Mark Tushnet
Mark Tushnet
Mark Victor Tushnet is a leading scholar of constitutional law and legal history, and currently the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Harvard Law School...
against argument congress creating ensuring given injured interest position powers rule standing
Sen. Specter's position is that Congress is creating the interest in ensuring that its powers are respected, which is injured when the court's rule against them, ... And so given that interest and injury, his argument is they have standing to intervene.
congress court create interests legal otherwise people power standing supreme
The Supreme Court has said Congress does have the power to create new legal interests -- to confer standing on people who otherwise wouldn't have it,
advocacy cast likely mind positions revealing
There's likely to be more informality in the memos, which will be more revealing of Roberts' cast of mind, ... There may also be advocacy of positions that were rejected.
court greatest inability lead roe
I think he'd look back and say his greatest disappointment was his inability to lead the court to overrule Roe V. Wade.
changed roughly views
I don't think his fundamental views changed over the roughly 30 years he was on the court.
dropped issues simply
But there are some issues that have simply dropped out of contention,
people voice
It's one thing for people to know what your voice is and another to know what you look like.
challenges high issues justice local opposition ordinance picture racial somebody together voting whom
When you put the memo together with his voting registration challenges and with his opposition to a local antidiscrimination ordinance in Phoenix, ... you get a picture of somebody for whom issues of racial justice and nondiscrimination were not a high priority.
both century changed chief court courts dramatic great history law supreme warren william
When the history of the Supreme Court in the 20th century is written, there will be two great chief justices: Earl Warren and William Rehnquist. Both presided over courts that changed the law in a very dramatic way.
hard law less urgent
They really did reshape the law in significant ways. So, in some ways, he doesn't need to be as hard-edged now as when he started. He has accomplished a lot, so it's less urgent for him to be pressing hard for change.
except extremely loose outsider scrutiny subject willing
They're not willing to subject their designation to the scrutiny of any outsider except under an extremely loose standard.
assemble sensitive tenure toward
I think toward the end of his tenure he was more sensitive to the compromises that you have to make if you're going to assemble a majority.
people united
He was working for the people of the United States.
certainly changed country court gotten individual members
The court has gotten more conservative as the country has, but individual members of the court haven't changed certainly not Rehnquist. The court and the country changed around him.