Justice Scalia and the Fair Housing Act: A Textualist Approach Honed in Oral Argument
Justice Antonin Scalia’s output in the area of housing rights, and Fair Housing Act (FHA) law specifically, is deceptively sparse, if judged by authored opinions. Assessing his impact on these...
Justice Scalia, Challenges to the Affordable Care Act, and a Missed Opportunity to Meaningfully Engage the Right to Healthcare
Justice Antonin Scalia was known for his polarising opinions on fundamental issues in American policy. Yet, his recent dissents in major legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are...
A Tale of Two Treaties: The Clean Power Plan
World leaders met near Paris almost a century ago promising to cooperate to end the scourge of war. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson touted his country’s contributions to international cooperation leading...
Justice Scalia’s Legacy on Gender Equality: No Need to “Remember the Ladies”
Despite Justice Scalia’s well-known friendship with the most feminist Justice on the United States Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Scalia was no friend to feminist legal efforts. Indeed, he was...
Justice Scalia’s Repudiation of Women’s Health and Reproductive Rights
Throughout the three decades that Justice Antonin Scalia served on the United States Supreme Court, he was invariably viewed as one of the Court’s staunchest opponents of sex equality and...
Abortion in Texas: Does Casey Still Have Content?
On March 2, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court heard much awaited arguments in Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt, the most important abortion case since the Court decided Planned Parenthood of...
Justice Scalia’s Influence on the Religion Clauses Part I: Free Exercise Law
The “big three” issues in Religion Clauses jurisprudence are: (1) whether and how judges should decide claims to free exercise exemptions from generally applicable laws; (2) when government religious speech...
In Deference to Majoritarian Oppression: Justice Scalia’s Indifference to LGBTQ Lives
On June 26 2015, in Obergefell v. Hodges, a five-member majority of the United States Supreme Court struck down state bans on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional. For the LGBTQ rights...
Justice Antonin Scalia’s Rebuke of Innocence
Throughout his thirty-year service on the United States Supreme Court, Justice Antonin Scalia questioned whether criminal defendants who maintained their innocence should be entitled to a second chance. Indeed, in...
UNHRC Working Group on discrimination against women in law and in practice country mission to the United States
In December 2015, the UN Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice (WGDAW) issued its end-of-mission statement regarding the status of women’s equality...
Antonin Scalia’s Voting Rights Legacy: Weakening the Franchise for Minorities
The death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has provoked numerous discussions about the future direction of the Supreme Court and Justice Scalia’s impact as a jurist. While many...
Same-Sex Foster Parents Face Discrimination from U.S. State Court Judge
In the wake of the Obergefell decision, it can be easy to forget that the fight for LGBT rights is far from over in many parts of the U.S. Just...
