Great Minds Think Alike...So Do Times Legal Reporters
"In
cases involving prisoners held without charge at the American naval
base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and the mentally retarded on death row,
his version of American justice propelled by common sense and moral
clarity commanded a majority." - Legal reporter Charlie Savage in
an April 10 post announcing the retirement of Justice John Paul
Stevens, in a paragraph that didn't make it into print.
"In
cases involving prisoners held without charge at Guantánamo Bay and the
mentally retarded on death row, his version of American justice was
propelled by common sense and moral clarity, and it commanded a
majority." - Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak, January 26.
Not a Single Liberal on the Supreme Court?
"Stevens,
one of four moderates on the Court, has held that seat. He is not just
the last World War II veteran to serve, but as a product Northwestern
University Law School, he succeeded a very iconoclastic justice,
William O. Douglas, whose law school days were not spent in Cambridge
or New Haven....This court, activist conservative in the extreme, has
never met a corporation it has not coddled, nor a prosecution argument
that does not have superior merit....They've done lasting damage to the
democracy, most recently with a decision that overturned nearly a
century of legal thought and found that corporations are people too."
- Former Times reporter Timothy Egan in an April 14 post on his nytimes.com blog.
Tea Party Full of Old "White and Male" Reactionaries
"Still,
[Rick Shenkman] and others argue that race and age are the biggest
factors in shaping the mindset of Tea Party supporters. They tend to be
white and male, with a disproportionate number above 45, and above 65.
Their memories are of a different time, when the country was less
diverse. Conversations with Tea Party supporters often wind their way
into nostalgia. Even those out of work aren't mourning the loss of a
job so much as what they see as a loss of an era." - Reporter Kate Zernike in the April 18 Week in Review.
You can read the rest of the new Times Watch Quotes of Note here [1].