“Supreme Court” on The Daily Caller

An editorial in Sunday’s New York Times reminded me of an important issue not much discussed among the dwindling number of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination: the future of the federal courts and particularly of the United States Supreme Court. Newt Gingrich has put out a proposal for how Congress and the president could control what he sees as an out-of-control court system, but none of the candidates has emphasized that the future makeup of the Supreme Court will very likely turn on the outcome of the presidential election. (more)

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has caused a storm of controversy by saying in a television interview that the people of Egypt should not look to the United States Constitution when drafting their own governing document because it’s too old and there are newer examples from which to draw inspiration. (more)

An Idaho couple facing $37,500 per day in Environmental Protection Agency fines for building on what the agency says is a “wetland” had their day in court — the Supreme Court — on Jan. 9. And the tough questions leveled at the EPA’s attorney by nearly all the justices do not bode well for the federal government’s case. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won’t hear arguments from a conservative watchdog group that wants Justice Elena Kagan disqualified from deciding the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s national health care overhaul. (more)

Ruth Bader Ginsburg has donned a black robe for 32 years, including 18 on the Supreme Court, and she has no plans to hang it up anytime soon. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court handed Texas Republicans a partial victory Friday, tossing a court-drawn electoral redistricting plan that favored minorities and Democrats but leaving the future of the state’s political maps – and possibly control of the U.S. House – in the hands of two federal courts with Texas’ April primaries looming. (more)

The press has belittled Newt Gingrich for criticizing the judicial supremacy of the Supreme Court. Commentators have labeled him “fascist” and accused him of embracing a “sinister radicalism.” Gingrich’s ideas, we are told, offend basic constitutional principles, like the separation of powers. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fourteen people have been arrested at the Supreme Court for protesting the resumption of the use of the death penalty in the United States. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will allow bartenders and servers who make part of their money through tips to file lawsuits for more money when they do work that doesn’t involve tips. (more)

The US Supreme Court is set to hear oral argument on Tuesday in a case that examines whether tougher indecency standards enforced against broadcast television companies in recent years violate free speech protections of the First Amendment. (more)

A Supreme Court amicus briefing filed by the AARP indicates that during the national debate over President Obama’s health care overhaul, the senior-citizen advocacy group did not prioritize stopping Medigap providers, including itself, from discriminating against seniors with pre-existing conditions. This stands in stark contrast with AARP’s past claims. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The District of Columbia has been ordered to pay more than $1 million in attorneys’ fees as a result of a historic gun case that was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. (more)

HOUSTON (AP) — Texas’ March primary will likely be delayed after the Supreme Court on Friday blocked the use of state legislative and congressional district maps that were drawn by federal judges. (more)

Senate GOP leaders said on Friday that Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan’s previous work as solicitor general may be grounds for her to recuse herself from the court’s upcoming review of President Obama’s health care law. (more)

Conservatives can’t make Supreme Court Elena Kagan recuse herself from the “Obamacare” case, no matter how much she helped design the president’s health care law, but the recusal controversy will likely moderate judges’ future decisions, say court watchers. (more)

Newly released emails have renewed calls for inquiry into Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan’s involvement in defending the Obama administration’s health care reforms while she was solicitor general. (more)

Republicans say the Supreme Court’s review of President Obama’s health sector takeover will help the GOP in 2012, even though the outcome will likely rest on a single unpredictable judge, Anthony Kennedy. (more)

The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to review President Obama’s health care law, saying it will rule on whether Congress overstepped its constitutional authority by requiring all Americans to purchase health insurance by 2014. (more)

On many occasions over the past year and a half, I have addressed groups about the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act of 2009 — more commonly known as “Obamacare.” Invariably, someone asks me whether I think the U.S. Supreme Court will declare this massive re-engineering of America’s health care system — this law that presses the envelope of government power under the so-called “Commerce Clause” to an extent never before attempted — unconstitutional. My answer has not always pleased conservatives, in that I caution Obamacare opponents not to be overly optimistic simply because there appears to be a conservative majority on the high court. (more)

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in United States v. Jones, a case that will determine whether the government has the right to use GPS devices to track the locations of criminal suspects without a warrant. (more)