A federal district court judge ruled today California’s Proposition 8 denying gay and lesbian citizens the basic human right of marrying the person of their choice is unconstitutional. In his ruling, Judge Vaughn Walker cited equal protection and due process clauses, ordering the state to cease enforcement of Proposition 8 provisions. Proposition 8 fails to [...]
Posts under ‘Law and justice’
Court pick made with political right in mind
President Obama has reportedly settled on Solicitor General Elena Kagan to replace Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court, anticipating a relatively easy confirmation, possibly including some Republican support. Of course. It’s said Obama will announce the selection tomorrow at mid morning. Kagan, a Harvard Law alumnus who has served in all three branches [...]
U.S. needs three-strikes law
for habitual corporate offenders
From the late 1970′s through the ’90′s, numerous states passed three-strikes and habitual-criminal laws as a means of protecting the public from the “two-inch-thick police record” set. Those laws targeted both violent offenders and lesser criminals for whom repeated short-time jail and prison sentences provided no deterrence against committing future crimes – incorrigibles with no [...]
Look for Arizona immigration law to die young
Much condemnation has been leveled at Arizona because of the state’s new law requiring law enforcement officers to demand proof of citizenship from anyone officers suspect might be in this country illegally. After signing the bill last Friday, Gov. Jan Brewer denied it would be enforced in a discriminatory way, but on its face the [...]
Bush & Co. knew of detainees’ innocence
We might be inclined to give Bush and his crackpot crusaders the benefit of the doubt if they hadn’t spent eight years lying to the American people and the world. If they hadn’t lied us into a deadly, costly, unnecessary war. . .
Bill to fight Citizens United fallout
advanced by Ohio Sen. Brown
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has submitted a bill to possibly curb corporate political spending and ensure transparency for the outlays corporations do make. Brown’s bill is one of several put forth in both houses of Congress by Democrats in reaction to the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Commission, which essentially [...]
Possible way to zap Citizens United decision
W e had hoped to be able to recommend MovetoAmend.org to you wholeheartedly as a means for fighting back against a mortal threat to our democracy, the Supreme Court’s execrable Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Commission decision. Unfortunately, because of MovetoAmend.org’s own tentativeness about fighting this menace, we can only offer it as a potential [...]
Wages of informing on rich tax cheats
is a 40-month term in federal prison
Unless the public intervenes to somehow get Birkenfeld’s sentence commuted, or better, pardoned, we who pay our taxes honestly can be sure future potential whistleblowers will decide they’re better off talking only to their attorneys.
Twenty-two million uh-oh’s for Bush & Co.
Ex-President George W. Bush, his vice president, Dick Cheney, attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, and top political hack, Karl Rove, have 22 million reasons to be nervous, thanks to the tenacity of two watchdog groups that went to court seeking “lost” e-mails. The two private groups — Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the [...]
Texas might’ve made marriage illegal
After George W. Bush’s reign of error, Alberto “The Amnesiac” Gonzales’ stint as attorney general and Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s secession eruptions before cheering crowds of locals with teabags for brains, it’s reasonable to wonder about the people of that state. But hold on for the latest: The Lone Star State’s narrow and nil of [...]
