Public Comments by Justices Veer Toward the Political
Speeches by Supreme Court justices are usually sleepy civics lessons studded with references to the Federalist Papers and the majesty of the law. That seems to be changing.
Operation Swarmer
19 MarTime Magazine – On Scene: How Operation Swarmer Fizzled
Not a shot was fired, or a leader nabbed, in a major offensive that failed to live up to its advance billing
You ask why I even bother?
18 MarHistory will scold those who stayed silent
I understand where Feingold and Conyers are coming from. Where good and frustrated people all over the country are coming from. History’s verdict is all we have left. And when tomorrow calls today to account, some of us want to be able to say, we stood up. We called out. We were not silent.
It is small solace, but it is solace, nonetheless.
I love Leonard Pitts. If you read me, you really should read him.
‘Choose Life’ plate upheld as free speech
18 Mar6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says Tennessee has 1st Amendment right, too
The state would be within its rights to issue specialty license plates reading “Choose Life” while denying a plate encouraging abortion rights, a U.S. appeals court ruled yesterday.
Messages on Tennessee license plates are government speech, not a public forum as the American Civil Liberties Union argued, the majority decision of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said. While one-sidedness may be “ill-advised” on politically charged issues like abortion, the court ruled there’s nothing in the First Amendment that prohibits it.
What is happening to the judiciary in this country? Is it fear, as Sandra Day O’Connor suggests?
EDIT: I have become aware that my original intent was not made clear. Let me state it bluntly. Government has responsibilities. Government does not have civil rights. Civil rights are what we use to protect ourselves from the encroachment of government. That was the thought process behind my question above.
x-posted to
Sandra Day O’Connor speaks out
18 MarI, said O’Connor, am against judicial reforms driven by nakedly partisan reasoning. Pointing to the experiences of developing countries and former communist countries where interference with an independent judiciary has allowed dictatorship to flourish, O’Connor said we must be ever-vigilant against those who would strongarm the judiciary into adopting their preferred policies. It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, she said, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings.
See this related op-ed piece in the Houston Chronicle.
O’Connor did the country a service by lending her stature to a warning against reckless threats upon the judiciary. As a private citizen with unique credibility, she owes something more. She should make public a transcript of her comments and detail her concerns so more Americans can hear them. The time for discreet silence has passed.
Allard’s linking of senator, terror “out of bounds”
By Anne C. Mulkern
Denver Post Staff Writer
Apparently, the pressure is starting to have an affect…
Missouri aims for “forced pregnancy”, particularly for the poor
16 MarMissouri House OKs birth control funding ban
The Missouri House voted Wednesday to ban state funding of contraceptives for low-income women and to prohibit state-funded programs from referring those women to other programs.
An Aging Trans Woman 