Hate it for him, but he's with the wingnut party, so…. By the way, I'm looking here at five law school exams written by Obama for his Constitutional Law class. Dude knows the Constitution. Can Granny say the same thing?
Michele Bachmann on Health Care
I love her. Here she is on Hannity last night: Money quote: It is not within our power as members of Congress, it’s not within the enumerated powers of the Constitution, for us to design and create a national takeover of health care. Nor is it within our ability to be able to delegate that responsibility to the executive. Pinhead, … Read More
Should The Supreme Court Stay The Execution Of An Innocent Man?
Yes, right? Well, maybe not. Here's the story of the Troy Davis case: Twenty years ago, a late-night scuffle broke out in a Burger King parking lot in Savannah. When Mark MacPhail, an off-duty police officer, tried to intervene, someone pulled a gun and killed the officer. Soon after, Sylvester "Red" Coles, came to the police with a lawyer, accusing … Read More
K’ville’s Nathan Tabor Needs To Read The Constitution Before He Comments About It
You can read the full article for yourself, but Tabor's screed ("A Tale of Two Constitutions") starts like this: In the era of President Barack Obama, more than ever we will witness examples of selective application of the US Constitution's First Amendment. …Two recent cases reveal just how partisan advocates of First Amendment truly are. One might argue that the … Read More
On The Gay Marriage Front
It went little-noticed, but D.C. made an advancement in the gay marriage acceptance. No, sadly, it didn't go as far as the New England states and Iowa in recognizing gay marriages solemnized within its borders, but it did pass a law saying that it would honor and recognize gay marriages from other states. So you if you gay marry in Boston, and … Read More
SCOTUS Rules On Strip-Searching Case
One of the few cases I was following this year on the Supreme Court docket was Safford United School District v. Redding, a case out of Arizona where a 13 year old girl was search-stripped by school officials because of a "tip" that she had some ibuprofin. (She didn't, as it turned out). I sketched the full details out in … Read More
Obama and DOMA
Michael Dorf has an excellent thoughful column explaining the DOJ's mostly (but not entirely) weak defense of the Defense of Marriage Act in the Smelt case. DOMA prohibits the federal government from granting same-sex couples benefits that, by law, flow from "marriage" or are granted to a "spouse" — health benefits, for example. An excerpt: Why did the Obama Justice Department … Read More
Strip-Searching Students
Ah, the days when I used to write in detail about Supreme Court cases in this blog are long in the past. A shame, really. But the Supremes did happen to hear a rather interesting Fourth Amendment case yesterday. I should preface by saying that the nation's highest court hears a lot of Fourth Amendment cases: in the neighborhood of … Read More
Bryan Fischer’s Religious Right To Hate Is Being Threatened
Renew America columnist Bryan Fischer writes ("Our choice: liberty or homosexual agenda"): On the pages of the Idaho Statesman, the Gem State's largest newspaper, Amy Herzfeld recently expressed her determination to continue pressing for legislation at the state level that will grant special workplace protections to those who engage in homosexual and transgender sexual behaviors. Laws that provide special rights and … Read More
Iowa, The Trailblazer
Some are astounded that the Iowa courts were so forward-thinking when they recognized, last week, the right of gays to be married. But I was re-reading the court's opinion, and noticed that the judges would like you all to know that Iowa has always been at the forefront of applying equal protection to minorities. Good for you, Hawkeyes.
Pssst… We’re NOT A “Christian Nation”
We never were. Read the Constitution. But Obama is ruffling some feathers on the right, because he actually said that at a press conference. At a press conference in Turkey, President Obama casually rebuked the old chestnut that the United States is a Judeo-Christian nation. "One of the great strengths of the United States," the President said, "is … we have … Read More
Kudos To Iowa
It's one thing when Massachusetts courts recognizes a constitutional right to gay marriage, but when it happens in the "middle America" state of Iowa, that's an entirely different thing: The Iowa Supreme Court this morning unanimously upheld gays’ right to marry. “The Iowa statute limiting civil marriage to a union between a man and a woman violates the equal protection … Read More
I Love Michelle Bachman
This is why. She presses Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on the Constitiutional authority for the Treasury to give out TARP money, apparently not understanding that Congress, of which she is a member, passed a bill which provided not only the TARP money, but the authority of the Treasury to dole it out. In an interview with after the hearing, Bachmann … Read More
Prop 8 Court Challenge Primer
Today is the day of oral arguments in California Supreme Court, as justices hear challenges to Proposition 8, which passed by citizen vote last election. Prop 8 prohibits gay marriages. Four of the seven justices were convinced last spring that a prohibition on same-sex marriage violated a "fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship." But that is not the … Read More
Rude Pundit On The Yoo Memos
It's NSFW or the faint of heart, but he's right on target. Here's a taste (and you've been warned): The Rude Pundit has always looked on the Constitution fondly, like an old lover who occasionally calls to reminisce about all those wonderful steamy evenings in fine hotels in Boston and Philadelphia, that passionate headboard-thumping sex, the mornings in each other's … Read More