On a court full of great writers, I shouldn't say full of - there have been some bad writers on the court over the years.
Dahlia LithwickThe Framers were no more interested in binding future Americans to a set of divinely inspired commandments than any of us would wish to be bound by them.
Dahlia LithwickWhat'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.
Dahlia LithwickJudge [Gonzalo] Curiel has not said anything, and in fact, cannot say anything. But I would even broaden it out to, you know, judges who are victims of attack ads in say state Supreme Court elections can't talk back. Judges are really barred from commenting on this kind of huge public hue and cry.
Dahlia LithwickEven Merrick Garland can't get up and give a press conference in which he says, "Give me a damn vote." We just hear silence.
Dahlia LithwickOver 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.
Dahlia Lithwick