U.S. Supreme Court

Tuesday’s New York Times piece on how the problematic phrase “established by the state” got into and stayed in the Affordable Care Act provoked a great many blasts from lefty bloggers at the plaintiffs’ case in King v. Burwell. Two especially heated posts came from MSNBC’s Steve Benen and Esquire’s Charles Pierce. Benen, a producer for The Rachel Maddow Show and the primary writer for the show’s…

In an effort to shame protesters who believe true marriage is between one man and one woman, Jessica Williams of Comedy Central's The Daily Show mingled with people she believes are on the “Wrong Side of History” while pretending to be crying since this might be her last chance to say goodbye to the “Hate Class of 2015.” The segment was introduced by outgoing host Jon Stewart.

Appearing on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on Wednesday night, Nina Burleigh of Newsweek crudely joked that Republicans who defended Pence and Indiana’s Religious Freedom Act were experiencing “premature intolerance ejaculation.” 

Mark Joseph Stern argues that a crucial shortcoming of John Strand’s play The Originalist is its out-of-date portrayal of Scalia as “a principled conservative, a brilliant and complex man who resists partisan classification.” Nowadays, however, Scalia’s “ideology…looks less conservative than Republican…Twenty years ago Scalia was the unpredictable justice, the renegade who thought both flag…

Veteran journalist Steven Waldman, a former Washington correspondent for Newsweek and a senior adviser to the Federal Communications Commission for two years during Obama’s first term, argues that an Obama nomination would be “good for [Hillary], and very good for progressives. Would he want it? It’s possible he’d view it as too confining, but it may be the only job a former president can get…

In a piece headlined “The Supreme Court vs. Reality,” Jeff Shesol claims that when the SCOTUS agreed to hear King v. Burwell, it showed that “most or maybe all of the Court’s Republican appointees will entertain any argument, no matter how silly, that can derail or dismember the supposed abomination that is Obamacare.”

Continuing the standard set by NBC’s Today, on Wednesday night the major broadcast networks played up the fears that “health care coverage for millions” might be lost and “could doom ObamaCare” if the U.S. Supreme Court, in a case heard on Wednesday, rules against the federal government and its federal subsidies. ABC and NBC used covert liberal activists, with ABC turning to an ABC News…

In her Talking Points Memo column, Marcotte writes that King v. Burwell itself is ridiculous but par for the course: “Exploiting the obsessions and fantasies of rightwing cranks…has [been] the standard operating procedure of conservative leadership for decades now. But that the Supreme Court is elevating this kind of talk radio madness to the highest court in the land takes this to another level…

On Friday morning, ABC’s Good Morning America aired a news brief that described state voter identification laws struck down in Texas and Wisconsin as “restrictive” and passed on the opinion of the judge who put Texas’s law on hold as being “a poll tax designed to keep minorities from voting.” During the 7:00 a.m. hour, newsreader Amy Robach offered the following news brief: "Back in this country…

Three points need to be made about Monday's decision by the Supreme Courtnot to decide whether the equal protection clause of the Constitution grants people of the same sex the right to marry.

Rush Limbaugh was right in saying that Attorney General Eric Holder's resignation is not in any way a simple bon voyage. Rather, it is a deliberate ploy to maneuver him into an even greater place of influence, possibly even the Supreme Court.

After 5 1/2 bumpy years of controversial service, the besieged but bolstered attorney general, Eric Holder, resigned. But is this close friend and confidant of President Barack Obama's really stepping down for some benign reason at a critical time for our country, or is there a sinister and strategic plan behind it all?

The MSNBC freak-out continued following the surprising split rulings regarding the federal ObamaCare health insurance exchanges. The 2-1 DC circuit court decision determined that, consistent with the text in the law, subsidies must come from state insurance exchanges as opposed to federal ones. The panel was appalled that the court could possibly come to such a conclusion, while at the same…

In the aftermath of a DC circuit court ruling today that would effectively end ObamaCare as we know it in the 36 states with federal exchanges, MSNBC's The Reid Report feared the worst, and attempted to rally the troops, so to speak. Host Joy Reid played the part, bringing on two guests who rejected the notion that this ruling would be accepted by the full appeals court panel or the Supreme…