For two consecutive U.S. Supreme Court terms, in 5-4 cases, Seth Waxman of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr has successfully appealed to the better angels of our nature. In 2014′s Hall v. Florida, Waxman won a broad reaffirmation of the tenet that the intellectually disabled may not be executed. In the Arizona redistricting case of 2015, the court allowed redistricting by commission—even though the Constitution gives the legislature power over elections. In an angry dissent Chief Justice John Roberts called the ruling “a magic trick with the Elections Clause.” A majority of the court apparently thought the country could use more such magic.
Read the full 2016 report: Litigation Department of the Year
