By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
President Obama's record on nominating federal judges lags behind those of his predecessors, and nowhere is his failure more glaring than on the prestigious U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
For faithful right-wingers, Chief Justice John G. Roberts' switcheroo on Obamacare is basically akin to a romance gone wrong. Yet here's the rub: He isn't going anywhere. The man is 57, has a lifetime appointment and, ironically, a great government health plan. He'll be rocking the black robes for a long, long time to come.
Name the last nominee to the Supreme Court by a Democratic president who turned out to be a judicial conservative. Maybe Justice Byron White, appointed by John F. Kennedy, who dissented from Roe v. Wade, but one largely draws a blank. Ask the converse, and the list is long and disheartening.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who already decides whether liberals or conservatives win the Supreme Court's most closely contested cases, is about to take on an even more influential behind-the-scenes role with the retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens.
When the U. S. Supreme Court announced its decree on the schools in the Seattle/Louisville matter, I wrote, with mixed feelings, to a friend:
When the U. S. Supreme Court announced its decree on the schools in the Seattle/Louisville matter, I wrote, with mixed feelings, to a friend:
Yet after their conference on the issue, Burger said he was assigning the opinion to Justice Harry Blackmun.
