Will Textualism Kill Obamacare? [Jeffrey Toobin in The New Yorker, 9/3/14]: The Affordable Care Act is heading for another near-death experience in the Supreme Court. 

http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/will-textualism-kill-obamacare

The Alitomayor Effect [Lawrence Tribe in Politico, 9/4/14]: Court coverage often passes over two of the court’s more junior members, Justices Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor. Neither is easily reduced to caricature.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/politico50/2014/the-alitomayor-effect.html#.VAiQsiuxOAE

2016 Presidential Update [Sabato’s Crystal Ball, 9/4/14]: It’s lonely at the top of the Republican field -- like, “top of Mt. Everest” lonely.

http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/2016-presidential-update-for-republicans-a-vacancy-at-the-top/

CalBuzz: Can Neel Beat the Spread? Plus New Poll Numbers [CalBuzz, 9/4/14]:  Facing California’s most prosaic election in memory, our Department of Spectator Sport Politics and Insensate Choices is girding its loins (ow!) for the fall campaign by reviewing the words of the late Senator Gene (Not Joe) McCarthy: “Being in politics is like being a football coach,” Clean Gene famously said. “You have to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it’s important.”

http://www.calbuzz.com/2014/09/can-neel-beat-the-spread-plus-new-poll-numbers/

Tragedy or Triumph [Linda Greenhouse in the NY Times, 9/3/14]: NLRB v. Canning:  “this narrowly technical decision was a major victory for the president, considering the damage to presidential authority the court might have done – and came very close to doing – had it affirmed the lower court in functionally eliminating the recess appointment power altogether. Only an inside-the-Beltway commentariat, infected by a toxic politic atmosphere that obliterates all nuance, could have construed the decision as a defeat – thus enabling the Republicans’ effort to sweep the decision up into their false “presidential power grab” narrative.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/04/opinion/tragedy-or-triumph.html?_r=0

The Slippery Slope of Religious Accommodation and How RFRA Is Teaching Legislators to Deny Accommodations in the First Place [Justia, 9/4/14]: Professor Hamilton comments on the interpretation of the RFRA in a 5^th Circuit case involving Native American religion in Texas.

http://verdict.justia.com/2014/09/04/slippery-slope-religious-accommodation-rfra-teaching-legislators-deny-accommodations-first-place

Fired Wal-Mart workers say they have right to self-defense [Salt Lake Trib, 9/3/14]: Utah's high court considers whether store policies trump employees' right to defend themselves

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/58369646-78/mart-wal-employees-fired.html.csp