If U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been on the losing side of several key court decisions, she’s not going down quietly. Ginsburg has penned blistering dissents in several recent, bitterly divided court decisions. She wrote that the court has “entered into a minefield” in the recent Hobby Lobby case.
She accused the majority of unchecked “hubris” earlier this year when the court struck down portions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. She also took the unusual step of reading aloud from her dissent against the court’s rulings to trim affirmative action. So, this got us at the Monday Buzz wondering. What’s the point of a dissent? Do they have any legal significance? Brad Snyder is a professor at the University of Wisconsin law school, where he specializes in civil procedure, constitutional law and legal history. He’s also an expernt in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court.