“Over the past few years, the Supreme Court was six times more likely to accept cases from an elite group of 66 lawyers than it was from more than 99 percent of those who petitioned the court. That's the finding of a recent Reuters special report called "The Echo Chamber." It illustrates how almost half the appeals accepted by the court over a nine-year period came from this cadre of elite lawyers--many of whom have personal connections to the nine justices.” YearsPastJusticeHalfAcceptingCasesGroupsSpecialPeriodsSixFindingsPercentConnectionsCourtLawyerAcceptedSupremeNineAppealsReportsElitesEchoesSupreme CourtChamberOver The PastNine YearsPersonal ConnectionCadre Author:Dahlia Lithwick
“The First Aphorism of Religion Cases: Only the religious convictions of other people are weird. Yours are perfectly rational.” PeopleFirstsReligiousCasesConvictionRationalAphorism Author:Dahlia Lithwick
“For the most part, much of the legal world's attention has been focused on Donald Trump and his attacks on Gonzalo Curiel, the federal judge who is currently presiding over the Trump University fraud cases in California. Trump somehow managed to offend surprising numbers of establishment Republicans.” WorldHas BeensNumbersAttentionCasesJudgingTrumpRepublicanUniversityFocusedCaliforniaFraudEstablishmentSurprisingFederal Judges Author:Dahlia Lithwick
“What's exquisitely weird about the Donald Trump/Judge [Gonzalo] Curiel formulation is that this isn't even a case about race.” RaceCasesJudgingTrump Author:Dahlia Lithwick
“What's doubly, possibly triply weird about the [Donald] Trump claim is that I said something really hateful and offended an entire class of people, and in a case that actually has nothing to do with race he should still be conflicted out.” PeopleShouldSaidStillsRaceClassCasesTrumpClaimsOffendedHateful Author:Dahlia Lithwick
“Aaron Persky who is the judge who really I think it's fair to say there is a mob seeking to recall him because of what's perceived as a too-lenient sentence in a sexual assault case.” ThinkingCasesJudgingFairsSeekingSentencesRecallsAssaultSexual AssaultLenient Author:Dahlia Lithwick
“Donald Verrilli has argued 37 cases in five years on behalf of the [Barak] Obama administration. Many of them turned out to be truly landmark cases. He is the seventh-longest-serving solicitor general in American history.” YearsCasesFiveAdministrationFive YearsServingAmerican HistoryBehalfLandmarksBarak ObamaSolicitors Author:Dahlia Lithwick
