Menu
Idea

judicial review

48
Filter by:

Filter by published date

Supreme Court building.

Lifetime Tenure for Supreme Court Justices Has Outlived Its Usefulness

While letting justices serve during “good behavior” was designed to encourage impartiality, it now tends to promote the opposite effect.
by Jack Rakove via Brennan Center For Justice on October 15, 2024
Protesters outside the United States Supreme Court.

What Tocqueville Saw in the Courts

Tocqueville understood how constitutional review, without meaningful checks, could enable judicial despotism.
by Alan S. Kahan via Law & Liberty on September 12, 2023

Making the Supreme Court Safe for Democracy

Beyond packing schemes, we need to diminish the high court’s power.
by Samuel Moyn, Ryan D. Doerfler via The New Republic on October 13, 2020
Supreme Court building under dark rainclouds.

Critics of the Administrative State Have a History Problem

If they return governance to its 19th century roots, they will also do away with courts' ability to review agency action.
by Sophia Z. Lee via LPE Project on August 1, 2019

Will Democrats Regret Weaponizing the Judiciary?

Using the court system to stymie a president has backfired before.
by Matthew Pritchard via Politico Magazine on September 24, 2018

Separation of Power

To make a more perfect union, don’t look to the Founding Fathers.
by William Hogeland via Lapham’s Quarterly on March 14, 2018

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Footnote Four

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's solo dissent from an affirmative action case was inspired by a footnote.
by Lincoln Caplan via The New Yorker on September 13, 2013
Chief Justice John Roberts.

So, How Much of Korematsu Did the Supreme Court “Overrule,” Exactly?

Chief Justice John Roberts called it “obvious” that the infamous decision has “no place in law under the Constitution.” Recent events suggest otherwise.
by Madiba K. Dennie via Balls And Strikes on April 14, 2025
A hand bound to a gavel.

The Question Progressives Refuse to Answer

As Democrats became the party of proceduralism, they sidestepped a crucial debate.
by Marc J. Dunkelman via The Atlantic on April 2, 2025
Silhouettes of Energy Secretary Chris Wright, President Donald Trump, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in the Oval Office in the dark.

The Making of Emergencies

For centuries, theorists of liberal governance have worried about how emergencies can unfetter executive power. Trump has given those fears new urgency.
by Caroline Elkins via New York Review of Books on February 16, 2025
Chief Justice John Roberts.

The Supreme Court Has Murdered the Constitution

America’s founding document is now an all-but-meaningless scrap of paper. Happy Fourth!
by Ryan Cooper via The American Prospect on July 4, 2024
A gavel smashing a wooden house.

The Constitutional Case Against Exclusionary Zoning

America is suffering from a severe housing shortage. A crucial tool may lie in the Constitution.
by Ilya Somin, Joshua Braver via The Atlantic on June 12, 2024
Old City Hall, Wall St., New York City.

Originalism and the Nature of Rights

When we try to recover the “original meaning” of constitutional amendments, we begin with deeply engrained premises about the nature of what we're looking for.
by Jud Campbell via The Panorama on November 27, 2023

Constrain the Court—Without Crippling It

Critics of the Supreme Court think it has lost its claim to legitimacy. But proposals for reforming it must strike a balance with preserving its independence.
by Laurence H. Tribe via New York Review of Books on July 27, 2023
Scale, with pile of U.S. states weighing down one end, and the U.S. on the other.

How a Fringe Legal Theory Became a Threat to Democracy

Lawyers tried to use the independent-state-legislature theory to sway the outcomes of the 2000 and 2020 elections. What if it were to become the law of the land?
by Andrew Marantz via The New Yorker on June 5, 2023
Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas leading Washington Post editors on a hike along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, as part of his campaign to prevent the construction of a highway along its route, Maryland, 1954.

The Frontier Justice

William O. Douglas was a strong advocate of conservation, but as a Supreme Court justice his involvement in such issues was often ethically questionable.
by Jed S. Rakoff via New York Review of Books on May 4, 2023
Photo of E.P.A Headquarters, shot through a bush

How Government Ends

Through an assault on administrative agencies, the Supreme Court is systematically eroding the legal basis of effective governance.
by Lisa Heinzerling via Boston Review on September 28, 2022
Abortion opponents hold signs reading "I Vote Pro-life First" outside Supreme Court

Abortion and Partisan Entrenchment

The modern Republican Party has tied itself to Roe v. Wade. With the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs, the party is vulnerable to new issues.
by Jack Balkin via Social Science Research Network on September 14, 2022
Artwork of the Supreme Court but with chess pieces used as columns..

The Supreme Court Is Not Supposed to Have This Much Power

And Congress should claw it back.
by Daphna Renan, Nikolas Bowie via The Atlantic on June 8, 2022
Black and white people sitting at a lunch counter.

When Rights Went Right

Is the American conception of constitutional rights too absolute?
by David Cole via New York Review of Books on March 31, 2022
A portrait of Dred Scott.

The Importance of Teaching Dred Scott

By limiting discussion of the infamous Supreme Court decision, law-school professors risk minimizing the role of racism in American history.
by Jeannie Suk Gersen via The New Yorker on June 8, 2021
A red gun and blue gun pointing in opposite directions, with flags spelling "We"

Originalism, Divided

The theory has not provided the clarity some of its early proponents had hoped it would.
by Harry Litman via The Atlantic on May 25, 2021

How Abraham Lincoln Fought the Supreme Court

As Lincoln recognized, it's not enough to question the decisions, justices, or even the structure of the Court. We need to challenge the foundation of its power.
by Matthew Karp via Jacobin on September 19, 2020

The Contradictions of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

The Supreme Court justice may have been heralded by many of his progressive peers, but the legacy he left behind is far more ambiguous.
by Brenda Wineapple via The Nation on August 13, 2019
John Dalrymple

The Radical Roots of Free Speech

Conservatives like to claim that leftists are opponents of free speech. But that’s nonsense.
by Chase Burghgrave, Laura Weinrib via Jacobin on July 25, 2019
Japanese American woman and baby wearing tags, and people crowded into an internment camp.
partner

How Activists Resisted — And Ultimately Overturned — An Unjust Supreme Court Decision

And why they must resist the Court's current race-based precedents.
by Robert L. Tsai via Made By History on January 30, 2019
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall; painting by Henry Inman, 1832.

Hail to the Chief

“John Marshall...exhibited a subservience to the executive branch that continues to haunt us.”
by Jed S. Rakoff via New York Review of Books on November 22, 2018
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Progressives and the Court

A response to Samuel Moyn’s “Resisting the Juristocracy.”
by Andy Seal via U.S. Intellectual History Blog on October 8, 2018

No Law Without Politics (No Politics Without Law)

The way to address politicization in the courts is not de-politicization but counter-politicization.
by Jedediah Britton-Purdy via LPE Project on October 2, 2018

Josef K. in Washington

A review of "Closing the Courthouse Door: How Your Constitutional Rights Became Unenforceable" by Erwin Chemerinsky.
by David Luban via New York Review of Books on March 2, 2018
View More
30 of
48

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History