Two cases presently before the Supreme Court will determine whether the states can enact new obstacles to voter registration and whether states with a history of voting rights violations no longer need approval to enact changes to voting laws, nor need federal approval over the decisions of local elections officials where previous infractions had occurred. […]
A teenage girl who was dropped from her high school’s cheerleading squad after refusing to chant the name of a basketball player who had sexually assaulted her must pay compensation of $45,000 (£27,300) after losing a legal challenge against the decision.
The United States Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a review of the case brought by the woman, who is known only as HS. Lower courts had ruled that she was speaking for the school, rather than for herself, when serving on a cheerleading squad – meaning that she had no right to stay silent when coaches told her to applaud. […]
(via oinonio)
(via americaforward)
I posted this about Robert Bork earlier on Wednesday, but as usual, Rachel puts it better.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Gay marriage likely to come before Supreme Court within a year
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This is yet another reason to vote for President Obama and to vote for Democrats in the House and Senate.
(via occupy-my-blog)
Just a handful of votes could make the difference on Election Day.
Check out a new site loaded with all the information you need to vote
(Source: demnewswire, via recall-all-republicans)
This video is less than 2 min. long. If you don’t watch any other video this week, please take the time to watch this one.
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People For the American Way launched a major new campaign this month — including a web ad and an exclusive report — exposing Mitt Romney’s dangerous agenda for America’s courts.
The campaign’s first phase highlights Romney’s choice of Robert Bork to lead his constitutional and judicial advisory team. By allying with Bork, a jurist so extreme he was rejected by a bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate 25 years ago, Romney has sent a clear signal that he means to drag America’s courts even farther to the right…
(Source: romneycourt.com, via recall-all-republicans)
Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the Supreme Court’s most vocal and conservative justices, said on Sunday that the Second Amendment leaves room for U.S. legislatures to regulate guns, including menacing hand-held weapons.
“It will have to be decided in future cases,” Scalia said on Fox News Sunday. But there were legal precedents from the days of the Founding Fathers that banned frightening weapons which a constitutional originalist like himself must recognize. There were also “locational limitations” on where weapons could be carried, the justice noted.
[…]
Scalia, a septuagenarian, said he had given no thought to retiring. “My wife doesn’t want me hanging around the house,” he joked. But he did say he would try to time his retirement from the court so that a justice of similar conservative sentiments would take his place, presumably as the appointee of a Republican president. “Of course I would not like to be replaced by somebody who sets out immediately to undo” what he has spent decades trying to achieve, the justice said.
(Source: sarahlee310)
![Forty years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in the case Furman v. Georgia. While the Justices had a variety of reasons for striking down the death penalty, the overriding concern was the risk that the punishment would be imposed unfairly, including on the basis of race.
Four years and four days later, the Supreme Court approved a new death penalty statute in the case of Gregg v. Georgia and allowed a return to executions. Immediately following that ruling, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty was founded to challenge the wisdom of capital punishment as a public policy and highlight the unfairness inherent in the practice.
For our organization, this anniversary serves as a powerful reminder that the death penalty continues to be terribly wrongheaded as a public policy and it brutalizes not only those who are condemned to death, but all in its wake. The good news is that today, forty years later, as a result of our efforts the death penalty is on its way out again. […]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6ef20EfR01qd0sg1o1_500.jpg)
Forty years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in the case Furman v. Georgia. While the Justices had a variety of reasons for striking down the death penalty, the overriding concern was the risk that the punishment would be imposed unfairly, including on the basis of race.
Four years and four days later, the Supreme Court approved a new death penalty statute in the case of Gregg v. Georgia and allowed a return to executions. Immediately following that ruling, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty was founded to challenge the wisdom of capital punishment as a public policy and highlight the unfairness inherent in the practice.
For our organization, this anniversary serves as a powerful reminder that the death penalty continues to be terribly wrongheaded as a public policy and it brutalizes not only those who are condemned to death, but all in its wake. The good news is that today, forty years later, as a result of our efforts the death penalty is on its way out again. […]
