Scott Lemieux
Scott Lemieux is a Guardian US contributing opinion writer, a professor of political science at the College of Saint Rose and a blogger at Lawyers, Guns and Money. Follow him on Twitter: @LemieuxLGM
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Trump's supreme court picks are a conservative dream come trueInfluenced by the Heritage Foundation, Donald Trump’s list of potential nominees means anyone he appoints would be at least as rightwing as Scalia
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Without Scalia, America's political landscape is being transformedTuesday’s big victory for unions is the direct result of a split supreme court. It shows just how important this year’s election will be for legal rights
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A split supreme court means contraception is more likely to remain a rightSome religious employers have railed against including contraceptive coverage in health plans. Without Justice Scalia, though, they’re unlikely to prevail
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Ted Cruz backs Senate inaction over Merrick Garland – today in the campaignFollow along for the latest news in the day in politics, including Obama’s announcement of his nominee for Antonin Scalia’s supreme court seat
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Merrick Garland, the piñata nomineeObama’s pick for the supreme court is unlikely to be approved. But the political beating he’ll receive will make Republicans look bad – and that’s the point
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US supreme court: the cases – what happens next and who does it benefit?Several pending cases with potentially landscape-altering implications on issues such as abortion and voting rights will likely be heard by an eight-justice court. We look at how Antonin Scalia’s death may affect the outcomes
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Justice Scalia's legacy: blistering zingers and a more partisan AmericaThe US supreme court justice will be remembered more for his dissents than legal opinions that changed lives. Given his analyses, that may be for the best
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The high court halted Obama's climate change plan. This doesn't bode wellThe presidential election just got even more important – it will be a choice between a president in favor of climate action and one who would ignore it
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Americans don't need single payer healthcare to get universal coverageBernie Sanders, like a lot of progressives, conflates European-style healthcare with the UK system. But either his plan or Clinton’s can bring about real reform
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Deportation policy and the Republican party's future are now up to the courtA decision on whether Obama can choose to not expel the undocumented parents of citizen children will change their lives – and conservatives’ chances
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Affirmative Action is back in court. Arguments against it made no senseThe argument that colleges should not even consider the racial diversity of its student body to give white applicants with poor qualifications a very slightly better chance isn’t a very compelling one
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The US supreme court may make abortion the deciding factor in 2016The justices decided to take a case that could mean the end of Roe v Wade just four months before voters choose their next president
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The US supreme court: the only court where gun control victories matterThe Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld large parts of assault weapons bans in two states, but the high court could still shoot down the laws
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Ben Carson's anti-Muslim comments are ahistoric but politically profitableThe would-be Republican nominee’s statement reveal he’s unqualified for the presidency. But they reflect common feelings among his conservative base
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Partisanship isn't the enemy of reform – it's a necessary condition of itEven if, like Lawrence Lessig, you have some nice progressive goals, insisting they’ll happen against the historic workings of government is unrealistic
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Gun control is political. So is refusing to address the politics of gun violenceConservatives say mass shootings are not the time to talk about gun laws, but we should be talking more, not less, about America’s failed policies
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The anti-Planned Parenthood videos fail to make a case against abortionAnti-choice advocates seem to think they have a vital new tool, but nothing in support of the videos hold up to scrutiny
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If execution by torture isn't 'cruel and unusual' punishment, what is?The US supreme court has ruled that even the least morally defensible executions are allowable. But there’s some hope in the court’s dissents
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Same-sex marriage opponents sounded desperate in court. They should beThe lawyers opposed to marriage equality had such poor arguments that a conservative judge explained that they didn’t have to answer other judges’ questions
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Hillary Clinton is right. We need to rein in campaign financingAt a roundtable on Tuesday, the Democratic candidate said the dysfunctional political system needs to be fixed, even if it takes a constitutional amendment
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Chaos could ensue if the supreme court strikes down ObamacareMillions of Americans stand to lose their access to health insurance. But the GOP doesn’t care
Trump: judge's 'Mexican heritage' means he is biased against me - as it happened