It was a law that made nation-wide news last year: a law in New Hampshire required underage girls to get parental consent prior to receiving an abortion, even when the life and health of the underage mother was at risk. The law was challenged as unconstitutional, and it made its way all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. … Read More
The Alabama Sex Toy Case
Well, the Eleventh Circuit has ruled (for the fourth and probably last time) and the statute has been upheld: it is now illegal to sell sex toys in Alabama. (Guns, however? No problem). All tittering aside, the legal issues in this case were complex. In the end, however, I think the Eleventh Circuit got it wrong. Let me explain. In … Read More
Greenwald on FISA Oversight Of Wiretaps
(1) I’ll just let Greenwald speak for himself on the subject of GOP disillusionment with the sudden Bush reversal on FISA oversight: If you were a Bush follower, and you were told (and, of course, by definition, believed) that the President’s violations of FISA were not just legal but critical to our Survival and Ability to Defeat The Terrorists, and … Read More
A Remarkably Stupid (Or Dishonest) Attorney
UPDATE AND BIG BREAKING NEWS: Fortunately, breaking news suggests that the days of Bush’s secret and illegal surveillance may now be over. Bush now intends his surveillance program to be monitored and overseen by the "secret" FISA court, as the lawmakers who passed FISA originally intended. In other words, Bush caves. Victory for freedom and privacy lovers, but more importantly, … Read More
You’ve Got Mail
The leader of Iraq has unilaterally declared that he has the right and the power to authorize government to open citizens’ mail whenever he so pleases. No warrants, no oversight, no checks-n’-balances, or anything like that. You may think — well, that’s horrible, but that’s Iraq — so why should I care? I don’t live in Iraq, which is obviously … Read More
Constitutional Crisis
The Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court says we are experiencing a "Constitutional crisis". That’s very very serious. The last time I heard that phrase was during Watergate. But what exactly is the constitutional crisis he’s talking about? This: Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. made judicial pay the sole topic of his second annual report, issued on … Read More
Give The Kid An “A” In History; Fail The Teacher
Matthew LaClair is a student in public high school in Kearny, New Jersey. David Paszkiewicz is his 11th grade accelaerated history teacher. Paszkiewicz would often lace his classes with — well — historical inaccuracies, including telling the students that only Christians went to heaven, that the Big Bang and evolution were false, and — wait for it — that dinosaurs … Read More
Prager v. Ellison, Part Two
Shorter Dennis Prager: You know this controversy that came at my suggestion that Rep. Keith Ellison (a Muslim) get sworn in to Congress by using the Bible rather than his holy book, the Kuran? It would all go away if Rep. Ellison simply does what I suggested. Earlier posts: Dennis Prager: Clueless About America UPDATE: World o’Crap provides another shorter … Read More
Dennis Prager: Clueless About America
A view days ago, I linked to a debate between an noted agnostic and evangelical columnist Dennis Prager on the subject of the existence of God. The debate was civilized and I bent over backwards to give Prager as much credit as I could possibly muster (even though his best argument for the existence of God boiled down to "It’s … Read More
Responding To Dobson
Via Daily Kos, we get some Dobson quotes from his interview with Larry King: DOBSON: Those again on the liberal end of the spectrum are those who have no value system, or at least they say there is no moral and immoral. There’s no right or wrong. . . . But when a religious leader, or especially an evangelical, falls, … Read More
“Let’s Not Mince Words…”
Let’s not mince words: President Bush is a profound threat to the US constitution. From the AP … President Bush, again defying Congress, says he has the power to edit the Homeland Security Department’s reports about whether it obeys privacy rules while handling background checks, ID cards and watchlists. In the law Bush signed Wednesday, Congress stated no one but … Read More
On John Yoo
Never in my life have I witnessed such incredible incompetence in a constitutional scholar. I am referring to John Yoo, Bush’s legal advisor on torture and detainee policy, and his gloriously boneheaded op-ed in the New York Times. Yoo makes this wildly absurd claim: [T]he founders intended that wrongheaded or obsolete legislation and judicial decisions would be checked by presidential … Read More
A Pop Quiz For Constitution Day
Yay! Today is Constitution Day! In late 2004, Congress passed a law (118 Statute 2809, 334-45 [§ 111]) mandating that "each educational institution that receives federal funds for a fiscal year shall hold an educational program on the United States Constitution on September 17 of such year for the students served by the educational institution." The reason why today is … Read More
This Guy Went To Law School?
John Yoo, Bush’s chief legal advisor: "We are used to a peacetime system in which Congress enacts the laws, the president enforces them, and the courts interpret them. In wartime, the gravity shifts to the executive branch.” This is simply flat-out entirely 100% untrue. Our "system" is set out in the Constitution, and it’s the same "system" regardless of whether … Read More
Student Wins First Amendment Case
I don’t know why, but I’m always drawn to First Amendment cases involving public schools. This story warmed my heart: Court Sides With Student In Bush T-Shirt Flap (AP) Vermont schoolboy was within his rights to wear a T-shirt depicting George W. Bush as a chicken and accusing him of being a former alcohol and cocaine abuser, an appeals court … Read More