Goodbye Democrat Governor Rod Blagojevich. After a four-day trial, the Illinois Senate voted 59-0 to convict him of abuse of power, automatically ousting the second-term Democrat. In a second, identical vote, lawmakers further barred Blagojevich from ever holding public office in the state again. Mr. Blagojevich responded that such an action was "un-American" because, "You haven't proved a crime, and you can't because it didn't happen ... How can you throw a governor out of

One of the best discussions of this issue I've ever seen appears in Townhall Magazine (August 2008), authored by Curt Levey, executive d

Judicial activism is the subject of the cover story in this month’s Townhall Magazine. The article, by Committee for Justice Executive Director Curt Levey, attempts to cut through efforts to “blur and distort the definition of judicial activism” by clarifying, in layman’s terms, what judicial activism is and what it is not. Levey notes that “[T]he purveyors of judicial activism – and its handmaiden, the ‘living Constitution’ – try hard to blur the distinction between activist

Judicial activism is not the failure to follow precedent. Courts must generally adhere to their past decisions and those of higher courts. B

The oral testimony and written statement of expert witness Denis Steven Rutkus, a federal judiciary specialist for the Congressional Research Service (CRS), confirmed Senator Specter's suspicions today regarding the so-called "Thurmond Rule" at the Senate Republicans Committee hearing. (Transcript available here). The phrase was coined after the late Senator Strom Thurmond for his role in supposedly encouraging presidential candidate Ronald Reagan and Senate Republicans to

With an eye to the pivotal role of the Senate’s 14 red state Democrats in the imminent vote on Fifth Circuit nominee Judge Leslie Southwick,

As the punditry dust continues to settle in the aftermath of the lastest Supreme Court term, it is helpful to rebut some of the false accusa

To return once more to the PFAW-blog's active criticism of CFJ and other organizations fighting for the fair treatment of federal judicial nominees, today I want to address in particular another one of Kyle's accusations. He writes, "As for the claim that Democrats must ensure that 'each and every judicial nominee is given a hearing and is reported out of committee' … well, let’s just say that is not how Republicans operated under President Clinton either." The embedded link

Some of the assessments of the Roberts Court are so hyperbolic as to merit special notice. The Harvard Crimson's staff editorial of Apr.