News & Opinion

With many lamenting the damage done to the U.S. Supreme Court by Politico’s publication of a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, Jack Shafer, Politico, May 3, 2022, argues that since Congress has punted decision-making on the legality of abortion to the courts, the Supreme Court is in effect passing law, a process that should be open to the public. Shafer writes, “…the POLITICO scoop is less an intrusion into the Supreme Court’s sanctified domain

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that once Boston establishes a public forum, in this case a flagpole, and allows groups and individuals to fly flags in concert with an event, it could not forbid a citizen from flying a Christian flag. (Courthouse News Service, May 2, 2022, by Thomas F Harrison) The court rejected Boston’s contention that it was necessary to ban the Christian Flag to refrain from endorsing a religion under the separation

The U.S. Congress showed rare bipartisanship in passing a law to subject Supreme Court justices and federal judges to more stringent disclosure of their holdings and stock transactions. The law will enable the public to see for themselves if judges have a conflict of interest in cases before them. (Reuters, April 27, 2022, by Nate Raymond and Moira Warburton) The law requires judges to report stock transactions of stocks and securities over $1000 within 45