REVIEW: New Book ‘Rise to Greatness’ Explores How a Kid from Queens Became One of History’s Most Influential Supreme Court Justices

Antonin Scalia was a budding textualist long before he transformed the Supreme Court, and the nation, with his unique legal approach, a new biography of his early life reveals.

In the 1950s, the future Supreme Court Justice spent his mornings on the New York subway, commuting with his rifle to Xavier High School, a hybrid Jesuit-run Catholic school and military academy in Manhattan. His teacher’s response one day to a student’s sarcastic comment about “Hamlet” became a moment Scalia would never forget — and would refer to for the rest of his life as the Shakespeare Principle: “Mistah, when you read Shakespeah, Shakespeah’s not on trial; you ah,” Father Thomas Matthews said.

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Denied: Supreme Court Will Not Hear 2020 Election Case; Petitioner Seeks Reconsideration

The Supreme Court announced Monday it will not hear a 2020 election lawsuit against former Vice President Mike Pence, President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, 291 House members, and 94 senators.

The lawsuit alleges the defendants violated their oaths of office by refusing to investigate evidence of fraud in the 2020 election before accepting the electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021, allowing for Biden and Harris to be “fraudulently” inaugurated.

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Supreme Court Denies Arizona GOP Chair’s Bid to Block Jan. 6 Panel from Reviewing Phone Records

The Supreme Court on Monday denied Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward’s request to keep her cellphone records from the Democrat-led House Jan. 6 panel.

The court vacated the temporary order that Justice Elana Kagan put in place, pausing the phone records from being shared while the court weighed Ward’s request.

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Clarence Thomas: The Supreme Court Could Be the ‘Most Dangerous’ Branch of Government

Justice Clarence Thomas warned against politicizing the Supreme Court Thursday, saying that doing so could make the judicial system the “most dangerous” branch of government.

During a speech at the University of Notre Dame, Thomas cautioned against allowing “others to manipulate our institutions when we don’t get the outcome we like.” He reminded the crowd that justices do rule not based on “personal preferences,” according to The Washington Post.

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Commentary: Justice Department Should Defend Unborn Not Abortion

Leave it to Attorney General Merrick Garland, once seemingly destined for the Supreme Court. When choosing between America’s most vulnerable members and most determined political lobby, he picked the abortion industry over millions of babies.

He didn’t put it that way, of course. He explained, “The department will provide support from federal law enforcement when an abortion clinic or reproductive health center is under attack.”

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Commentary: Voter Fraud Is a Supreme Court Problem

As a few American Greatness writers, and many of its readers, have pointed out: If our votes don’t count, nothing else matters. Election fraud should be the top subject in our minds every single day.

Last week, a brilliant piece by Ted McCartney suggested we march on Washington, D.C.—peacefully, but in huge numbers—with just a single demand: A constitutional amendment that requires all voting to take place in-person, on Election Day, with voter ID, on paper ballots, and that the ballots be counted that same evening on live-streamed television under the watchful eyes of as many in-person observers as want to be there.

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Senate Judiciary Committee to Review Supreme Court’s ‘Abuse’ of Shadow Docket

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the Supreme Court’s use of the so-called “shadow docket” — a method of issuing brief late-night rulings on key cases like the Texas abortion law.

“The Supreme Court must operate with the highest regard for judicial integrity in order to earn the public’s trust,” Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, who is also the Senate majority whip, said in a statement. “This anti-choice law is a devastating blow to Americans’ constitutional rights — and the Court allowed it to see the light of day without public deliberation or transparency.”

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Biden: Supreme Court Abortion Ruling ‘Insults the Rule of Law’

President Joe Biden condemned a ruling by the Supreme Court on Texas’ Heartbeat Act Thursday, saying the court’s decision “insults the rule of law.”

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 late Wednesday night to deny abortion providers’ requests for injunctive relief against Texas’ new law banning abortion after 6 weeks. The president weighed in on the ruling Thursday morning, calling it an “unprecedented assault on a woman’s constitutional rights under Roe v. Wade.”

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‘I’ll Make a Decision’: Justice Breyer Weighs in on His Potential Retirement

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer remains undecided about retirement plans, saying in an interview published Friday that there are “many considerations” playing a part in his eventual decision.

Breyer, 83, is the oldest member of the court, and he has yet to decide when to retire, despite increasing pressure from activists to retire immediately.

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Changes to Pennsylvania Election Laws Followed by Last-Minute Maneuvers May Lead to Historic Mishaps

The Pennsylvania Legislature passed Act 77 in October 2019 to make voting “more convenient and more secure” according to Governor Tom Wolf (D).  

Major features of the act include:

extending voter registration from 30 days before an election to 15 days;
allowing mail-in voting without an excuse to vote mail-in versus in-person;
extending mail-in request (online and by mail) and submission up to 50 days before an election;
extending the mail-in and absentee submission deadline from 5:00 p.m. the Friday before the election to 8:00 p.m. the day of the election.

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Senators Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar: Trump Shouldn’t Pick the New SCOTUS Justice

Senators Tina Smith (DFL-MN) and Amy Klobuchar (DFL-MN) stated that President Trump shouldn’t pick the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) nominee. Instead, Smith and Klobuchar say that the newly-elected president should, and the Senate should wait to vote until then.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died Friday from cancer complications. The SCOTUS vacancy is now the epicenter of political leaders’ attention.

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