Bench Memos - National Review Online: Federal Judiciary

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Federal Judiciary Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Federal Judiciary

Bench Memos - National Review Online

Covering The Supreme Court -- from National Review Online

Post Frequency: 91/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 05:00:54

The Decade We Pushed Back -- By: Jim Geraghty

Posted on December 30, 2009
Perhaps we can call Andy Serwer?s Time magazine cover piece declaring the past ten years ?The Decade from Hell? a journalistic perfect storm: a shocking headline, an excuse to rehash familiar criticism of President Bush, a chance to play to readers? self-pity, and a chance to tout the writer?s upcoming book, Starting Over: Why the Last Decade Was So Damn Rotten and Why the Next One Will Surely Be Better...

Stop Digging -- By: Nicole Gelinas

Posted on December 30, 2009
Far too much of the debate over economic policies for the next decade ignores a central, sobering reality: We simply can?t afford another decade like this one. And while Washington politicians tell us that Wall Street is mostly to blame for our continuing economic woes, no one should believe them...

Avatar and the Faith Instinct -- By: Jonah Goldberg

Posted on December 30, 2009
You probably don?t need a long synopsis of James Cameron?s half-billion-dollar epic Avatar, in part because even if you haven?t seen it, you?ve seen it. As many reviewers have noted, Cameron rips off Hollywood clichés to the point you could cut and paste dialogue from Pocahontas or Dances with Wolves into Avatar without appreciably changing the story...

Old Boxing Matches -- By: Thomas Sowell

Posted on December 30, 2009
Watching old boxing matches on DVDs tells us something about some of the ways in which American society has changed. The first thing I noticed about the boxers back in the era of Joe Louis, from the 1930s into the 1950s, is that they all wore regulation boxing trunks and they didn?t have tattoos...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Hard Questions, All-Too-Easy Answers -- By: Bill Burck & Dana Perino

Posted on December 30, 2009
Janet Napolitano, President Obama?s secretary of homeland security, has been rightly criticized for her declaration that ?the system worked? in the thwarted plot to bring down Northwest Airlines Flight 253. Secretary Napolitano and the Obama administration quickly pulled up stakes on that position in the face of ridicule from all corners...

Just Jack -- By: Kathryn Jean Lopez

Posted on December 30, 2009
EDITOR?S NOTE: This column is available exclusively through United Media. For permission to reprint or excerpt this copyrighted material, please contact Carmen Puello at cpuello@unitedmedia.com.In 2009, America lost two political leaders whose names won?t soon be forgotten...

Faith in Free-Market Capitalism Is Being Rewarded -- By: Larry Kudlow

Posted on December 30, 2009
Despite the historic expansion of the federal government?s involvement in, intervention in, and control of the economy -- including Bailout Nation; takeovers of banks, car companies, insurance firms, Fannie, Freddie, AIG, GM, Chrysler, and GMAC; large-scale tax threats; overregulation; an attempted takeover of the health-care sector; ultra-easy money; a declining dollar; and unprecedented spending and debt creation -- despite all the things that would be expected to destroy the economy -- all this socialism lite and the degrading of incentives and rewards for success -- despite all this, the U...

Janet Napolitano's Man-Caused Disaster -- By: Rich Lowry

Posted on December 29, 2009
Janet Napolitano is impressed with Janet Napolitano?s work. In an instantly notorious statement on CNN over the weekend, the Homeland Security secretary said ?the system worked? when a man boarded a Christmas Day flight from Amsterdam to Detroit with explosives in his underwear that he couldn?t quite manage to ignite...

Unhealthy Arrogance -- By: Thomas Sowell

Posted on December 29, 2009
The only thing healthy about Congress?s health-insurance legislation is the healthy skepticism about it shown by most of the public, as revealed by polls. What is most unhealthy about this legislation is the raw arrogance in the way it was conceived and passed...

No More Visas for the State Department -- By: Elliott Abrams

Posted on December 29, 2009
The mishandling of the would-be airplane bomber Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab?s visa is only the latest piece of evidence that the granting of visas should be taken away from the State Department. Doing so would improve our national security -- and actually help the State Department itself...

Regime Change for Iran? -- By: The Editors

Posted on December 29, 2009
Iran has come to a test of strength between the regime and the people. At this point, the outcome is uncertain. All sorts of unquantifiable factors like the character and will of leaders are in play, as well as unforeseeable interventions, for instance from the military or the Revolutionary Guards, plain accident, perhaps an atrocity...

Flying Lessons -- By: Clifford D. May

Posted on December 29, 2009
Several hundred men, women, and children will live to see the New Year thanks to good luck: The terrorist on Delta/Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit was inadequately trained, and one passenger turned out to be remarkably quick-thinking and courageous...

Stop Releasing Terrorists -- By: The Editors

Posted on December 29, 2009
Less than two weeks ago, the Obama administration repatriated to Yemen six detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. It was a test. About 90 of the 200 or so remaining Gitmo detainees are Yemenis. The president would like to move toward fulfilling his promise to close Gitmo, and thus to appease the antiwar Left, by transferring most of those Yemeni jihadists back home...

Cross the River, Burn the Bridge -- By: Mark Steyn

Posted on December 26, 2009
Last week, during a bit of banter on Fox News, my colleague Jonah Goldberg reminded me of something I?d all but forgotten. Last September, during his address to Congress on health care, Barack Obama declared: ?I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last...

The Year of Living Fecklessly -- By: Charles Krauthammer

Posted on December 25, 2009
On Tuesday, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not just reject President Obama?s latest feckless floating nuclear deadline. He spat on it, declaring that Iran ?will continue resisting? until the U.S. has gotten rid of its 8,000 nuclear warheads...

National Organization for Irresponsible Women -- By: Mona Charen

Posted on December 25, 2009
Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo is in command of 22,000 American combat forces in northern Iraq. Unlike some high-ranking military men who demonstrate exemplary courage in the face of the enemy but collapse like paper umbrellas in the face of political pressure, Cucolo seemed ready for the political firefight he precipitated...

It's Not Over -- By: Ramesh Ponnuru

Posted on December 24, 2009
Democrats are doing a victory lap. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says that with Senate passage of the Reid bill, ?Health-care reform is now a matter of when.? The press is doing its best to convey the impression that Republicans are throwing in the towel -- follow the link in the last sentence to see a good example of such reporting...

War Against the Wannabe Rich -- By: Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on December 24, 2009
There is class warfare going on in this country -- but it?s not against the established rich. It?s against those who are trying to become wealthy. President Obama has declared that those who make over $200,000 will pay higher income taxes. Caps on payroll taxes are supposed to come off as well for the upper class...

Matters of Trust -- By: Interview

Posted on December 23, 2009
Fr. Thomas D. Williams, LC, is Vatican Analyst for CBS News and teaches theology and ethics at Regina Apostolorum Pontifical Athenaeum in Rome. He is author of, most recently, Can God Be Trusted? Finding Faith in Troubled Times. National Review Online?s Kathryn Jean Lopez recently talked to him about trust...

Crummy Script, Glorious Method -- By: Frederica Mathewes-Green

Posted on December 23, 2009
In Avatar?s opening moments, hero-to-be Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is waking up on the planet Pandora after a cryogenic journey, and reflecting on the twists of fate. Here he is, a paraplegic Marine, filling in for the twin brother who actually trained for this mission...

The Middle East's Embattled Christians -- By: Nina Shea

Posted on December 23, 2009
The ongoing Christian flight from the Middle East was high on the agenda of the Vatican?s secretary of the relations with states, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, when I met with him recently in Rome. The lengthy exodus of ancient Christian congregations from the greater Middle East?s last redoubts of religious pluralism is accelerating...

Christmas 'Over There' -- By: David French

Posted on December 23, 2009
When I saw the commercial, I laughed out loud.By now, you?ve probably seen it. A small group of Marines is out in the desert, obviously suffering in the sweltering heat. But then . . . a single snowflake falls. Then another. Then another. Smiling in wonder, the Marines hold their hands out in joy and relief...

A Daughter Brought to Life -- By: Jay Nordlinger

Posted on December 23, 2009
David Horowitz has done what few could do: He has written a memoir of a child of his who died (age 44); and he has brought it off beautifully. A Cracking of the Heart makes for raw reading at times, but it also makes for thought-provoking and uplifting reading...

Christmas with Washington, on the Delaware -- By: Robert Costa

Posted on December 23, 2009
Every Christmas, old men and young boys stand upon the muddy banks of the Delaware River at Washington Crossing, a small nook of stone homes and farms just north of Philadelphia. Some don coal-black blankets. Others wrap their feet with wool. They come, officially, to reenact the famous crossing of General Washington and his soldiers, but the day is about more than dressing up...

Obama Has Failed His Words -- By: Jonah Goldberg

Posted on December 23, 2009
On his own terms, President Obama is a failure.During the presidential campaign, he fought hammer and tongs with Hillary Clinton over the best way to govern. Clinton, casting herself as a battle-scarred political veteran, argued that diligence, dedicated detail work, and working the system were essential for success...

A Very, Very Carbon-Neutral Christmas -- By: Rich Lowry

Posted on December 23, 2009
Editor?s note: This column is available exclusively through King Features Syndicate. For permission to reprint or excerpt this copyrighted material, please contact: kfsreprint@hearstsc.com, or phone 800-708-7311, ext. 246. The great Christmas-tree debate should be settled for now...

Making Room on Campus -- By: Kathryn Jean Lopez

Posted on December 23, 2009
EDITOR?S NOTE: This column is available exclusively through United Media. For permission to reprint or excerpt this copyrighted material, please contact Carmen Puello at cpuello@unitedmedia.com. Mary Dodd is alive today because her mother said ?yes? when Mary entered her life...

Santa Harry's Sleigh Full of New Health Taxes -- By: Deroy Murdock

Posted on December 23, 2009
Temecula, Calif. -- While hastily ramming his 2,457-page, $2.5 trillion Obamacare package through the Senate before Christmas, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) must see himself as Saint Nick. High atop his sleigh, Santa Harry has piled twelve brand-new taxes and six tax hikes totaling $398...

The 'Science' Mantra -- By: Thomas Sowell

Posted on December 22, 2009
Science is one of the great achievements of the human mind and the biggest reason why we live not only longer but more vigorously in our old age, in addition to all the ways in which it provides us with things that make life easier and more enjoyable...

Congress Can Stop the KSM Trial -- By: NRO Staff

Posted on December 22, 2009
There is no justifying the Obama administration?s decision to grant a civilian trial to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 plotters who carried out the deadliest act of war ever committed on U.S. soil. The president must not grant the worst of war criminals the same constitutional rights enjoyed by the nearly 3,000 U...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

Relaxed Standard of Review Applies to Density Variances
The Appellate Division extended to applications for development se...

Review of Charles Fried
Here's my review, in Commonweal, of Charles Fried's recent book, M...

NSEERS - National Security Entry-Exit Registration System
NSEERS - NATIONAL SECURITY ENTRY-EXIT REGISTRATION SYSTEM Special ...

National Episcopal Church Gets Only Limited Intervention In Property Dispute
In Diocese of Central New York v. St. Andrews Episcopal Church, (N...