Plus, read our full coverage of gay marriage before the Supreme Court…

In today’s Daily Comment, Jeffrey Toobin explains why the Prop 8 decision likely comes down to Justice Kennedy : “It was Kennedy—the swing vote—who was most concerned about a broad ruling. He said, ‘The problem with the case is that you’re really asking, particularly because of the sociological evidence you cite, for us to go into uncharted waters, and you can play with that metaphor, ‘There’s a wonderful destination,’ ‘It is a cliff.’’ Neither seemed like a place Kennedy wanted to go.” Continue reading

Photograph of opponents of same-sex marriage outside the Capitol as the Supreme Court heard Prop 8 oral arguments on Tuesday, by Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images. 

Read our full coverage of gay marriage before the Supreme Court. 

This week in the magazine, Jeffrey Toobin writes a Profile of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who even before her time on the Supreme Court played an important role in shaping the legal framework for women’s rights and gender discrimination. Here Toobin and Margaret Talbot talk with Amy Davidson about Ginsburg’s legacy and some of the current issues the Court is addressing. Also, fiction from a veteran of the war in Afghanistan.  Click-through to listen now: http://nyr.kr/15sjBe5

In the current Senate, like the current Supreme Court, party labels mean just about everything. Republicans vote one way, Democrats another. That world wasn’t one that Specter wanted, or one where he belonged anymore.

Continue reading Jeffrey Toobin on former Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter.

The first time Bryan A. Garner, a lawyer and writer, met Antonin Scalia—over breakfast at the Washington, D.C., Four Seasons, in 2006—the Justice spent the early part of their conversation praising a magazine essay he had recently read on English grammar and usage. Garner, who has now written two books with Scalia, felt that it would be bad form to interrupt, but when the Justice had trouble remembering the essay’s author, he suggested a name. Scalia assented. “Sir,” Garner replied, politely, “that essay is a review of my book.”

Writing with Antonin Scalia, Grammar Nerd: http://nyr.kr/M3P7Fb

…then there is the matter of how we learned about the decision—and the media reports, notably by CNN and Fox News, that got it wrong. There are lessons there, several of which were drawn out in a seven-thousand-word post Tom Goldstein, of SCOTUSblog, wrote about how the story unfoldedbetween 10:06 and 10:15 A.M. E.T. on Thursday, June 28th. Some of them we already know—for example, that SCOTUSblog itself did an exemplary job. But there’s more, too, with some conclusions that go beyond this case.

Click-through for six lessons to take away from the misreporting: http://nyr.kr/Mgu6VR

New Yorker art editor Francoise Mouly on the July 9th & 16th issue’s blown covers: 

We seldom attempt to anticipate the news when we solicit ideas for the covers, but I made an exception recently, in the week leading up to the Supreme Court ruling on Obama’s health-care law. I told the artists that the decision, to be announced on Thursday morning, right before we’d go to press, would herald a real defeat for Obama and the end of health-care coverage for many—hence this sketch by Christoph Niemann.

Click-through for a slide show of images that become even funnier when you know that none of this ever happened:  http://nyr.kr/MUYASG

(Source: newyorker.com)

Follow the link for the story behind this week’s cover, “In Good Health” from artist Bob Staake, and for a slideshow of New Yorker covers that capture other Obama milestones: http://nyr.kr/N3Vdaq

This week in Comment, Jeffrey Toobin looks at the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act: http://nyr.kr/MGD4gB

“One hopes, then, that it is not too churlish to point out that this should have been an easy case.”