First Principles

A few months ago, I was seriously considering Newt Gingrich for my caucus vote.  But then he came out with his absurd and dangerous suggestion that the political branches of government have the power to haul federal judges before boards of inquiry, and that they be subject to impeachment if we don’t like their legal […]

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So today Judge Russell dismissed NPRI’s separation of powers lawsuit, saying that because the allegedly offending Senator had quit his Executive Branch job, there was no longer a conflict, and the case was moot. Last week I said this about it: Will NPRI’s separation of powers lawsuit continue forward?  There are clearly grounds for moving […]

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Here’s a roundup of some of the happenings of Nevada’s blogosphere over the weekend, in case you were off having a life or something. ~~~ Will NPRI’s separation of powers lawsuit continue forward?  There are clearly grounds for moving forward, even if the original defendant is no longer directly impacted, and eventually, a sitting legislator […]

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I wish this debate had happened sooner.  Although it definitely helped that there were fewer candidates on stage – it’s not an accident that fewer candidates and no absurd timeclock led to a far more substantive debate than we’ve seen in the past. I haven’t seen a lot of the post-debate spin from other people […]

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I missed last Thursday’s debate where Newt Gingrich and Michelle Bachmann took aim at the Supreme Court, and indeed, the Federal Judiciary generally.  But since then Newt has kept at it, and his answers make me incredibly nervous. The principle of limited government means that government must be strictly limited – even if you like […]

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But when he’s done in court, he should get rid of the policy altogether.

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I recently bought a new car.  I test drove an Accord I really liked, but knowing I needed to be careful not to get sucked in (and having a smarter-than-me wife who reins me in), I told them I wanted to go test drive some other brands of cars.  The saleswoman said, “That’s fine – […]

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The very liberal Mother Jones magazine has a fascinating piece about the nominee’s lack of writing skills.  As a lawyer, I can’t stress how happy this makes me. 

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Don’t misread me here – I think Obama’s first SCOTUS nomination is horrid.  But since it was no secret that the President was going to nominate an ultra-liberal jurist whose thread of fidelity to the Constitution and the law will be severed at the first inconvenience or policy disagreement, this particular judge’s flaws provides us […]

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Note:  I wrote most of this before President Obama announced his Sotomayor nomination.  Stand by for more on that in the coming days. A friend of mine from law school recently posted this article from The Gawker on Facebook.  Ordinarily, my friend, although I usually disagree with him, posts interesting and thought provoking links.  Alas, […]

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So in today’s News of the Weird, it turns out that when Attorney General Mukasey was briefly heckled at the Federalist Society’s annual convention, the heckler was none other than Washington State Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders.

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One of our local judges running for re-election for district court has a long endorsements page on his website, with the meat of it being an essay from a retired Reno Police Chief.  One of the passages caught my eye, and not in a good way. [Judge Bob Perry] told me on one occasion that […]

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No – it’s a disgrace that goes by the name of Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge.  And how do you even begin to describe the awfulness of this picture? First of all, the only difference between Che and Hitler or Stalin is scope – all were murderers in the name of tyranny, but […]

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John McCain gave a fantastic speech today on judges, surrounded by conservative legal stalwarts like Ted Olson and Fred Thompson.  It was music to the ears of anyone who believes that, when it comes to protecting the sovereignty of the individual, there is no more important issue in a presidential election than picking the right […]

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