Balls & Strikes

Balls & Strikes offers unique insights and news about the courts, the judges who operate within them, and the legal system they represent. What sets Balls & Strikes apart is its understanding that interpreting laws is a political process that can lead to significant real-world effects. Historically, court rulings in the United States have contributed to severe economic disparities, weakened democratic principles, supported various forms of state-approved discrimination, and created numerous obstacles to achieving racial justice. Despite its grand ideals, the legal system has often prioritized the interests of the wealthy and powerful over the rights of ordinary individuals.

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Meet Josh Divine, the Trump Judicial Nominee Who Argued Christians Are “Obligated Ethically to Impose Their Beliefs On Others”

5 days ago | ballsandstrikes.org | Jay Willis

The highlights of the résumé of Josh Divine, President Donald Trump’s nominee to a federal district court vacancy in Missouri, are standard-issue conservative legal movement stuff: a clerkship with Justice Clarence Thomas; a stint in the office of Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley; continuous membership in the Federalist Society since 2013, when he started as a 1L at Yale Law School.
James Ho Understands What Trump Wants In a Supreme Court Justice

2 weeks ago | ballsandstrikes.org | Jay Willis

Getting on this White House’s Supreme Court shortlist is a matter of showing that you will be loyal to the president above all else. Of the many Trump judges who are angling for a promotion to the Supreme Court, no one is campaigning harder than Fifth Circuit judge James Ho, whose primary metric for success is the number of times the Wall Street Journal editorial board cites him with approval each week.
The Justices Did Not Want to Talk About the Children They Would Render Stateless

3 weeks ago | ballsandstrikes.org | Jay Willis

Among the more challenging aspects of following oral argument in Trump v. CASA, a case about President Donald Trump’s executive order purporting to end the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship, is that the justices did not spend much time discussing Trump’s executive order purporting to end Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship.
This Is How a Chilling Effect Works

3 weeks ago | ballsandstrikes.org | Jay Willis

Already, President Donald Trump’s attacks on BigLaw firms have earned him a deep bench of well-credentialed lawyers whom he considers available to serve his agenda at his convenience. Now, even firms he hasn’t (yet) targeted are also cowering before him, because the mere prospect of a laughably unconstitutional executive order is enough to keep managing partners lying awake at night between very expensive sheet sets.
David Souter Knew His Role

4 weeks ago | ballsandstrikes.org | Jay Willis

David Souter, whom President George H.W. Bush appointed to the Supreme Court in 1990, and who spent the remainder of his 19-year tenure making conservatives insane with rage, died at his home in New Hampshire on Thursday. He was 85 years old. Today, a Republican president would not even consider someone with Souter’s résumé for a district court judgeship, let alone a seat on the Supreme Court.
Whose “Emergencies” Does the Supreme Court Care About?

1 month ago | ballsandstrikes.org | Jay Willis

When evaluating both requests for preliminary injunctions and requests to stay these injunctions, judges are supposed to consider the extent to which each side—the party requesting an injunction and the party opposing it—will suffer “irreparable” harm if they lose. Irreparable harm just means any harm for which courts cannot order a legal remedy, like money damages, once the case is fully resolved.
Trump Will Never Run Out of Ways to Humiliate the Law Firms That Caved to Him

1 month ago | ballsandstrikes.org | Jay Willis

On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order pledging to “unleash high-impact local police forces” across the country, thereby empowering officers to “aggressively” enforce the law.
I Think Neil Gorsuch Is Lying About a “Religious Freedom” Case Again

1 month ago | ballsandstrikes.org | Jay Willis

Among the more distressing moments during oral argument in Mahmoud v. Taylor, a Supreme Court case challenging a Maryland school district’s use of children’s books with LGBTQ characters, came when Justice Neil Gorsuch started asking questions about bondage. Gorsuch wanted to drill down on the particulars of Pride Puppy, a rhyming alphabet book about a family searching for their lost dog at a pride parade.
Let’s Take a Look at the Children’s Books Sam Alito Is So Afraid Of

1 month ago | ballsandstrikes.org | Jay Willis

One of the books, for example, is Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, a story approved for kindergartners. In it, a girl named Chloe learns of her beloved Uncle Bobby’s engagement, and feels anxious and sad that he won’t be spending as much time with her anymore.
The Supreme Court Knows Trump Won’t Bring Back Kilmar Abrego Garcia

1 month ago | ballsandstrikes.org | Jay Willis

Last week, the Supreme Court issued an unsigned opinion requiring the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Maryland man whom immigration officials deported to a Salvadoran megaprison 32 days ago.