Hopefully this is a harbinger of the decision on the Voting Rights Act.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court says states cannot require would-be voters to prove they are U.S. citizens before using a federal registration system designed to make signing up easier.
The justices voted 7-2 to throw out Arizona’s voter-approved requirement that prospective voters document their U.S. citizenship in order to use a registration form produced under the federal “Motor Voter” voter registration law.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, which doesn’t require such documentation, trumps Arizona’s Proposition 200 passed in 2004. Arizona officials say their law is needed to stop non-Americans from voting in elections, while opponents see it as an attack on minorities, immigrants and the elderly.
But the high court agreed with the federal government in the case.
I could never understand the basis of this to begin with.
(CNN) – The Supreme Court has made a decision in a case examining whether human genes are patentable. Details of the ruling are expected shortly.
The case involves Utah-based company Myriad Genetics, which was sued over its claim of patents relating to two types of biological material that it identified — BCRA-1 and BCRA-2, whose mutations are linked to increased hereditary risk for breast and ovarian cancer.
Since Myriad owns the patent on breast cancer genes, it is the only company that can perform tests for potential abnormalities.
At issue is whether “products of nature” can be treated the same as “human-made” inventions, allowing them to be held as the exclusive intellectual property of individuals and companies.
Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor spoke at the Hammerschmidt Memorial Chapel on history, ethics and law. In that speech, she expressed her opposition to the election of judges, saying the following, per the Chicago Tribune:
“I think there are many who think of judges as politicians in robes. In many states, that’s what they are.”
No way! Whatever could have put that crazy idea into her head? Of course that wasn’t what GW Bush had in mind at all, right, when he and the GOP packed the courts with conservative judges; yet Republicans now refuse to so much as consider President Obama’s judicial nominees.
O’Connor prefers to think of judges as, you know, impartial and independent, fair and unbiased. How novel.
Instead, she said, people “seem to think judges should be a reflex of the popular will” and that judges “need to avoid sitting on cases if even a whiff of bias can be detected.”
Are you listening, Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito?
So fine, Thomas– who ruled in favor of Citizens United– claims he isn’t literally “into” politics, but he also isn’t exactly unbiased, objective, or even-handed, let alone nonpartisan:
As Mark Karlin at BuzzFlash pointed out, “Thomas… didn’t even report large financial payments that benefited him and his wife, as he ruled on cases that involved the sources of the personal funds.”
There have been alarming reports of justices – most notably Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito – attending political events and using their position to fundraise for organizations.
You get the picture. Now here is what Clarence Thomas said during a forum at Duquesne University’s law school in response to a moderator’s question of whether he was surprised that there was a black president. Per First Read:
[H]e is not surprised there’s a black president. But he knew that it would be one “approved by the elites, the media.” “I guess I thought there would be black coaches, black heads of universities, maybe again, as I said, I’m naïve. But the thing I always knew it would have to be a black president who was approved by the elites, the media, because anybody they didn’t agree with they would take apart…. And that will happen with virtually– you pick your person. Any black person, who says something that is not a prescribed things that they expect from a black person, it will be picked apart. You can pick anybody. Don’t pick me. Pick anyone who has decided not to go along with it. There’s a price to pay. So I always assumed it would be somebody the media had to agree with.” [...]
Asked if he had any “common ground” with the left-of-center president, the conservative jurist, said, “You know that’s hard to say. It’s like, what common ground did I have with President Bush? 43? You know, I’m not into politics. I don’t like politics. And I try not to– I do my job. I have common ground with some of the appointees, say with Justice Ginsburg or with Justice Kagan, because we’re doing the same thing, but as politics, I just don’t do politics. I don’t like politics.”
Go that? He doesn’t like politics.
To be crystal clear, he just doesn’t do politics.
Did I mention he doesn’t like politics?
He added:
“I just don’t like politics… I mean, it is–, I’m just done. I don’t like politics. I like history. I like things of substance. I don’t understand politics. I don’t understand scuba diving, you know? When I think of scuba diving, I think of drowning. So I’m not against it, it’s just not– I’m not going under water.”
In case you missed it, he “hates politics.” That might have gotten by you.
Of Thursday’s dedication of the George W. Bush presidential library, NPR headlines an article that details how President “Obama’s Bush Library Speech Leaves Iraq And More Unspoken.” [...]
[I]t’s hard not to underscore that the George W. Bush presidential library is really a fraud.
After all, Bush was never elected president….
The coup was openly revealed in Scalia’s infamous stay of a state-mandated recount (Bush, by the way, as governor of Texas signed a bill that would have made a recount in Florida automatic if the vote were as close in Texas as it officially was in the Sunshine State) … In short, Scalia is saying that if Bush lost after a recount it would hurt his reputation as president since the Supreme Court would install him in the White House no matter what the voters decided in Florida. (Remember that Al Gore won the national popular vote by more than 540,000 votes.) [...]
There is so much evidence related to the stolen election of 2000, all of which amounts to sophisticated voter theft strategies that would make a banana republic proud. [...]
Last week according to the Sydney Morning Herald, Bush said that he has no regrets about his presidency [...]
Thieves rarely have regrets unless they get caught.
It is ironic that President Obama praised his predecessor at the library dedication, when Obama’s State Department is claiming that the Venezuelan election to replace Chavez is suspect.
Sometimes I get so frustrated and/or disheartened and/or annoyed by some of the news stories of the day that I can’t bring myself to write about them. Here are a few recent reports that made my blood pressure hit the roof. I am avoiding delving into them at length out of concern for my physical and mental health.
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Lt. Col Barry Wingard is the lawyer for Gitmo detainee Fayiz Al-Kandari. For their ongoing story + related topics, please click on the link below: Kuwaiti Citizen Detained at Guantanamo since 2002
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