It’s Not Just The Supreme Court. Republicans Are Screwing Lots Of Other Courts Too.

WASHINGTON — It sucks to be Merrick Garland right now. He was nominated to the job of his life — Supreme Court justice — and Republicans won’t even give him a vote. It’s not that they have bad things to say about him; they just don’t want President Barack Obama to fill the empty court seat.

It’s worth noting there are 46 other Merrick Garlands. That is, 46 other judicial nominees are in the same boat. They’re not in line for the Supreme Court, but like Garland, they’re nominees to federal courts who aren’t getting votes (except one, who just got scheduled for a Monday vote). That’s because GOP leaders don’t want to confirm judges until 2017. By then, they hope, a Republican will be in the White House and will put forward nominees they like better.

California Getting Closer To Having Lawmakers Wear Donors’ Logos

A transparency group in California on Tuesday announced it had collected 40,000 signatures to place an initiative on the ballot that would require state representatives to wear the names of their top sponsors while on the floor of the Statehouse.

The initiative, called "California Is Not For Sale," was created in part to curb the influence of money in politics, and has been compared to NASCAR drivers displaying company logos on their shirts. It is backed by California attorney and businessman John Cox, who committed $1 million to the effort. It will need 365,000 valid signatures in order to qualify for the ballot in November, and organizers are confident they can muster enough support.

Federal Judges Are Burned Out, Overworked And Wondering Where Congress Is

WASHINGTON -- It was Labor Day weekend and Lawrence O'Neill desperately wanted to get out of town for some downtime with his wife.

His mini-vacation didn't work out so well. As a federal judge on a busy California court in Fresno, O'Neill works up to 75 hours a week and at least one full day every weekend -- and that's just to keep up with his regular caseload. He ended up leaving town but worked the entire holiday weekend: finishing orders that needed to get out, taking care of administrative matters and responding to staff lawyers to keep cases moving along.

Congratulations, GOP. You're Confirming Judges At The Slowest Rate In 60 Years.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans are confirming federal judges at the slowest rate in more than 60 years, fueling a "politically motivated vacancy crisis" in the nation's courts, according to an analysis released Thursday by Alliance for Justice.

The report, Politics over Justice: Judicial Selection in the 114th Congress, looks at the pace of judicial confirmations since Republicans took control of the Senate in January. GOP leaders have only let six of President Barack Obama's judicial picks get confirmation votes this year. For context: when Democrats controlled the Senate during President George W. Bush's seventh year in office, they had confirmed 29 of his judicial nominees by this point.

Judges Give NSA More Time to Suck Up Your Data

A federal appeals court in Washington, DC, on Friday tossed out an injunction over the National Security Agency's bulk collection of millions of American's phone records, but left open the question of whether the program itself is legal.

The Five Worst Supreme Court Justices In American History, Ranked

Today is the official release date for my book, Injustices: The Supreme Court’s History of Comforting the Comforted and Afflicting the Afflicted. As you might guess from the title, it is not particularly complimentary of the Supreme Court as an institution. As the book’s jacket explains, “the justices of the Supreme Court have shaped a nation where children toiled in coal mines, where Americans could be forced into camps because of their race, and where a woman could be sterilized against her will by state law. The Court was the midwife of Jim Crow, the right hand of union busters, and the dead hand of the Confederacy. Nor is the modern Court a vast improvement, with its incursions on voting rights and its willingness to place elections for sale.”

Ferguson judge behind aggressive fines policy owes $170,000 in unpaid taxes

The judge in Ferguson, Missouri, who is accused of fixing traffic tickets for himself and colleagues while inflicting a punishing regime of fines and fees on the city’s residents, also owes more than $170,000 in unpaid taxes.

Ronald J Brockmeyer, whose court allegedly jailed impoverished defendants unable to pay fines of a few hundred dollars, has a string of outstanding debts to the US government dating back to 2007, according to tax filings obtained by the Guardian from authorities in Missouri.

Peter MacKay's friends, colleagues make up 6 of 9 judge appointees

A news site connected to the Broadbent Institute is raising questions about why six of the nine judges appointed to Nova Scotia courts since October 2013 have personal, professional or political connections to Justice Minister Peter MacKay. 

MacKay was appointed attorney general and justice minister in 2013.

Judge selection process remains a mystery

Four days after taking office in 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper named Marshall Rothstein to the nine-member Supreme Court of Canada.

The federal court jurist was one of three candidates on a shortlist drawn up by a new advisory committee of MPs, legal experts and prominent Canadians that had been created by the previous Liberal government.

Ten days later, the new prime minister introduced his own historic reform to the occult practice of selecting justices for the country's highest court. As a condition of employment, Rothstein had to appear before a nationally televised ad hoc, all-party committee of MPs and legal experts - the first Supreme Court nominee ever to do so. Three hours of genteel questioning followed.

WHO’S TO JUDGE?

Imagine that you are the judge asked to sentence a convict named Shon Hopwood, a twenty-three-year-old Nebraskan who has begged you for leniency and sworn he will change his ways. Hopwood has made a full and honest confession of all his crimes and can point to two years of service in the Navy, his past as a basketball star in high school, and a seemingly earnest repentance and desire to change. But he has also robbed five banks, brandishing a gun, and spent the proceeds on alcohol and drugs.

Ontario judge blasts Harper government’s ‘tough on crime’ agenda

We’ve known for some time that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s “tough on crime” agenda carries a stiff and wasteful price tag. Canadians are spending $5 billion more a year on the criminal justice system since the Tories were elected in 2006, even as the crime rate has plummeted. Those billions would be better invested in economic growth, productivity and jobs.

What’s less well-recognized is the corrosive effect the government’s punitively blind obsession with crime is having on the justice system itself. Changes to the Criminal Code have cast what one respected jurist calls a “dark shadow” on foundational principles of proportionality and restraint that hark back to Biblical law thousands of years ago. Today sentencing seems to be more about exacting vengeance than about deterrence, rehabilitation and making good.

Lori Douglas scandal shows how easy it is to become a judge

WINNIPEG—The checkup into the background of Canadian senior judges before they’re appointed is as light as a feather duster, it emerged at the Lori Douglas inquiry Friday.

And with that revelation alone, the Canadian Judicial Council committee looking into how Douglas was appointed in 2005 — despite the existence of online nude photos and the alleged sexual harassment of her lawyer-husband’s client — has justified its existence.

Douglas’s applications to become a judge had previously been blocked by Manitoba Appeal Court Justice Marc Monnin, who feared that the photos her husband Jack King had posted of her online would lead to embarrassment or blackmail. Eventually he became convinced that they were permanently deleted and the matter was settled.