Linda Greenhouse Quotes
Judicial activism is a term for a legal opinion that the speaker does not like. It is a curse word without content.
Linda Greenhouse, Legal Journalist, C-SPAN, America & the Courts, July 28, 2008
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Then Clarence Thomas replaced Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court, there appeared to be a majority of the court that would overturn Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to an abortion. However it was an election year and the Chief Justice, a Republican, was concerned that if Roe was overturned the electorate might take it out on the Republicans, whose Solicitor Generals had fought to overturn Roe, at the polls. He therefore postponed the hearing of a Pennsylvania case, and then tried to postpone it again till after the election. Blackmun’s memo caused a majority of the court to vote to hear the case with no additional delay. Ironically, by a single vote, Roe was upheld.
Amicus Curia is Latin for Friend of the Court. In the American legal system, in any appeal case any organization or individual may file a brief to the court even though they are not on either side. Some like Brest do not like these briefs because they are not for either side but just want to benefit the country and the society. Others think that these are the best brief’s because they consider the big picture and not the specific parties to the case.
This kind of attack on the Supreme Court by a prominent legal figure is quite unusual. However, the appointment of the ideologue, Clarence Thomas and his effect on the balance of the court triggered much controversy.
Jefferson, like most Presidents and ex-presidents, had his concerns about the judiciary and judicial checks, especially of the Executive Branch.
Two openings appeared on the Supreme Court for Nixon to fill. He heard from many people on recommendations, but he wanted to fill the posts with “strict constructionists.” Rehnquist had written giving him a political operational definition of a strict constructionist. This memo was never released to the public by the White House on the grounds that it was protected by Executive Privilege. However, the definition given had virtually nothing to do with the concept of strict construction but is a definition of a ideological conservative constructing his own meaning to the Constitution. The source for the text came from John Dean, the Counsel to the President, who found this memo in his White House file and revealed it at a question and answer session at the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, October 10, 2001.
Linda Joyce Greenhouse is an American legal journalist who is the Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence and Joseph M. Goldstein Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. She is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who covered the United States Supreme Court for nearly three decades for The New York Times. She is President of the American Philosophical Society (since 2017), and a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Senate.
