From Haaretz: Jerusalem’s rabbinic court erred and overstepped its authority last year when it retroactively declared that the converted, Canadian-Israeli son of prominent Jewish philosopher Emil Fackenheim was in fact a non-Jew, the court’s ombudsman ruled earlier this month. Eliezer Go...

Rabbi Gil Student nominates Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. I agree that R. Sacks is eloquent, but he does lead anybody? Does he influence thought? Does he lead intellectual change? I don’t think so. He’s a silver-tongued spokesman for the British Jewish Orthodox establishment, but he doesn&...

Lawyers for former CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson plan to petition the Supreme Court to review a lawsuit against Vice President Dick Cheney and I. Lewis “Scooter� Libby, among others, after a federal appeals court this week rejected a rehearing......

Do you imagine that they stay on the Court only because they don't want George Bush replacing them? Here's the AP: The oldest two justices — half the court's liberal wing — top the list of those considered likely to retire during the next presidential administration. Despite Stevens' and Ginsbur...

Cruel and unusual punishment. A purposefully vague standard imposed by an 18th century sensibility that knew hanging as a punishment for simple theft. Would the men that conceived of cruel AND unusual punishment have had any qualms about executing a man who raped an 8 year-old? I seriously doubt it....

What a terrible loss. You know I thought he was the best living comedian. We were just talking about that here — last April. I've loved him since the 1970s. There are decades-old routines that spring to mind immediately as the most brilliant comic riffs I've ever heard — the one about all our "s...

Asks Linda Greenhouse, in a survey of the Roberts years on the Supreme Court that notes the decline of 5-4 decisions. There's only been 1 this year (and it was a "low-profile" statutory case where Justice Kennedy, in dissent, was not the deciding vote). Last year a third of the cases were decided 5-...