I’m on vacation, but I am not completely off the grid. I just have a higher bar (this week)n as to what interests me enough to blog about. Checking in, I see not much has changed. Trump is still testing the bounds of open bigotry. Ho hum. And I see that Kim Davis, who I wrote about last week, has … Read More
Fifth Circuit Strikes Down Texas Voter ID Laws
Oh, well. Nice try, Texas — trying to prevent minorities from voting. Among other things, the State of Texas tried to impose Voter ID laws because (they said) illegal immigrants were voting. Of course, there was no evidence of this. Just the opppsite — illegal immigrants (as the Fifth Circuit noted) try to AVOID government officials since the last thing they … Read More
SCOTUS Round-up: Three More Five-To-Four Decisions Today
Today is the last day of the SCOTUS term, and so they issued the last of their opinions. The two biggest cases — on Obamacare and sames-sex marriage — came out at the end of last week, so a lot fewer people were paying attention this morning. Here’s what happened: (1) DEATH PENALTY – The 5-4 decision in Glossip v. … Read More
The Other Case: Victory For Fair Housing
It won’t get as much press, but the Supreme Court decision in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Community Project, Inc., is arguably as important as the Obamacare case. The 5-4 ruling (PDF) found that the housing policies could be deemed discriminatory based on “disparate impact.” This means that plaintiffs could prove discrimination by showing that the impact … Read More
Same-Sex Marriage Still A Battlefield In North Carolina
This morning, North Carolina legislators in the GOP-controlled state House approved a measure that allows some court officials to refuse to perform same-sex marriage duties because of their religious beliefs. House lawmakers agreed 69-41 to override Governor Pat McCrory’s veto of the bill, which the Senate had done last week. The bill, now a law, allows magistrates and register of … Read More
From The “Seriously?” Files
First Amendment at work: “When she went across the stage I just called her name out. ‘Lakaydra’. Just like that,” Ursula Miller said she shouted about her niece. Miller and Henry Walker were two of the four people asked to leave Senatobia High School’s graduation ceremony for cheering. Police at Northwest Mississippi Community College, where the high school ceremony was … Read More
Religious Bigots Use First Amendment Protections To Spew Hate…. Again
Another crazed anti-Muslim right winger — this one in Phoenix — is planning to hold a ‘Draw Muhammad’ Contest right in front of the Islamic Community Center. The organizer of the event, Jon Ritzheimer, has held two protests in Phoenix since the Texas shootings. The chants and slogans at the protests are brash and hateful. Some supporters wear t-shirts that … Read More
You Go, Girl — Uh — John Cole!
At Balloon Juice, John Cole – a better writer than me (not a high bar, I confess) — puts words to my sentiments: [I]f one more motherfucker tells me that unless I stand up and yell “You go girl” every time Pam Geller opens her noxious piehole to spew venom that I am responsible for creeping Sharia and am a hopeless … Read More
Second Circuit Rules Against Mass Collection Of Phone Records
I haven’t written much about Ed Snowden and the huge, perhaps unconstitutional, mass surveillance of Americans, but this is too noteworthy to ignore: A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the National Security Agency’s controversial collection of Americans’ phone records, first revealed by Edward Snowden, is not legal under the Patriot Act. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals held in … Read More
The Battle For Same Sex Marriage: A Timeline Graph
I love this graph from an article in today’s New York Times. It shows what states did for and against the idea of same-sex marriage. You can see that the anti-SSM movement got out ahead of the issue in the mid 1990s by enacting laws banning same-sex marriage. I have no way of proving this, but I think that by making … Read More
Same-Sex Marriage Case Being Heard In Supreme Court Today
Today, the US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Obergefell v. Hodges, one of several same-sex marriage cases brought to the Court. Obergefell v. Hodges requires the Court to answer: “1) Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex? 2) Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to recognize … Read More
“Cake Is Speech”: The New Dumbest Thing Ever Said
Yes, cake is speech. That’s what Indiana Baptist pastor Tim Overton told NPR’s Steve Inskeep yesterday morning, defending his state’s controversial “religious freedom” law. No, it’s not some fringe theory: It’s shaping up as a core tenet of one “compromise” approach to religious freedom laws that’s under consideration, in the wake of the backlash to the Indiana law, which Overton fervently supported … Read More
The Indiana Fix
The proposed new bill working its way through the Indiana state legislature today seems to negate the worst things about the RFRA law: It doesn’t undue Hobby Lobby or other grievances. The changes would not establish sexual orientation and gender identity as a protected class under the state’s civil right’s laws. That will have to come another day. All this does is … Read More
Arkansas Governor Wisely Seeks To Avoid Same Headache That Indiana Has
Moments ago, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said that he does not plan to sign the version of the religious freedom bill that currently sits on his desk and called on the state legislature to make changes before sending it back to him. Hutchinson, who called the issue “divisive” and cited his own son as an example of someone urging him … Read More
Bigots Get It
At yesterday’s press conference, Indiana Governor Mike Pence spent a great deal of time blaming the media for its representation that Indiana’s RFRA law allows businesses to discriminate against gay people. “Not true”, Pence said. Well, it is true if you read the actual law, and apparently, even the bigots think so: WALKERTON, Ind. -A small-town pizza shop is saying they … Read More