Harvard Law & Policy Review

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Solicitor General Don Verrilli: What We Stand For

I was fortunate to be a part of many great moments, in and out of the Supreme Court’s chambers, during my tenure as Solicitor General in the administration of President Obama. But of all the great moments, the one that means the most to me occurred at the end of a grueling three days of oral argument in the historic Health Care Case, when I spoke these words: The Medicaid expansion that we are talking about this afternoon and the provisions we talked about yesterday, we have been talking about …

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“Economic Dragooning”: Limiting Trump’s Ability to Punish Sanctuary Cities

 By Andrew Hanson* In his “Contract with the American Voter,” Donald Trump promised to “cancel all federal funding” to “sanctuary cities” on his first day in office. Can the federal government force states and cities to comply with its immigration enforcement agenda? It depends on how it tries to induce the state and local governments to act. While future grants of federal funding may potentially be conditioned to induce state action, it would be plainly unconstitutional for the federal …

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The Future of the Supreme Court

By Tejinder Singh* It is difficult to overstate the effect this election is likely to have on the composition of the Supreme Court. Prior to election day, the Democrats were favorites to win the White House and the Senate. Had they done so, the likely result would have been a five-Justice mostly-liberal majority that would have lasted for decades. The current vacancy likely (but not necessarily) would have been filled by Judge Garland during the lame-duck period; and Justices Ginsburg and …

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Inferred Consent: Merrick Garland Should Be Allowed To Sit On The Court

By Andrew Hanson* After refusing to hold hearings on the appointment of Merrick Garland, President Obama’s nominee to fill a Supreme Court vacancy—because “the people” should be able to decide who nominates the next Justice—Republicans recently suggested that they would continue to leave the Court with a vacancy if the people’s decision was Hillary Clinton. Now that Trump has won, they are likely to allow him to appoint the next Justice. But the vacancy occurred on Obama’s watch, and he still …

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DIRECTOR ZIENTS: Building an Economy to Last

When President Obama took office in 2009, the economic outlook was bleak. We were losing nearly 800,000 jobs—the equivalent of laying off the entire workforce of West Virginia every month. The unemployment rate was headed to 10 percent. The auto industry and the financial system were on the verge of collapse. We were approaching a second Great Depression. Fortunately, in the face of stiff opposition, the President took bold, determined action. He moved aggressively to repair our financial …

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CHAIRMAN MASSAD: Bold, Steady Leadership in the Face of the Financial Crisis

As President Obama took office in January of 2009, our nation was in the depths of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. We were losing more than 750,000 jobs a month. Ultimately, those job losses totaled nearly nine million. Over five million American families lost their homes. Countless small businesses were shuttered, and about thirteen trillion dollars in family wealth was destroyed, costing many Americans their retirement savings, their chance to go to college, and other …

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