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Criticism of the Supreme Court's decision on recognizing gay persons constitutional right to marry in a 5-4 decision, and Donald Trump saying he would appoint justices to reverse the decision, plus the litmus test proposed by Hillary Clinton for new justices to have rejected Citizens United campaign financing decision, are putting the highest court in the spotlight. Chief Justice Roberts says his decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act was something he would have opposed in a legislative session, but which he upheld strictly based on the law and the Constitution. Roberts points to the party votes for Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan as showing that even the confirmation process is now a noisy affair, and the rancor spreading all the way to decisions of the court from people in the two political parties. Roberts says he writes opinions keeping his three sisters in mind who are not lawyers, so that if one of them picked up an opinion it would be easy to understand the issue and how it's resolved. ...

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Words from Scalia that form part of his legacy- on democratic self-government as the development of the millenium. It "assumes a continuing appreciation of the need for structural checks," says Scalia. Essential to democratic self-government says Scalia is "what our Framers would have called a liberal disposition on the part of the people: a reluctance to impose their views by law in the face of significant opposition, a reticence to require others to love all that they love and to hate all that they hate." For Scalia that meant " a spirit of liberty" that is never too sure of being right and seeking to understand the thinking of other men and women.

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Efforts to lift the tone of arguments at the Supreme Court by Chief Jusice Roberts by using the term "brothers" and "sisters" for lawyers before the court.

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Martin points to some opinion in the Republican Party that sees the Supreme Court decisions as a way to move beyond social and cultural issues to issues relating to national security and the economy.

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Stolberg describes how Supreme Court Justices have waited to retire at the right time under the right president so that their view would continue to be reflected at the Court. This happened with O'Connor, Stewart, Souter, Stevens, White, Blackmun, but due to ill health did not happen with Thurgood Marshall. Justice Ginsberg may be reflecting on this or may just think that her health is fine.