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Prop. 8: Gay-marriage ban unconstitutional, court rules

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By LA Times Staff - Feb. 07 (Breaking News) - A federal appeals court Tuesday struck down California's ban on same-sex marriage, clearing the way for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on gay marriage as early as next year.

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Occupy New Hampshire Member on His Exchange With Mitt Romney Over Support for Corporate Personhood

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 06 (News Report) - Occupy New Hampshire activist Mark Provost made national headlines Wednesday when he attended a town hall meeting hosted by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and asked about his past comment that "corporations are people." Provost's question to Romney came Occupy New Hampshire is preparing for a series of events leading up to the state’s Republican primary to highlight the disproportionate impact corporations and wealthy donors have on the political process. We play an excerpt of the town-hall exchange and get Provost's response to Romney reply. "I think his response, really, again is this denial that there's this class in the country, and that there are some people within the corporation — specifically, the workers — that are taking it on the chin so that the United States' executive management can make massive bonuses and serve their shareholders rather well too, because the profits largely go to capital gains and dividends." [Rush transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Citizens United Backlash Grows From Cali. to NYC Urging Congress to Overturn Corporate Personhood

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 05 (News Report) - Adding to a growing nationwide backlash against the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, California lawmakers have introduced a resolution that calls on Congress to "propose and send to the states for ratification a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United." The New York City Council has just passed a similar resolution, echoing measures passed in Los Angeles, Oakland, Albany and Boulder. We speak to Public Citizen President Robert Weissman; California Assemblymember Bob Wieckowski, who introduced the state's Citizens United resolution; and New York City Councilmember and measure co-sponsor Melissa Mark-Viverito. "I think it taps into the sentiment we're seeing around the country regarding Occupy Wall Street, where people really feel that government is disconnected from the vast majority of the population... because of [corporate] influence," Mark-Viverito says. [Rush transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Chief Justice Roberts' Defense Doesn't Persuade Court Critics

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Mike Sacks - Jan. 05 (News Report) - Chief Justice John Roberts used his annual year-end report to defend his colleagues' integrity, but that defense did not move prominent critics clamoring for the justices to abide by the same ethical rules as other federal judges do.

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Super PAC Disclosure Requirements Hot Topic Of Conversation Among GOP Candidates

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Sam Stein - Jan. 05 (News Report) - The rapid rise and far-reaching impact of super PACs -- the well-financed non-party groups that helped carry former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to victory in the Iowa caucuses -- have persuaded some prominent Republicans that restrictions of some sort on the groups' activities may be in order.

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Newt Gingrich's Campaign Resurgence Funded by Secretive Coterie of Super PACs, Wealthy Backers

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Dec. 23 (News Report) - the Center for Public Integrity has published new details on how Gingrich has the backing of two so-called super PACs that raise unlimited donations, but legally must operate independently of the campaign. We speak with Peter Stone, a reporter with Center for Public Integrity who has covered lobbying and campaign finance issues for the past two decades, and McClatchy investigative reporter Greg Gordon.

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Sanders Files "Saving American Democracy Amendment'

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Op Ed News - Dec. 11 (News) - The first constitutional amendment ever proposed by Sanders during his two decades in Congress would reverse the narrow 5-to-4 ruling in Citizens United vs. the Federal Elections Commission. In that controversial decision almost two years ago, justices gave corporations the same First Amendment free-speech rights as people.

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The Real History of 'Corporate Personhood': Meet the Man to Blame for Corporations Having More Rights Than You |

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Jeffrey Clement - Dec. 08 (Special Report) - In 1971, Lewis Powell, a mild-mannered, courtly, and shrewd corporate lawyer in Richmond, Virginia, soon to be appointed to the United States Supreme Court, wrote a memorandum to his client, the United States Chamber of Commerce. He outlined a critique and a plan that changed America.

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Scalia and Thomas Dine With Healthcare Law Challengers

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By James Oliphant - Nov. 15 (News Report) - The day the Supreme Court gathered behind closed doors to consider the politically divisive question of whether it would hear a challenge to President Obama's healthcare law, two of its justices, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, were feted at a dinner sponsored by the law firm that will argue the case before the high court.' James Oliphant, Los Angeles Times

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Bob Edgar: 'Impartial' Supreme Court Justices Raise Money for Opponents of Health Care Law

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - Nov. 15 (Opinion) - Suppose you were party to a lawsuit and you learned that the judge handling your case was hobnobbing with lawyers on the other side and helping to raise money for a group dedicated to defeating you in court?

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"Corporations Are Not People": Activists Push Amendment to Revoke "Corporate Personhood"

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 09 (News Report) - After an Election Day that saw a number of wins for progressive causes nationwide, activists opposed to "corporate personhood" — the notion that corporations have equal rights to individuals — are pushing ahead with a campaign to add a twenty-eighth amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would reject the idea that corporations are people and reverse the 2010 landmark case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. In a 5-to-4 vote, the Court ruled corporations have First Amendment rights and that the government cannot impose restrictions on their political speech — clearing the way for corporations and other special interest groups to spend unlimited amounts of money on elections. We speak to John Bonifaz, a constitutional attorney and co-founder and director of Free Speech for People. [Rush transcript to come. Please check back soon.]

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Supreme Court ponders constitutionality of 24/7 GPS tracking

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Ars Technica - Nov. 08 (Opinion) - On Tuesday, the government told the Supreme Court the Fourth Amendment allowed it to conduct 24/7 tracking of anyone's car—even those of Supreme Court Justices—without a warrant.

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Justice Scalia: Americans 'should learn to love gridlock'

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By David G. Savage - Oct. 06 (News Report) - Many Americans think badly of the government because of “gridlock” in Washington. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is not one of them.

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Appeals court strikes down health overhaul requirement that most Americans must buy insurance

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - Aug. 12 (Breaking News) - A federal appeals court has struck down the requirement in President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul package that virtually all Americans must carry health insurance or face penalties. A divided three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday struck down the so-called individual mandate, siding with 26 states that had sued to block the law.

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The Supreme Court closes the door to justice

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Erwin Chemerinsky - Jul. 06 (Opinion) - Has the Supreme Court lost faith in the American court system? That is a strange question to ask about the justices who sit at the top of the country's judicial hierarchy. But in case after case in the just-completed term, the court, usually in 5-4 decisions with the conservatives in the majority, denied access to the courts.

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Justices Rely On 'Standing' To Dismiss Church-State Disputes

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Adelle M. Banks - Jun. 30 (News Analysis) - As the U.S. Supreme Court ends its 2010-2011 term this week, legal scholars say a decision issued two months ago is likely to resonate within church-state debates for years to come.

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Supreme Court OK With Violent Video Games; Porn Still Illegal (for Minors)

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Sarah Jaffe - Jun. 29 (News Analysis) - Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association isn't just about video games. Within the decision, concurring opinion, and two dissents lie a host of issues, from whether pornography is really worse than depictions of violence to whether minors have any free speech rights at all (Clarence Thomas says, essentially, no). There's a discussion of whether the inherent interactive nature of games makes them different from previous media, and an acknowledgement that every medium before has produced a similar panic.

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Supreme Court's Latest Sabotage of Democratic Process -- Are Only Wealthy Corporations Supposed to Have a Say in Our Government?