With Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement from the Supreme Court, the America of 1950 is now positioned to write the legal rules for the America of 2050. That may slightly overstate the likely longevity of the five-member conservative Supreme Court majority that will lock into place if and when the Senate […] Read more »
Politics Podcast: How Conservative Can Trump’s Supreme Court Pick Be?
The political jockeying over the nomination of the next Supreme Court justice is underway. The FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast team discusses how politicians are reacting and what the court will look like if, as seems likely, Chief Justice John Roberts winds up in the ideological middle. The team also checks in […] Read more »
Confidence in Supreme Court Modest, but Steady
The percentage of Americans expressing high confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court is steady and relatively low, with 37% last month expressing “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of faith in the nation’s highest court. CONT. Megan Brenan, Gallup Read more »
A bad week for Democrats gives rise to a big problem: Outrage could become an obstacle in midterms
Growing liberal agitation over a pivotal Supreme Court retirement and a simmering crisis of migrant child separation have left Democratic leaders scrambling to keep the political outrage they’d counted on to fuel midterm election wins from becoming a liability for the party. Internal party debates have broken into public view […] Read more »
Why public opinion could save Roe v. Wade
… Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement this week. Many believe this vacancy will allow President Donald Trump to appoint a justice who is against Roe and could be part of a majority to overturn it. It’s possible that the only thing that will stop the Court from […] Read more »
Weaponizing the First Amendment: How Free Speech Became a Conservative Cudgel
On the final day of the Supreme Court term last week, Justice Elena Kagan sounded an alarm. The court’s five conservative members, citing the First Amendment, had just dealt public unions a devastating blow. The day before, the same majority had used the First Amendment to reject a California law […] Read more »