Kimberly Atkins Stohr

1 month ago | bostonglobe.com | Kimberly Atkins Stohr

What a long, strange trip this Supreme Court term has been. But the justices are truckin’ on to the end of the term, which should wrap by the Fourth of July holiday weekend. (Except for emergency actions in challenges to Trump administration policies, but more on that in a moment.)As usual, decisions in the term’s most high-profile cases will come in its final weeks. I have no crystal ball, but here are some of my predictions of what is to come in the final stretch of the Supreme Court’s term.

1 month ago | bostonglobe.com | Kimberly Atkins Stohr

“Constitutional crisis” is a term that has been nearly stripped of meaning from its overuse and misuse. That, unfortunately, is part of the reason autocracies can creep into place under the watchful eyes of citizens. Don’t blink. It‘s important to think of the ongoing attack on US democracy not as an abstract idea, not as a looming possibility, but rather as something that is playing out each and every day.

1 month ago | bostonglobe.com | Kimberly Atkins Stohr

The rule of law is under attack in America, as are members of the judiciary. Some of them are pushing back. In a letter sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi last week, 150 retired state and federal judges wrote: “We unequivocally reject your and the Trump Administration’s assault on the judiciary, the Rule of Law and those who administer it.”“This does not make us ‘deranged,’” the letter stated.

1 month ago | bostonglobe.com | Kimberly Atkins Stohr

The birthright citizenship case the Supreme Court will hear Thursday — as I and others have noted — isn’t really about birthright citizenship. But it could and should be. The issue being argued is largely procedural: Did a trio of federal judges overstep their authority by issuing nationwide injunctions halting President Trump’s executive order purporting to end birthright citizenship for children born to immigrants without legal status?

1 month ago | bostonglobe.com | Kimberly Atkins Stohr

Justice David Souter was not a man drawn to the trappings of Washington. He was a simple guy who preferred the comfort of his modest Weare, N.H., farmhouse that didn‘t even have a phone line — that is, until his massive collection of books proved too much for the house’s frame to support and he was forced to move.