PAST EVENT
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
10:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Washington, DC
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2009-2010 term will consider major arguments on issues ranging from state’s rights and separation of powers to dog-fighting videos. On October 7, the Brookings Judicial Issues Forum hosted a panel discussion to preview the most anticipated and important cases. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Russell Wheeler, August 17, 2009, The Brookings Institution
With Justice Sonia Sotomayer confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court and President Obama set to fill a number of lower court vacancies, there is renewed attention on the demographic makeup of the U.S. judiciary. Russell Wheeler examines federal judicial demographic data from the Eisenhower administration to today. He concludes that while the face of the judiciary has markedly changed over the last 30 years, it hardly mirrors the general population.
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VIDEO
Russell Wheeler, August 07, 2009
Sonia Sotomayor took the judicial oath of office on August 8, becoming the first Hspanic and third woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Visiting Fellow Russell Wheeler examines how the Obama administration will impact the judicial system and what we can expect from Justice Sotomayor.
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Sarah A. Binder and Forrest Maltzman, August 01, 2009, Judicature
The judicial appointment process – for both the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts – has been increasingly characterized by senatorial foot-dragging, declining confirmation rates, and protestations by both political parties. Sarah Binder and Forrest Maltzman explore the politics of judicial selection, focusing on partisan, institutional, and temporal forces that shape the fate of presidential appointments to the federal trial and appellate courts. Analyzing historical patterns from over the past 60 years, they find that the polarization of advice and consent worsened over the Bush years, but was broadly consistent with the deterioration of judicial selection over the past several decades. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Russell Wheeler, July 21, 2009, The Brookings Institution
The Obama administration announced plans to restructure how immigrants—most of whom have no criminal records—are detained. Immigration presents courts and administrative agencies tremendous challenges due to a lack of consensus and resources for total enforcement of laws governing entry to and status in the country. Russell Wheeler has explained why crafting better policies for institutions most responsible for enforcing the laws fairly should be part of the broader immigration reform effort. Read More
VIDEO
Russell Wheeler, July 17, 2009
In her quest to be confirmed as a U.S. Supreme Court justice, Judge Sonia Sotomayor faced four days of questioning and testimony on Capitol Hill. Russell Wheeler says Sotomayor’s Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings played out as expected — and that she will be confirmed — but adds that it’s too soon to say how she will influence the court’s decisions.
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Melissa Rogers, July 07, 2009, The Brookings Institution
Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee began July 13th. Melissa Rogers urged Senators to engage Sotomayor in a discussion of the broad principles and values animating the constitutional commands on religious freedom. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Benjamin Wittes and Colleen A. Peppard, June 26, 2009, The Brookings Institution
Closing the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay by President Obama's January deadline is pressuring the administration to craft a new system for incarcerating terrorist suspects, possibly through an executive order. Benjamin Wittes and Colleen Peppard suggest instead a model law for terrorist incapacitation. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
William A. Galston, May 28, 2009, The Brookings Institution
In nominating Sonia Sotomayor, the Obama administration must be more than satisfied with the early reaction from a political standpoint, writes William Galston. While Democrats are united and Hispanics are thrilled, those who oppose her must choose their words and tactics carefully so as not to antagonize further the nation’s fastest-growing demographic group. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Benjamin Wittes, May 27, 2009, The Washington Post
Only a few years ago, a Supreme Court nominee like Judge Sonia Sotomayor could expect quick, nearly unanimous confirmation. Yet recent trends in Supreme Court nominations show Sotomayor can expect a highly contentious confirmation. Brookings expert Ben Wittes writes, our system has gone from one in which people like Sotomayor, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito are shoe-ins for confirmation to a system in which they are shoo-ins for confirmation confrontations. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Benjamin Wittes, May 21, 2009, The New York Times
Last week, President Obama outlined his approach to closing the Guantánamo Bay detention center on the heels of Congress voting overwhelmingly to block the $80 million he requested to close the the prison. The speech was forward-looking, writes Brookings expert Ben Wittes, in that he maintained the need for a preventative detention system created by Congress and overseen by the courts. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Kenneth Anderson, May 11, 2009, The Brookings Institution, Georgetown University Law Center and the Hoover Institution
American domestic law has long accepted the use of targeted killings as self-defense toward ends of vital national security that do not necessarily fall within the strict terms of armed conflict. However, the legal space for it and the legal rationales on which it has been traditionally justified are in danger of shrinking, writes Kenneth Anderson. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Stuart Taylor, Jr. and Benjamin Wittes, May 10, 2009, The Brookings Institution, Georgetown University Law Center and the Hoover Institution
Benjamin Wittes and Stuart Taylor examine how to amend American interrogation laws to balance the need to avoid the past administration's excesses against the need to get intelligence from captured terrorists. They review the post-September 11 evolution of Bush administration policies on interrogation, the experiences of the CIA and the military and the lessons to be learned from those experiences. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Wells C. Bennett and Robert S. Litt , May 08, 2009, The Brookings Institution, Georgetown University Law Center and the Hoover Institution
More than seven years after 9/11, the government’s legal, practical and moral authority to detain suspected terrorists without trial remains a subject of fierce debate. Robert Litt and Wells Bennett say Congress could significantly ameliorate the problem by authorizing the creation of a National Security Bar, a permanent corps of security-cleared lawyers who could represent defendants in terrorism-related cases. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Benjamin Wittes, May 03, 2009, The Washington Post
As President Obama considers his pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter, several supporters insist on getting more diversity on the bench. As Benjamin Wittes cautions, Democrats have less latitude for bucking these expectations in judicial nominations than Republicans do, as the conservative talent pool on the federal courts is larger and deeper than the liberal one. Read More