HMH's Supreme Court Watch Contributed by Bill Faith
From my email:
HENRY MARK HOLZER’S SUPREME COURT WATCH [A project of Madison Press]
As many of you know, after decades of my working in the field of constitutional law— teaching, practicing, and writing books and articles—in early 2006 Madison Press published my book The Keeper of the Flame: The Supreme Court Opinions of Justice Clarence Thomas, analyzing fourteen terms (1991-2005) of this great justice’s opinions.
Since publication of The Keeper of the Flame, I have frequently been asked if I intended to supplement the book by continuing to examine Justice Thomas’s opinions—and whether, while I was at it, I would be willing to comment regularly on all the decisions of the Court. The questions have come from principally from non-lawyers who have a serious interest in Justice Thomas in particular and Supreme Court decisions in general.
I’ve found the idea intriguing, and so that’s what I have decided to do: provide regular commentary on Supreme Court opinions for non-lawyers.
The 2005-2006 term of the Supreme Court of the United States began in early October 2005 and the justices announced the last of their eighty-seven decisions at the end of June 2006. Justice Thomas participated in those decisions either by joining a majority, concurring, or dissenting opinion authored by another member of the Court (writing nothing of his own), or he himself wrote a majority, concurring, or dissenting opinion.
Beginning with the 2005-2006 term just concluded, I will provide regular commentary—from a conservative/libertarian perspective—on every decision of the Supreme Court.
The decisions in which Justice Thomas did not write an opinion, will reveal, albeit not in his own words, where he stood on the issues decided by the Court.
The decisions in which Justice Thomas did write an opinion—majority, concurring, and dissenting—will be treated differently. Just as I have done in The Keeper of the Flame, the opinions authored by Justice Thomas will be analyzed in detail, and then fit, in easily understood language, into the body of his jurisprudence.
In other words, I will provide commentary for the layperson about not only the Court’s overall decisions for terms beginning with 2005-2006, but, more importantly, the commentary will constitute an ongoing supplement to my book The Keeper of the Flame: The Supreme Court Opinions of Justice Clarence Thomas.
Although the facts of each case, the issue(s) to be decided, the factors motivating the decisions, and the conclusions reached by the justices will be presented objectively, my commentary will make abundantly clear whether I think the case’s outcome is “good” or “bad” for conservative/libertarian values. The vehicle for all of this is a website that I’ve just created. It is now on line, and is called “Henry Mark Holzer’s Supreme Court Watch.” Beginning right now, the site can be accessed at ).
“Henry Mark Holzer’s Supreme Court Watch” is entirely different from and unconnected to my own website, . As such, it has no relation to that site’s Newsletter, through which I have disseminated much of my, and others’, writing on legal and political topics. Accordingly, that Newsletter mailing list (which I am using for this announcement) will not be used to send email announcements about new Supreme Court decisions posted on “Henry Mark Holzer’s Supreme Court Watch.” I suggest that those of you who are interested in this new website simply bookmark it, and then check from time to time to see what new cases I’ve covered. The Supreme Court’s cases will be discussed when, and in the order, they are decided—so interested readers should have no difficulty in avoiding material already viewed.
Although regular commentary for the just concluded 2005-2006 term will begin to appear in mid-July, because of the importance of the Court’s decision last week in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld ––limiting the president’s power to fight the war against jihad—I have begun, out of order, with that case. My commentary on Hamdan is now available at in the “2005-2006 Term category.”
A “disclaimer” is necessary: No Supreme Court justice had any knowledge of “Henry Mark Holzer’s Supreme Court Watch” prior to this announcement, and no justice has, or will have, any connection with the site in the future. “Henry Mark Holzer’s Supreme Court Watch” is an undertaking entirely of my own, and I alone am responsible for its existence and content.
Please forward this announcement to anyone you think might be interested. Thank you.
HENRY MARK HOLZER
Contributed by Bill Faith on July 9, 2006 at 10:12 AM in , , |