Accord on the court

Calling it “Kumbaya day at the Supreme Court,” a Legal Times blog noted that the court handed down five signed opinions Monday without a single dissent – “a rare alignment for this or any Supreme Court.” Plus, 10 of the 15 signed opinions of the court so far this term have been unanimous, serving Chief Justice John Roberts’ goal of unanimity. Where can Congress get some of that?

5 Comments

  1. lindainks55
    Posted January 27, 2009 at 2:13 pm | Permalink

    I read an interesting article recently. It was written about President Obama and Justice Roberts and before they flubbed their lines.

    All the President’s Justices Barack Obama and John Roberts make history as they repeat it.

    Barack Obama will take the oath of office this week on the same Bible used to swear in Abraham Lincoln in 1861. Lincoln was sworn in by then-Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney. This means that when Chief Justice John Roberts administers the oath of office, Obama will lay his hand on the Bible once used for the same purpose by the author of the majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sanford.

    It is in some ways the symbolic closing of a constitutional circle. Obama will be the first black president of the United States. Taney, writing Dred Scott in 1857, concluded that blacks could never even be citizens. Taney ranted that blacks were “beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” It was one of the most shameful court decisions in history, and Lincoln made his opposition to Dred Scott a cornerstone of his political career.

    The parallels and contrasts between Lincoln/Taney and Obama/Roberts are worth considering, particularly in light of the fact that Obama voted against Roberts’ confirmation in 2005, saying: “I hope that I am wrong. I hope that this reticence on my part proves unjustified. … I hope that he will recognize who the weak are and who the strong are in our society. I hope that his jurisprudence is one that stands up to the bullies of all ideological stripes.” (Obama will be the first president sworn in by a justice he voted not to confirm.)”

    more at:
    http://www.slate.com/id/2208518/

  2. Phantom
    Posted January 27, 2009 at 6:11 pm | Permalink

    We’ll see how much accord there is when the admin. goes after bush and his henchmen.

  3. Political_mama
    Posted January 27, 2009 at 8:29 pm | Permalink

    It’d be nice to know what they voted on today. If it was something they SHOULD had agreed on or something they shouldn’t had.

  4. okobserver
    Posted January 27, 2009 at 8:33 pm | Permalink

    http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/08slipopinion.html

    Pmom this might help you out.

  5. Jed
    Posted January 27, 2009 at 11:59 pm | Permalink

    Phant,
    Unless some serious new evidence rears its ugly head, I rather doubt that Obama will waste time pursuing Bush. He has plenty to do as it is. At most, he simply won’t oppose the rest of the world prosecuting members of Bushco.