Ben Sobel
We Can No Longer Afford Illusions | The Supreme Court and the Left
Ben Sobel
That the Supreme Court is ethically compromised has become almost comically obvious. Recent sweeping decisions, from the overturning of Roe v. Wade to the dismantling of affirmative action, to the extension of innocent Americans’ prison sentences, have been handed down in the midst of myriad scandals involving justices and their wealthy, purportedly uncorrupt friends. The high court, now dominated by conservatives, is not just independent but dangerously rogue. For Issue...
A Protean Test
Ben Sobel
Supreme Court justices from Brett Kavanaugh to Sonia Sotomayor are on the record venerating “judicial restraint.” In its most generic sense, the phrase refers to the principle that courts should avoid adjudicating questions inessential to the disputes before them. But restraint is one thing, and timorousness another. For all the complaints about an imperious Court, the flaw in one recent decision is its timidity. In 1984, Vanity Fair hired Andy...
