Miscellaneous

SCOTUS Watcher: Cool Competition Edges out Huggable Populism

By Anne Skove, Esq.

Ralph Nader never tires of losing, but lawyers for his Public Citizen outfit do.

According to a recent piece by Jeffrey Rosen examining pro-business leanings of the Supreme Court, Nader claims that some Public Citizen lawyers got so tired of fighting the power that they left. Somewhere, Justice Powell is smiling.

Meanwhile, the Chief and his fellow Justices were trying to figure out how to change a lightbulb. Unanimously, they all agreed to let the market take care of it.

That's Rosen's take, and he has data (!) to support the claim. He shows the not-so-subtle link between the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and pro-business Justices (all 6 1/2 of them) from across the political spectrum.

Yay for Rosen for mentioning that many business dispute are just that -- business v. business. This is a point business court advocates often make: the courts cannot be "pro-business" when all parties to the dispute are businesses.

He loses points, though, for propagating the McDonald's coffee myth! For the love of Grimace, please stop doing this!

See Supreme Court, Inc., Jeffrey Rosen, New York Times Magazine (March 16, 2008). Fun fact: Justice Ginsburg officiated at the Rosen wedding.

See also Supreme Court: Taking Care of Business, Stephanie Mencimer, Mother Jones (January 25, 2008), which chalks up the opinions to "an adult life of privilege, insulated from actual people by years of conservative rulings."

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on March 16, 2008 (boomark / email).