Salaries for top journalists at the Atlantic range as high as $350,000.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
The Daily Digest
Saturday, May 26, 2007
The Daily Digest
Whatever happened to Ward Churchill, the professor who analogized the victims of 9/11 to Nazis? Last week, a five-member panel representing the University of Colorado Faculty Senate Committee on Privilege and Tenure voted 3-2 for the chickens to come (half-way) home to roost, and that Churchill be suspended rather than fired.
James Antle puts his finger on why religionists should practice toleration rather than resorting to regulation: "[F]aith depends on a choice: the choice to receive salvation by accepting Jesus Christ. The most important thing evangelicals believe God asks of them—in their view, the most important thing of all—is something they must choose freely. For evangelicals, God does not coerce people into being saved and accepts their decision in the matter as final."
Tim Carney continues to expose the unholy alliance between big business and big government: "Taxes are too complex for the good of the economy, too complex for families, and too complex for small businesses. For big business and for Washington lobbyists, complexity means profit."
If you're one of the 700,000-plus people who have viewed the John McCain "Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran" video, you'll want to read Michael Scherer's expose on how this little-noticed ditty wormed its way into the nightly news on each major television network. If none of this rings a bell, read Scherer's piece to understand the relationship between opposition-research peddlers and their receivers on the Web.
