A fan page for Dahlia Lithwick, the rockingest Supreme Court columnist ever ever ever.
A confession?
I have a crush. On a woman I would not be able to identify, even if she were selling aquarium filters door-to-door. Which she wouldn't be, by the way. Because she's wonderful.
You may know her. Her name is Dahlia Lithwick, and our acquaintance has spanned three cities, three apartments and two houses, three jobs, and countless emocore albums. In a perpetually changing universe, her sweet, unerring "Dahlia Lithwick is a Slate senior editor" has been one of only a handful of fixed stars. No matter what case I am working on, what legal argument I am putting together, in the background there is always Dahlia.
This is for her.
(based on "The Faces of NPR," by Dahlia Lithwick)
Thursday, September 25, 2003
dahlia on the sniper trials
The Pied Sniper: Was Lee Boyd Malvo brainwashed into a killing machine?
Tuesday, September 23, 2003
more on the california election
Center Ring at the 9th Circus: Things get even weirder in the California recall litigation. (A personal side note: my parents also get "Circuit" and "Circus" confused. But they're not lawyers.)
Wednesday, September 17, 2003
hah!
Fun With Bush v. Gore: The 9th Circuit moons the Supreme Court. "Reading the opinion, you can almost hear the panel saying: 'Hey, let's not just halt this recall, let's have a little fun with the thing!'"
Friday, September 12, 2003
even more on the patriot act
Here.
Thursday, September 11, 2003
also
Here's a link to Dahlia's talk with NPR's Alex Chadwick about the Supreme Court hearings looking at the constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.
more on the patriot act
What's in the Patriot Act anyhow?
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
campaign finance
Dahlia has a new article on Slate called Hush Money: The Supreme Court hears campaign-finance reform. All day. It starts out with a great description of an exchange between Chief Justice Rehnquist and former Solicitor General Seth Waxman, then goes into another one of Solicitor General Ted Olson's (who is defending the constitutionality of the law along with Waxman) reaction. And that's just the beginning! And it has this funny line: "But today it seems as if either Scalia or Justice Clarence Thomas sent their goons out back to thrash some sense into Rehnquist, because he is all about the freedom." And also "Shortly thereafter, Olson proves that there really is a vast right-wing conspiracy when he refers, more than once, to his opponent in this case as 'Justice Starr.' He catches himself and quips, 'I guess you'll have to wait.'" Oh, and so many more. Check it out.
Monday, September 08, 2003
new on slate
Dahlia (and Julia Turner) have Part 1 of an article entitled A Guide to the Patriot Act: Should you be scared of the Patriot Act? It not only summarizes parts of the Patriot Act (and will continue to do so in the upcoming three Parts of the series), but also takes side-swipes at people who have criticized or praised the act without actually reading it. (Coincidentally enough, the topic of reading the Patriot Act came up in conversation between me and my friends this weekend.) This Part focuses on Section 215, regulating record searches.
Most humorous line:Section 215 is one of the surprising lightning rods of the Patriot Act, engendering more protest, lawsuits, and congressional amendments than any other. In part this is because this section authorizes the government to march into a library and demand a list of everyone who's ever checked out a copy of My Secret Garden but also because those librarians are tough.
