August 9, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is being sued for allegedly formulating policies that led to the torture of multiple American citizens, at the hands of American military personnel in Iraq. Now, for the second time this month, in two distinct cases, a federal court has found that Mr. Rumsfeld does not enjoy any immunity for actions occurring either during his service as Secretary of Defense or in a war zone.
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July 4, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
A federal appeals court has ruled that Congress acted within its Constitutional authority when it passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law, last year. Importantly, the three judge panel voted two to one, with one Republican nominee and former Scalia law clerk in the majority, that the individual mandate is in line with Congressional authority to regulate interstate commerce.
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April 3, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The United States Supreme Court is preparing to hear oral arguments in a landmark campaign finance case, in which a wealthy candidate who chose not to use public matching funds alleges those funds amounted to an illegal enhancement of his opponent’s speech. That assisted speech, the argument goes, was an unconstitutional government intrusion into the [...]
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March 3, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Every wave on the ocean that has ever risen up and refused to lay back down has been dashed on the shore, but it is the very purpose of a wave to rise up, because once it rises up above the horizon it finally has the perspective to see that it’s not just a wave, that it’s a part of a mighty ocean. And the sharpest rock on the wildest shore can never break that ocean apart, they can never wear that ocean down, because it’s the ocean that shapes the shore.
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March 2, 2011 :: staff :: 3 Comments
After the governor of Wisconsin first ordered the state capitol closed to the public, then ejected protesters, then refused to ease restrictions on access, a judge has ordered the closure reversed, requiring that the state government allow full public access to the building during business hours. The governor’s officials responded that by allowing public officials, staff and scheduled visitors to enter, they were already in compliance.
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February 19, 2011 :: staff :: 3 Comments
The advocacy group Common Cause has found evidence that Clarence Thomas’ office appears to have lied about his participation in a retreat hosted by the Koch brothers, three years ago, and that Thomas appears to be concealing a gift from the oil billionaires, due to the conflict of interest it suggests. It now appears Thomas reported his appearance at the event, at which his office said he “made a brief stop-by”, as an all-expenses-paid four-day trip to Palm Springs.
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February 1, 2011 :: The Editors :: 5 Comments
Judge Roger Vinson, a federal judge in Florida, has ruled the entire Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 “unconstitutional”, accepting without trial the argument put forward by 26 states’ attorneys general that the “individual mandate” requiring that Americans purchase insurance or face penalties was not only unconstitutional but was “unseverable” from the rest of the law. Judge Vinson’s ruling is fraught with fictions and distortions and appears to be designed to help insurers avoid facing any new regulation.
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January 10, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
Tom DeLay has been sentenced to three years in prison, on conviction for charges of conspiracy and money laundering. The former House majority leader, known in his heyday as ‘The Hammer’, is accused of having committed these crimes as part of a coordinated manipulation of the Texas state-level electoral process aimed at handing Republicans control of seats held by Democrats in the US House of Representatives.
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January 6, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Justice Antonin Scalia, long considered one of the most right-wing justices to sit on the United States Supreme Court during the last century, has outraged Constitutional scholars and civil rights advocates by saying the Constitution provides no protection against discrimination for women or for gay Americans. He specifically targeted the “equal protection” clause of the 14th Amendment, arguing that the intent of the words “any person within its jurisdiction” was not to include women or people of homosexual orientation.
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December 31, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. FEC is guaranteed to be controversial long after the shock of its meaning fades from public consciousness. The ruling effectively gave multinational corporations free rein to spend unlimited sums of money with the specific intent of distorting the public discourse and swaying the democratic process in their favor. Some say it amounts to the death of real democracy in the United States.
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October 31, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Amid allegations the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is using membership dues and donations from foreign firms to wage an all-out ad-war against Democratic politics, at least 275 members are demanding the group cease its “punitive campaign” against anyone who supported the Affordable Care Act and reveal their sources and methods of funding the ads.
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August 31, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The founding charters of the United States of America were designed to create a system of democratic government in which terms and structures linked to historical exclusions and injustices could be redefined in order to serve a more democratic, more tolerant system of civil government. The argument regarding civil marriage services, provided by government, and the consequent legislative and fiscal benefits assigned to married couples, that traditional “definitions” of marriage should have a bearing on the ruling of the courts do not apply, because they do not allow for the specific Constitutional role of the judiciary: to interpret laws as applied to citizens equally and without prejudice.
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August 15, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Judge Vaughn Walker has lifted the temporary stay he placed on his ruling, which declared California’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Civil marriage for same-sex couples will resume in California on 18 August 2010, Wednesday of next week. Proponents of the ban will have time to file an appeal, but experts question the legal viability of such an appeal, as the state of California does not intend to defend the ban.
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August 8, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Justice Elena Kagan was sworn in today, taking two oaths, to serve a lifetime appointment on the highest court in the United States of America. Kagan, who served as Pres. Obama’s solicitor general, is now only the fourth woman ever to serve on the United States Supreme Court. She joins Justices Sonia Sotomayor (sworn in 2009) and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (sworn in 1993). Kagan is the 112th Supreme Court justice, and her swearing in means one-third of the Court are women, for the first time in history.
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August 7, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
A federal judge has overruled California’s ban on gay marriage. Federal District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that the referendum banning same-sex marriage, an already existing right, violated the Constitution’s due process and equal protection requirements. The ruling has been touted as one of the most thorough and fact-based examinations of the legality of such laws, designed to bar access for some people to a right most others enjoy. Walker found there was no legitimate legal reason to so limit the rights of same-sex couples, that same-sex marriage causes no discernible harm to any party, and that banning it does cause severe harm to same sex couples and their children.
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May 3, 2010 :: staff :: One Comment
Every time a major issue arises, we’ve come to expect that an army of lobbyists will descend on Capitol Hill in the hopes of tilting the laws in their favor. That’s one of the reasons I ran for President: because I believe so strongly that the voices of ordinary Americans were being drowned out by the clamor of a privileged few in Washington. And that’s why, since the day I took office, my administration has been taking steps to reform the system. Recently, however, the Supreme Court issued a decision that overturned decades of law and precedent – dealing a huge blow to our efforts to rein in this undue influence. In short, this decision gives corporations and other special interests the power to spend unlimited amounts of money – literally millions of dollars – to affect elections throughout our country. This, in turn, will multiply their influence over decision-making in our government.
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February 12, 2010 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
NBC’s chief Pentagon corresondent Jim Miklaszewski told MSNBC this morning that in his opinion military trials are “more reliable” in terms of the outcomes they produce. The comment was perhaps an unwelcome introduction of Constitutional questions into the debate over whether to try accused 9/11 terrorist conspirators in a civilian criminal court or before a military tribunal.
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January 28, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Those of us in public office can respond to this reality by playing it safe and avoid telling hard truths and pointing fingers. We can do what’s necessary to keep our poll numbers high, and get through the next election instead of doing what’s best for the next generation. But I also know this: If people had made that decision 50 years ago, or 100 years ago, or 200 years ago, we wouldn’t be here tonight. The only reason we are here is because generations of Americans were unafraid to do what was hard; to do what was needed even when success was uncertain; to do what it took to keep the dream of this nation alive for their children and their grandchildren.
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January 28, 2010 :: Denver Lessing :: 4 Comments
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito last night revealed how deeply unfit he is to serve on the nation’s highest court. When Pres. Obama made the entirely factual statements that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC reversed a century of precedent on campaign finance regulation and would allow foreign corporations to spend money to influence US elections, Alito was seen shaking his head, grimmacing and mouthing something like “simply not true”. While it’s well documented how widely Obama —a Constitutional law scholar— and Alito differ on legal philosophy, Alito crossed a line with his reaction.
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January 26, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
This video is a talk given by Dr. Eugene McCarraher, at Villanova University, on the subject of corporate personhood. He explores the many problems related to the development of the legal principle that corporations can be granted the actual rights that law assigns only to persons. He reveals the stunning historical roots of corporate personhood in the “legal fiction” of the “metaphysical body” of medieval kings.
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January 26, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
This video details the CLEAN campaign finance model, a specific set of principles that allows candidates to receive public funding in exchange for raising a set number of small donations from ordinary people and agreeing not to raise private campaign funds, not to spend more than a fixed amount, and not to spend from their own pocket. This standard has revolutionized the political process in both Maine and Arizona, allowing people not tied to special interests to take control of state and local government.
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January 22, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
The Supreme Court of the United States has taken a special interest in the case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which regards the claim that campaign finance regulations limiting the amount an entity can donate to a political party are an infringement on freedom of speech. Yesterday, the Court issued a 5-4 ruling against those campaign funding limits that is now expected to unleash a wave of virtually unlimited corporate funding for political campaigns. Numerous observers have claimed the integrity of American elections would be threatened.
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December 13, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
There has long been a view in Washington that the federal government cannot enact regulations aimed at curbing carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases (GHG) without a specific new statutory framework passed by Congress. In an effort to be conciliatory toward pro-business interests and conservatives in both parties, Pres. Obama has largely held to this view of climate-linked emissions regulations. But this view is actually not supported by existing legislation and judicial precedent.
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December 9, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The United States’ Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ruled that carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions pose a danger to human health, two years after the US Supreme Court gave it the authority to regulate carbon emissions for that very reason, under the Clean Air Act. The finding gives new weight to the American administration’s efforts to help achieve international consensus on aggressive emissions reductions at Copenhagen.
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October 27, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The push to ensure full civil rights equality for gays marked a major milestone last week with the passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Though Republicans opposed the measure so aggressively they voted in large numbers against funding the national defense in order to deny the extension of federal hate crimes status to hate-based violent assaults on gay Americans, the bill passed in both houses of Congress and will be signed into law tomorrow by Pres. Obama.
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October 21, 2009 :: staff :: 2 Comments
Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) is facing questions about his responsibility for wrongfully executing Cameron Todd Willingham, convicted of arson for a fire that killed his daughters, despite new expert analysis showing there was in fact zero evidence of arson. An investigation into the execution has already found that Perry was given the new evidence to [...]
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September 14, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: One Comment
Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) presided over 200 executions between taking office in 2001 and June of this year. During that time, Texas executed three times more people than the next three states combined had executed since 1976. New investigations are now raising the question of just how many innocent people were sent to their deaths by a governor and a system that ignore legal obligations to examine new evidence or counter prosecutorial or judicial misconduct?
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September 11, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
In matters of electoral rights and campaign financing freedoms, no corporation or registered multi-party organization will be afforded the specific electoral rights afforded individual citizens under this Constitution.
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September 10, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
The United States Supreme Court has returned to open session to hear a case in which a corporate-funded film was barred from being aired in the weeks prior to an election, because it was intended to serve as a campaign advertisement against then Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), who now serves as Secretary of State. The Court will decide whether to overturn laws that restrict the way corporations can spend money to influence election outcomes.
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August 21, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
The Internet Archive is joining with major internet-related firms, such as Yahoo and Amazon, to fight Google’s settlement with the Authors’ Guild, allowing Google Books to publish copyright-protected materials online, if they are out of print, and to compensate authors according to the sales generated by the display of the copyrighted text (possibly 70% going to publishers or copyright holders, including a cut of ad revenues). The Coalition plans to fight the legal settlement on anti-trust grounds.
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August 16, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Software giant Microsoft has been ordered to stop selling one of its flagship computer programs, Microsoft Word, in the US, within 60 days, after a federal judge found that a component within the application violates an XML patent held by another firm. The software engineering firm i4i, based in Toronto and boasting only 30 employees, secured a patent for a kind of customized XML in 1998, which it alleges Microsoft has included in Word since 2003, in violation of its patent protection.
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August 9, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in today by Chief Justice John Roberts in two separate private ceremonies. Her swearing in gives her a lifetime position as the 111th United States Supreme Court justice. She is only the 3rd woman to join the Court and the first justice of Hispanic ethnicity. She is also the first justice nominated by a Democratic president since 1994.
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August 6, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Federal Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed today by the US Senate as the 111th justice to sit on the US Supreme Court. She joins the 8 other justices currently in service to ensure a complete 9-member Court for the opening of the next session in October. Justice Sotomayor will be only the 3rd woman to hold a position on the Supreme Court and has made history as the 1st person of Hispanic ethnicity to win confirmation.
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August 6, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The full United States Senate will vote on the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. She would fill the vacant 9th spot on the Court and become the 3rd woman to serve, making two at present. Her nomination has been closely followed due to Republican opposition to some past policy statements and due to her possibility of becoming the first justice of Hispanic ethnicity in the Court’s long history. Democratic senators rallied behind the nominee in the days leading up to the vote, challenging Republican opponents, calling their opposition bias and suggesting they are ignoring her qualifications for partisan reasons.
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July 16, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
EMPATHY IS NOT PREJUDICE: it is the ability to imagine the point of view of the other. Without this ability to engage in thoughtful outreach, beyond one’s own personal realm of experience, and empathize with the human situation of the other, no jurist can begin to understand the human meaning of the arguments made in their court, and objectivity remains wholly beyond their reach.
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July 14, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
Yesterday saw the opening of confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor, before the Senate Judiciary committee. Several conservative Republicans questioned her objectivity and pronounced their devotion to the rule of law and equality for all litigants. The mainstream position seemed to be that Sotomayor would be able to explain controversial remarks, which were made in the context of her own study of any jurist’s moral obligation to transcend personal experience and make unbiased judgments.
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July 13, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
The US Senate today opened its confirmation hearings for Pres. Obama’s nominee to fill the vacancy on the US Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Her nomination has been oddly both controversial and not so controversial, in that she is the most experienced federal judge to be named to the Court in 100 years, was appointed to the federal courts by Pres. George H.W. Bush, a Republican, and is not overtly ideological, but has been accused of bias by conservatives for a speech that has been widely misread in the press.
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June 30, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Democratic-Farmer-Labor challenger Al Franken has been declared the winner of the Minnesota race for US Senate, in the November 2008 election. The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled today that Franken was the winner, after a properly conducted recount. Norm Coleman, who had brought the election contest in the state courts, conceded defeat shortly after the ruling was announced, saying “We have reached the point where further litigation damages the unity of our state”.
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June 30, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
A federal civil rights lawsuit has been filed by David Boies and Ted Olsen, who argued for Al Gore and George W. Bush, respectively, in the historic confrontation over the 2000 Florida recount. They have found common ground in the defense of intellectual honesty regarding the federal civil rights issues caught up in a state [...]
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June 29, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty said on Sunday he would certify Al Franken as winner of the November 2008 US Senate race, if the Supreme Court of his state orders it. He told CNN that he would sign the certification as soon as the court gives him the “green light” and that he would not delay Franken’s certification just to facilitate a federal appeals process.
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June 29, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff has received the legal maximum 150-year sentence for a fraud in which over $65 billion were stolen or lost. Madoff’s investment business was revealed to be the largest pyramid scheme ever created; his lawyer said today his business handled as much as 10% of all transactions on Wall Street at one time. 9 of Madoff’s victims testified during today’s sentencing, one of them saying she now has to sift through garbage to collect bottles in order to pay the bills.
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June 23, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
When hearings were held to decide the outcome of the protracted Minnesota Senate race, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, released a statement predicting that Al Franken, US Senate candidate for the Democratic Farmer Labor party (Minnesota’s branch of the national Democratic party), would soon prevail. More than 3 weeks later, there are questions as to what is stalling the delivery of a verdict that would seat the nation’s 100th senator.
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June 19, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: 4 Comments
This is not news, but it’s worth repeating: Sen. John Cornyn, of Texas, has in the past suggested that the Republican challenge to Minnesota’s seating Al Franken as its junior senator could last for “years”. Coleman has challenged every single court ruling so far, despite losing every one of them and losing more ground in the vote-count with each examination of new votes. The last court to rule found that there was no evidence of any legitimate votes still uncounted, and ordered that Franken be certified the winner and Coleman pay court costs.
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June 18, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: 3 Comments
The state of Minnesota, and of course the netroots, are in a flurry of speculation today that the Minnesota Supreme Court may be preparing to hand down a ruling in the election contest between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. There is no news from the Court confirming the speculation that a verdict is imminent, but the hearing was more than two weeks ago, and Minnesota has been without its 2nd senator since January.
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June 10, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 4 Comments
Norm Coleman, incumbent senator for Minnesota until 3 January 2009, is gambling his political future on the likelihood the Minnesota Supreme Court will rule to allow the inclusion of absentee ballots ruled inadmissible by state officials and by every court venue to date, the counting of which he expects will overturn Al Franken’s narrow lead. Experts are saying the hearing before the court suggests Coleman has little chance of success.
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June 9, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
In 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa and 8 other activists, who had demonstrated peacefully for environmental and human rights, were murdered in Nigeria, apparently in connection with their campaigning against abuses linked to the oil industry. Now, Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to pay $15.5 million in a settlement aimed at ending the court proceedings against it, but without acknowledging complicity in the killings.
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June 8, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: 3 Comments
By refusing to follow the court order mandating that election results be certified and Al Franken seated as the junior senator from Minnesota, Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, has allowed the contest brought by a member of his own party to deprive his state of its second vote in the United States Senate since early January. Though a case is pending in the courts, the fact remains, Pawlenty is using his office to block the certification of results that would seat a member of the opposing party.
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June 1, 2009 :: staff :: 2 Comments
Dr. George Tiller, a doctor who has received death threats over the years due to his performing abortions, was gunned down this Sunday while in church, near his home in Wichita, Kansas. He was serving as an usher and wearing a bullet-proof vest when his assailant approached him and shot him in the head at close range.
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May 27, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 4 Comments
In 2001, Sonia Sotomayor delivered a speech to the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, entitled “A Latina Judge’s Voice”. It was published in the Spring 2002 issue of Berkeley La Raza Law Journal, and has been reproduced by The New York Times this month online. A quote taken from that speech has raised controversy, as conservatives alleged Sotomayor declared her willingness to use race as a means of judging the law. In fact, she argued against that sort of bias.
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May 26, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: One Comment
In what promises to be one of the most controversial court rulings of the decade, the Supreme Court of the state of California found in favor of the supporters of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage by Constitutional amendment in the state. Kenneth Starr argued the case in favor of Prop. 8. The Court allows the 18,000 couples already married in legal California marriages prior to Prop. 8 to retain their married status.
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