On March 16, 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. The following is excerpted from the president’s remarks at the White House following the announcement. Of the many powers and responsibilities that the Constitution vests in the presidency, few are more consequential than appointing a Supreme Court justice — particularly one to succeed Justice Scalia, one of the most influential jurists of our time. The men and women who sit…

According to a recent survey by the Gallup polling firm, more Americans (46 percent) disapprove of the way the U.S. Supreme Court is handling its job than approve (43 percent). This marks only the second time since Gallup began asking the question in 2000 that the High Court has had a negative favorability rating. The other time was in June 2005. (Interestingly, the 2004-05 term featured few high-visibility, controversial cases, although the Court was criticized by many for its decision in favor of giving government broad eminent domain powers in Kelo v. City of New London.) Digging down into the…

On December 31, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts released his annual Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary —a State of the Union address, as it were, for the Judiciary Branch. In the 16-page document, the Chief Justice — in a writing style much more conversational than he uses in his Court opinions — discussed judicial efforts to keep a tight budget and the need for judicial vacancies to be filled promptly, and summarized of the workload of the various courts in the Federal system. He even spent several pages on the history of the Revolutionary War-era frigate the U.S.S….

The U.S. Supreme Court kicked off its 2012-13 term on Monday with an upcoming docket that, while perhaps not containing the high stakes legal fireworks that marked the end of the 2011-12 term, has a number of interesting cases set for the coming months. In its first case of the new term, the Court heard oral arguments in Kiobel v. Dutch Petroleum, which deals with whether parties — including corporations — can be sued under Federal law for human rights violations on either U.S. or foreign soil. Kiobel was originally argued last term, but it was relisted in order to…

As the Washington political class waits for the U.S. Supreme Court to hand down decisions in such hotly contested cases as the challenge to the Affordable Care Act and the constitutionality of Arizona’s immigration law, there is evidence that the public at large is losing confidence in the Court as an impartial arbiter of justice. In a New York Times/CBS poll released last week, only 44 percent of Americans approved of the job the Court is doing — down from a highs in the mid-60s during the late 1980s. This rating is even lower than the results in a Pew…

The U.S. Supreme Court opened what is likely to be a closely watched and potentially explosive new term on Monday. The dominant theme of this, the sixth year of the Roberts Court, is the power of the Federal government and attempts to define its limits. Although there are some cases already on the docket that are sure to generate a great deal of interest, it’s the cases that the Court has yet to grant certiorari to, but may very well decide to consider, that are generating white-hot attention. Two cases that very likely will be taken up by the Court…

Violent video games, funeral protests, illegal immigration, and DNA testing are among the high-profile issues on the docket as the Supreme Court opens its 2010-2011 term today. Each case will have its turn in the limelight, but the real news is that, for first time ever, there will be three female justices seated on the High Court.