The appellate court ruling on Obamacare underscores an increasingly important side effect of today’s congressional dysfunction and gridlock: The rising power of the courts, particularly the U.S. Supreme Court. Congress, unable to agree on almost anything, is incapable of responding to court interpretations of often-vague statutes even when the Court […] Read more »
Approval of the Supreme Court Remains Divided
Americans remain divided in their assessments of the U.S. Supreme Court, with 47% approving of the job it is doing, and 46% disapproving. These ratings are consistent with approval last September, when 46% approved and 45% disapproved, and rank among the lowest approval ratings for the court in Gallup’s 14-year […] Read more »
What’s the 2014 election really about? Religious vs. women’s rights
Religious rights versus women’s rights. That’s about as fundamental a clash as you can get in U.S. politics. It’s now at the core of the 2014 election campaign, with both parties girding for battle. What generated the showdown was last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Hobby Lobby case. […] Read more »
On SCOTUS justices, the public gets it right
The political divisions within the Supreme Court often reflect the political divisions in the American people – and the reputation of the nation’s highest court changes depending on whether its latest ruling benefits liberal or conservative causes. … In the latest YouGov/Economist poll, we asked ordinary Americans to rate each […] Read more »
The Restoration and Transformation Coalitions
It was a revealing convergence Monday when the five-member conservative Supreme Court majority delivered the Hobby Lobby contraception decision even as President Obama announced that House Republicans had officially shelved immigration reform. Both disputes reaffirmed the GOP’s identity as the champion of the forces most resistant to the profound demographic […] Read more »
Republican Party factions and the Hobby Lobby decision
… Cases like the Hobby Lobby contraception case bring a new frame to social issues. Instead of using a culture war frame, as in the 1980s and 1990s, or the idea of returning to traditional values, these debates cast social issues in terms of religious liberty. (Obviously, there are also […] Read more »