Our current system doesn’t allow the Supreme Court to offer advisory opinions. Instead of waiting years to find out if the Supreme Court will eventually find a provision unconstitutional, wouldn’t it make more sense to have a system in which Congress simply asks the Justices for advice on proposed legislation and how to avoid going into legally questionable territory?

The Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United decision left open the ability of Congress to pass disclosure rules regarding campaign contributions. Now a ruling in a Federal Election Commission case would force some level of disclosure of those who fund campaign ads.

Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus is dismayed that President Obama would call into question the political legitimacy of the Supreme Court should they overturn the Affordable Care Act, a decisin she also says would be not only bad for health care but bad for the Court itself. Bad Barack. Bad Ruth.

Dayen’s new’s roundup from Monday, April 2, 2012, including stories about the Affordable Care Act, President Obama, Supreme Court, Paul Ryan, student loan debt, Eurozone, State AGs, housing market, Bill Clinton, Thomas Frank, Keith Olbermann, Sarah Palin and more.

Public records from local and state law enforcement agencies reveal a significant number of law enforcement agencies in the United States use cell phone tracking even if they do not have a warrant or probable cause to engage in such surveillance. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which requested and obtained the records, finds the [...]

I don’t care what you think about the health care law, a structure of government with a judicial review that feels free to parse legislation line by line and make what amount to ideological pronouncements on what can go forward and what cannot sounds a death rattle for progressive governance over time.

The conservative majority on the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 today that police have the discretion to strip search people arrested even for minor offenses. I’m just not feeling the bow to judicial restraint here. The Court explicitly ruled that you can get strip-searched if jailed for failure to pay a speeding ticket. That was the underlying case here (and it was actually a false arrest, as the man did pay the ticket). What happens if you’re arrested for protesting in front of the Supreme Court, or the White House?

There’s an argument that if the Supreme Court strikes down the ACA, it signals the court is so radical it would also find a reason to strike down Medicare for all. I find it nearly impossible to ever think this Court would ever be that activist. Not only do I think a majority of the justices have enough personal integrity to reject such a naked power grab, but more importantly I think the Justices are smart enough to properly fear the ramifications for the Court from such move.

Eric Lichtblau, one of the reporting team who exposed President Bush’s warrantless surveillance program, takes a look at its aftermath; with telecoms receiving immunity, police departments feel no compunction against tracking people by their cell phone.

If you are unable to get ABC and wish to have a comparable intellectual discussion, rent a copy of Animal House.