With his announcement on July 11 that he would start a process to change the rules to make it easier for the Senate to confirm Obama Administration nominees, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV-D) had set the stage for a confrontation with Republicans over the Senate filibuster rule for Executive Branch nominations. But on July 16, an eleventh-hour deal averted a floor battle that could have led to the most significant change in the Senate rules since 1975,  when the number of votes needed to cut off debate was reduced from 67 to 51. How the Drama Played Out Reid…

The U.S. Supreme Court closed out its 2012-2013 term last week, and as predicted, it handed down blockbuster decisions on the Voting Rights Act and gay marriage in its final days. The week started with the Court issuing a ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, which challenged the consideration of race as a factor during the undergraduate admissions process. Rather than issuing a decisive opinion on the subject, Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for a seven-justice majority, remanded the case back to the circuit court, with instructions that the court reconsider the case and apply “strict scrutiny” to…