memeorandum: Respecting Precedent, or Settled Law, Unless It's Not Settled (Charlie Savage/New York Times)

10:00 AM ET, July 15, 2009

Top Items:

Craig Crawford / Craig Crawford's Trail Mix:

Smiling GOPers Ought to be Frowning — Watching Lindsey Graham's gotcha grin as he needled Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor with disingenuous and rhetorical questions you had to wonder what was so funny. — Does the Republican senator think it is amusing that he and his party's …

Discussion: The Opinionator, Opinion L.A., Los Angeles Times, Washington Wire, TalkLeft and CNN

Matt Apuzzo / Associated Press:

FACT CHECK: Don't quote Sotomayor on that, Senator — WASHINGTON (AP) - In endorsing Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy did some creative rewriting of history. And he put quote marks around it. — Trying to head off criticism …

Discussion: Salon, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Moderate Voice, Christian Science Monitor, Political Mavens, Black & Right and Gateway Pundit

Randy Barnett / The Volokh Conspiracy:

Mike Seidman on Sotomayor: On the Federalist Society Online Debate on the Sotomayor hearings (click here and scroll down), my Georgetown Law colleague Mike Seidman—a cofounder and intellectual leader of the Critical Legal Studies movement in the 1980s—is brutally candid in his opinion of Judge Sotomayor's testimony today:

Discussion: Bench Memos

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Respecting Precedent, or Settled Law, Unless It's Not Settled — WASHINGTON — Judge Sonia Sotomayor's testimony about abortion and privacy rights at her Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Tuesday raised a puzzling legal question: when is a Supreme Court ruling a precedent?

Discussion: Politico Live's Blog, The Politico, ABCNEWS, Right Wing News, QandO, The Confluence and Wonk Room

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:

Sotomayor Leaves Passion Behind in Her Testimony — WASHINGTON — During her enforced silence, Judge Sonia Sotomayor has been portrayed as a woman of passion. Her speeches, endlessly dissected in the weeks since President Obama nominated her to the Supreme Court, reveal a fiery Latino pride.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Note, New York Times, On Deadline, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Salon, Time, Taylor Marsh and Newsweek Blogs

Elizabeth Landau / CNN:

Bug, classmates startled Sotomayor in college — Editor's Note: This is the third in a five-part series exploring Judge Sonia Sotomayor's background and life with those who know her, and revealing the experiences that might shape her views as a Supreme Court justice if confirmed.

Eva Rodriguez / PostPartisan:
Sotomayor's Unconvincing Backpedaling

Discussion: Washington Post, The Corner, Hot Air, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, YID With LID, Opinion L.A., Pajamas Media, Maggie's Farm, TBogg, Macsmind, The BLT, Time, Top of the Ticket, Power Line, Gateway Pundit and NewsBusters.org

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Sotomayor Sticks to Her Guns

Discussion: Slate, The Fix, NY Daily News, The Nation, Rough Sketch and The Campaign Spot

Washington Post:
Sen. Jon Kyl Questioning at Judge Sotomayor Confirmation Hearing

Discussion: Emptywheel and Politics Daily

Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Hearings Are Window Into Judge's Acumen

Discussion: Washington Post, MyDD, Washington Times and Wall Street Journal

Anill / Think Progress:
Sen. Jeff Sessions Slams Sotomayor For Not Voting Like Other Puerto Ricans

Discussion: Latest Open Salon Blog, Center for American …, The Confluence, The Mahablog, Wonk Room, The Huffington Post, Matthew Yglesias, Washington Wire, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Grasping Reality …, Washington Monthly and Zandar Versus The Stupid

Laurence Tribe / Washington Post:
The Sotomayor Hearings, Day Two — The Post asked legal experts …

Discussion: GayPatriot, PostPartisan, Reason, The Volokh Conspiracy and Harry's Place

Gateway Pundit:

OBAMA BOOED IN ST. LOUIS!... And Throws a Sissy Pitch (Video) — Barack Obama Booed at the All-Star Game in St. Louis On Tuesday! — And, he threw a sissy pitch: — It's going to be a rough 4 years. He's only been in office 5 months and he's already getting booed. — ...And protested.

Discussion: theblogprof, Scared Monkeys, Pundit & Pundette, No More Mister Nice Blog, Macsmind, Weasel Zippers, PoliGazette and Theo Spark

Duk / Yahoo! Sports:

Obama reps Chicago's South Side, delivers All-Star first pitch — ST LOUIS — Where did it land? Was it a strike or wasn't it? Why didn't the network choose a better camera to shoot from? Those were the questions that viewers of baseball's All-Star Game were asking themselves at home …

Discussion: NewsBusters.org and Swampland

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Video: Even All-Star Game not safe from gratuitous Obama photo ops

Discussion: theblogprof and The Pink Flamingo

New York Times:

House Health Plan Outlines Higher Taxes on Rich — WASHINGTON — House Democratic leaders took a big step toward guaranteeing health insurance for most Americans on Tuesday as they introduced a bill that would expand coverage, rein in the growth of Medicare and raise taxes on high-income people.

Discussion: Newshoggers.com and The Caucus

Wall Street Journal:

Health Bill Would Hit Small Business — $1.04 Trillion House Health Bill Hits All but Tiniest Firms for Not Providing Insurance — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, from left, stands with House Democratic leaders Steny Hoyer, Pete Stark, Henry Waxman, Charles Rangel, and John Dingell to announce health-care legislation on Tuesday.

Discussion: DailyFinance, Right Wing News, Washington Post, Washington Times, Greg Mankiw's Blog, naked capitalism and The Note

edlabor.house.gov:
America's Affordable Health Choices Act

Discussion: WhiteHouse.gov Blog, Left in the West, msnbc.com, Hullabaloo, Firedoglake, Matthew Yglesias, AMERICAblog News, Blog entry, Washington Monthly, AmSpecBlog, Angry Bear, MoJo Blog Posts and TPMDC

Ezra Klein:
The House Releases Its Health-Care Reform Bill

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, The Daily Dish, The Treatment, The Reaction, Wonk Room, Weekly Standard, AmSpecBlog, Amygdala, NOW! Blog and AMERICAblog News

Douglas Elmendorf / Director's Blog:
House Democrats' Health Reform Proposal: Preliminary Analysis …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, AmSpecBlog, Michelle Malkin, Paul Krugman, Politics Daily, YID With LID and TPMDC

The Hill:
Healthcare reform advances

Discussion: msnbc.com

Karina / The Gavel:
America's Affordable Health Choices Act

Discussion: Daily Kos and Truthdig

CNN:

Palin becomes MoveOn target as SarahPAC cash haul surges — (CNN) - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's political action committee is confirming a flood of new donations that push her cash haul close to the million-dollar mark, as one of the nation's largest liberal PACs announced an ad targeting the former GOP vice presidential candidate.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Dan / Riehl World View:
Meet Political Pundit, Mr. Ricky Hollywood

Discussion: People.com, The Confluence, Sister Toldjah, Conservatives4Palin.com, Redhot, NY Daily News, PERRspectives and The TrogloPundit

Pilgrim / Say Anything:
Hilarious: HuffPo Says Sarah Palin Had No Authority To Write …

Discussion: The Other McCain, Climate Progress and Pajamas Media

John Kerry / The Huffington Post:
What Gov. Palin Forgot — Writing in this morning's Washington Post …

Discussion: Grist, Firedoglake, Salon, The Virginian, Crooked Timber and Get Energy Smart!

Edwin Chen / Bloomberg:

Obama Open to Partisan Vote on Health-Care Overhaul, Aides Say — President Barack Obama may rely only on Democrats to push health-care legislation through the U.S. Congress if Republican opposition doesn't yield soon, two of the president's top advisers said.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Note, THE WEEK News & Opinion, The Politico, AMERICAblog News, Wall Street Journal, Hot Air, Commentary, Say Anything and Gateway Pundit

John Fritze / USA Today:
House Dems' health bill would tax rich

Discussion: Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Pajamas Media

Laurie K. Blandford / TCPalm.com:

Port St. Lucie apologizes to Treasure Coast Tea Party — PORT ST. LUCIE — After a week of complaints about a sign at Freedomfest on July 4, city officials apologized to the Treasure Coast Tea Party. — “It was not our intent to interfere or cast dispersions on the tea party,” …

Discussion: Moe_Lane's blog and The Virginian

Paul / Power Line:

The great gesturer — Why do so many Senators persist during judicial confirmation hearings in making speeches rather than asking questions? This bipartisan phenomenon plagued the Roberts and Alito hearings, and reared its head again today in the proceedings for Sotomayor. — But why?

Discussion: Sadly, No!

Kyle / Right Wing Watch:

CFJ: Obama Is Putting a Terrorist On The Bench! — Yesterday, we noticed that the Committee for Justice had just unveiled two ads calling for Sonia Sotomayor's defeat - one contrasting her to Martin Luther King and the other claiming she wants to “take away your guns.”

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Salon, Pam's House Blend, Think Progress and Committee for Justice Blog

Fox News:

Upcoming Military Robot Could Feed on Dead Bodies — It could be a combination of 19th-century mechanics, 21st-century technology — and a 20th-century horror movie. — A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling …

Discussion: JONATHAN TURLEY, theblogprof, The TrogloPundit, Corrente, Pharyngula and Hot Air

John O'Connor / The State:

Media jostled for access to Sanford — E-mails illustrate frenzy to be the first on the air or in print — National media blitzed Gov. Mark Sanford's staff, offering big ratings and, possibly, a sympathetic venue in an effort to land the first interview with the governor after his six-day trip to Argentina.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, Zandar Versus The Stupid and TPMMuckraker

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:

Isaac Chotiner Gets Jonah Goldberg Wrong — So Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently said this in an interview with Emily Bazelon: … Ginsburg is saying that her perception of the situation in 1980 is that there was a lot of concern on the right about Bell Curve-style dysgenics and that, therefore …

Discussion: theblogprof, Los Angeles Times, Whiskey Fire, Law Blog, pandagon.net and TBogg

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:

Dems reject palling around with Palin — Gov. Sarah Palin said last weekend that she'd be willing to campaign for some Democrats when she leaves office later this month. — She may not have many takers. — Interviews with a number of the most conservative Democrats in the House …

Discussion: GOP 12