European governments must be held accountable for their role in the extraordinary rendition practices in the so-called war on terror, rights groups say. According to the Open Society Justice Initiative, the European Court of Human Rights said it would consider the case of German citizen Khaled el-Masri who was subjected to extraordinary rendition allegedly at [...]
Filed in News Blurbs
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Also tagged CIA, Courts, Detainees, Extraordinary Rendition, Germany, Justice, Khaled el-Masri, Kidnapping, Law, Rendition, State Secrets Privilege, Torture
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Lawsuits from 14 states challenging the constitutionality of the new national healthcare law face an uphill battle, largely due to a far-reaching Supreme Court ruling in 2005 that upheld federal restrictions on home-grown marijuana in California. At issue in that case — just like in the upcoming challenges to the healthcare overhaul — was the [...]
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Also tagged Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Cannabis, Congress, Conservatives, Constitution, Courts, Healthcare, Law, Lawsuits, Reform, Regulation
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Thursday, February 4, 2010
In his article, How to Get Our Democracy Back, Professor Lawrence Lessig argues that if you want change, you have to change Congress. He proposes a three-part solution to the crisis facing our democracy: Publicly-financed elections; a 7-year ban on former members serving as lobbyists, and, in the wake of the recent Citizen’s United v FEC Supreme Court [...]
Stevens, who will be 90 in April, is reticent about the role of personal experience on judging. But in a glancing reference to his own Navy service during World War II, he points out that the majority’s claim that government cannot legally distinguish between corporate and individual speakers “would have accorded the propaganda broadcasts to [...]
Thursday, January 28, 2010
“Well, Mr. Olson,” he asked, “do you think that media corporations that are owned or principally owned by foreign shareholders have less First Amendment rights than other media corporations in the United States?” Replied Olson, “I don’t think so, Justice Alito, and certainly there is no record to suggest that there is any kind of [...]
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Senator Patrick Leahy criticizes the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC to overturn precedent and strike down limits to corporate financing of political advertisements in campaigns. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsT_9nTcuvw[/youtube]
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Last year, the EPA issued a long awaited set of guidelines on regulating large, stationary sources of CO2. The rules, known as the “Endangerment Finding,” used the authority granted to the agency through a Supreme Court ruling that found CO2 to be a pollutant that the EPA could regulate. While environmentalists, especially those skeptical of Congress’ [...]
Filed in Green Living, News Blurbs
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Also tagged Big Coal, Big Oil, Blanche Lincoln, Campaign Finance, Clean Air Act, Climate Change, CO2, Courts, Endangerment Finding, EPA, GHG, Law, Lawsuit, Lisa Murkowski, Lobbyists, Massachusetts v EPA, Massey Energy
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Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision ensuring that immigrants facing deportation have fair process in the review of their cases. The Court ruled that individuals who seek to reopen their deportation orders have the right to appeal to the federal courts if the immigration court refuses to reopen the case. The Court’s decision [...]
I’ve been thinking a little more about the Supreme Court’s decision. This ruling gives foreign powers more rights than U.S. citizens. Imagine that! Aramco, a corporation owned by the Saudi Arabian government (whose citizens attacked the U.S. on 9/11/2001 from their base in Afghanistan), will have enormously more influence in choosing your senator than you [...]
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Also tagged Arlen Specter, Campaign Finance Reform, Citizens United v FEC, Congress, Corporatism, Courts, Dick Durbin, House, John Roberts, Law, Senate
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Saturday, January 23, 2010
Five Supreme Court Justices stabbed at the heart of democracy, our electoral system. They overturned over 100 years of statute and precedent, and declared that corporations can spend all the money that they want to buy elections. In fact, these five men in robes declared, they have a constitutional right to do so. A SINGLE [...]
Saturday, January 23, 2010
In a decision that might actually have more dire implications than “Dred Scott v Sandford” the Supreme Court of the United States in Citizens United v Federal Election Commission declared that because of the alchemy of its 19th Century predecessors in deciding that corporations had all the rights of people, any restrictions on how these corporate-beings [...]
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Congressman Alan Grayson (FL-8) has introduced legislation to prevent a corporate takeover of government in America. His “Save Our Democracy” Reform Package (H.R. 4431-4435) aims to stave off the threat of “corpocracy” arising from today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision. “The Supreme Court in essence has ruled that corporations can buy elections. If that happens, democracy [...]
Saturday, January 23, 2010
In case you missed it, the Supreme Court yesterday decided 5 to 4 to roll back campaign finance laws that limit corporate spending. Oof. The Times calls it “a sharp doctrinal shift” that “will have major political and practical consequences. Specialists in campaign finance law said they expected the decision to reshape the way elections [...]
Filed in Green Living, News Blurbs
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Also tagged Big Ag, Big Chemical, Big Coal, Big Oil, Big Pharma, Campaign Finance Reform, Climate Change, Corporate Spending, Corporatism, Elections, Energy, Environment
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Thursday, January 14, 2010
The trial that started on Monday in San Francisco over the constitutionality of California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage could have been a moment for the entire nation to witness a calm, deliberative debate on a vitally important issue in the era of instant communications. Instead, the United States Supreme Court made it a sad [...]
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Together with my good friend and occasional courtroom adversary David Boies, I am attempting to persuade a federal court to invalidate California’s Proposition 8—the voter-approved measure that overturned California’s constitutional right to marry a person of the same sex. [...] Some have suggested that we have brought this case too soon, and that neither the [...]
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Also tagged Conservatives, Constitution, Courts, David Boies, Discrimination, Law, LGBT, Marriage Equality, Perry v Schwarzenegger, Same-sex Marriage, Ted Olson
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Judge Walker has ruled that things like TV advertisements, press releases and campaign workers’ statements are also relevant evidence of what the voters intended. The judge went so far as to order the Proposition 8 campaign to disclose private internal communications about messages that were considered for public use but never actually used. He has [...]
Saturday, January 9, 2010
On January 11th, a remarkable legal case opens in a San Francisco courtroom—on its way, it seems almost certain, to the Supreme Court. Perry v. Schwarzenegger challenges the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the California referendum that, in November, 2008, overturned a state Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex couples to marry. Its lead lawyers are unlikely allies: Theodore [...]
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Perry v. Schwarzenegger indeed asks the “ultimate question” of whether gays have a federal right to marry, but because the case is alleging that Prop. 8 violated the equal-protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, the federal court decision will have implications for gay Americans in nearly every arena of public life, from housing to parenting [...]
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Also tagged California, Civil Rights, Constitution, Courts, David Boies, Human Rights, Law, LGBT, Marriage Equality, Perry v Schwarzenegger, Proposition 8, Ted Olson, Vaughn Walker
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Saturday, December 5, 2009
At a time when the super-sized pay for high-ranking corporate executives is a major politicalissue, the Supreme Court has agreed to sort out whether a pay package can actually amount to criminal fraud, on the theory that it deprives the company or its stockholders of “honest services” in the executive suite. The issue arises in the high-profile prosecution, and [...]
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