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Supreme Court allows construction to proceedThe U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a case that challenged the Homeland Security Department's right to waive environmental laws and litigation to build a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. The decision, made without comment, seemingly removes a potential hurdle to construction of a $48.6 million fencing project across a canyon known as Smuggler's Gulch, west of the San Ysidro port of entry. “It's over. They're going to build a wall,” said attorney Cory Briggs, who in 2004 filed suit to stop the project on behalf of the Sierra Club, San Diego Audubon Society,...

The conservative nightmare (and liberal dream) is an Obama Court requiring taxpayers to fund essentially unlimited abortion rights throughout pregnancy; ordering all 50 states to bless gay marriage; expanding and perpetuating the use of racial preferences far beyond the 25-year phaseout suggested by the justices five years ago; prohibiting tuition vouchers for religious schools; stripping "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance; banning the death penalty; striking down the new federal wiretap law; expanding judicial oversight of military detentions, CIA interrogations, and perhaps other operations worldwide; opening the floodgates to big-dollar lawsuits against business; eroding property rights; and perhaps creating...

(Seventh in a series of ten. For other articles in this series, click on View all articles by John Armor--and "Blogs by this author.") There has been a radical shift in how justices conduct themselves on the Supreme Court, beginning in the 1930s. Not coincidentally, 1925 was the first year that anyone who was nominated for the Supreme Court appeared in person before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Not until 1955 did the committee hold public hearings on all nominees before making a recommendation to the whole Senate. Before those changes, nominees were considered based on their probity of character and...

Sources say the White House has tentatively signed off on a package of five judicial nominees proposed by Pennsylvania Sens. Arlen Specter and Robert Casey that would fill all of the vacancies on the Eastern District of Pennsylvania bench and one of two openings on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. If the deal goes through, the White House will first withdraw the nomination of Eastern District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter to the 3rd Circuit, replacing her with Eastern District Judge Paul S. Diamond. Pratter's nomination had been met with significant opposition and was ultimately doomed when Casey refused...

Hillary used to go ballistic in frustration at the latest rather shameless incarnation of Obama, and McCain should not fall into the same malady. He understandably is angry because Obama, whose opposition to the surge and erstwhile desire to be done with Iraq by March 2007 would have lost the war, rode the anti-war wave when it was popular, and now, in his current metamorphosis to centrist, has piggy-backed onto the good news in Iraq as if it had nothing to do with the surge — as if McCain's lonely support for it either never happened or was irrelevant. And...

<p>Could 2008 Be a McCain Landslide? American Thinker, WA - Jul 12, 2008 Ah yes, dear readers, this title has nailed me. I'm an unconventional thinker, a woman who is wont to go madly against the grain, in nearly all matters. I'm usually in the unpopular camp, the one who disdains conventional wisdom and consensus science. I'm just too darned independent-minded for my own good sometimes.</p>

On the Senate floor today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., claimed the issue of judicial nominees doesn’t matter to Americans. “I’m telling you, Madam President, I can't ever remember going home and somebody saying, ‘Could you guys (confirm) some more judges? We need to take care of this judges problem.’ ” Reid said. “Frankly, judge(s) is not a big issue (compared) to all of the other problems we're facing in America.”

If John McCain were elected, the appointment of a conservative justice could immediately reshape the court. The senator from Arizona might be forced to temper his choice to accommodate confirmation by a solidly Democratic Senate, but his nominee would undoubtedly be far to the right of either Stevens or Ginsburg, potentially solidifying a five-member conservative majority. If Obama had the opportunity to make an appointment, it would be only the fourth nomination from a Democratic president in more than 40 years. And for activists on the left, it could signal the opportunity to create a new dynamic for the court....

The Washington D.C. City Council has created so many hoops for handgun owners to jump through before they can exercise their Second Amendment rights, they may require legal counsel just to identify what the hoops are.  This sorry state of affairs is much to the satisfaction of The Washington Post, which called for just such an obstructionist policy in an editorial.  At least one of those hoops is illegal, according to the Supreme Court, but a Post news story spun that fact as the opinion of “opponents of the handgun ban.”  Is editorial policy coloring the news?The Washington Post is...

. For decades the Second Amendment might as well have been called the Second-Class Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court spent the late 20th century expansively interpreting the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth amendments, not to mention unenumerated rights ranging from travel to sexual privacy. But not until last month did the court hold that the Second Amendment means what it says: that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." What took so long? I put the question to Alan Gura, the 37-year-old wunderkind lawyer who represented the plaintiffs in District of Columbia...

... The United States is the only country to take the position that some police misconduct must automatically result in the suppression of physical evidence. The rule applies whether the misconduct is slight or serious, and without regard to the gravity of the crime or the power of the evidence. “Foreign countries have flatly rejected our approach,” said Craig M. Bradley, an expert in comparative criminal law at Indiana University. “In every other country, it’s up to the trial judge to decide whether police misconduct has risen to the level of requiring the exclusion of evidence.” But there are signs...

It's been barely three weeks since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Second Amendment, tossing the District of Columbia's strict ban on handgun ownership as an unconstitutional infringement on the individual right to bear arms. As you'd expect, D.C. officials have been busy little bureaucrats since then, trying to figure out a way to get around the high court's decision. On Monday, the D.C. council announced emergency legislation designed to update the gun ban. As expected, it's a joke. Instead of simply acknowledging that individuals have a right to own handguns in the district, the legislation would still require that...

The judiciary is becoming an important election issue. John McCain is warning conservatives that control of today's finely balanced Supreme Court depends on his election. Unfortunately, his jurisprudence is likely to be anything but conservative. The idea of a "living Constitution" long has been popular on the political left. Conservatives routinely dismiss such result-oriented justice, denouncing "judicial activism" and proclaiming their fidelity to "original intent." However, many Republicans, like Mr. McCain, are just as result-oriented as their Democratic opponents. They only disagree over the result desired. Judge-made rights are wrong because there is no constitutional warrant behind them. The Constitution...

THERE is deepening concern that Australia's intelligence agencies and those of other key US allies could be compromised in the fight against al-Qa'ida and other radical Islamist groups because of a controversial US Supreme Court ruling. The Supreme Court decision last month provided new rights to enemy combatants held at Guantanamo, who include Bali bombing mastermind Hambali. It is dawning on foreign intelligence operatives that it has opened the door to the possibility that the information they share with Washington could be aired in civilian courts. British and European allies are demanding answers from the US security apparatus, according to...

Gender and race will loom large when Barack Obama or John McCain has a chance to fill a U.S. Supreme Court vacancy. ADVERTISEMENT With only one woman and no Hispanics on the court, the next president will feel pressure -- and perhaps a desire -- to diversify the nine-member court. ``Regardless of who is elected president, there will be strong sentiments in favor of appointing a woman or someone who would reflect other elements of diversity such as an Hispanic or African-American,'' said Theodore Olson, a former U.S. solicitor general who heads McCain's advisory committee on judicial appointments. Six justices...

There is a great issue in America, a burning one, which speaks to the very soul of our government. It concerns the role of the judiciary and the possibility that it is usurping too much power. An excellent case could be made that it is. Link: http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=19854121&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8

DES MOINES -- Republican Congressman Steve King carries a copy of the Constitution with him everywhere he goes. He said it reminds him of the oath he took when first elected in 2002 to Congress. King stressed at Saturday's GOP state convention that Constitution could come under fire if Sen. Barack Obama is elected in November. "If we don't exercise our rights, we will lose them," said King, noting he has defended the Constitution even when it wasn't popular, cheap or easy. "Even when we have a Constitution (we think) is a guarantee that doesn't mean it is a guarantee...

It’s one of the most compelling storylines of the current composition of the U.S. Supreme Court – the notion that a 5-4 conservative majority could end up blocking the left-leaning agenda of a unified Democratic power structure in Washington. It may also be the next battleground in America’s emerging presidential slugfest, as supporters of Barack Obama are already sounding the alarm that their candidate’s so-called progressive agenda could be stymied by “judges appointed during the right’s ascendancy.” Columnist E.J. Dionne, Jr. lent voice to this so-called populist rage last month, bemoaning the “danger” inherent in the Court’s recent “spate of...

Studying the Supremes Emily Miller, July 14, 2008 The media is quick to paint Chief Justice John Roberts’ Supreme Court into an ideological corner, tagging it conservative or liberal, minimalist or imperialist, unified or deeply fractured. But these overarching broad analyses reported by the press are often inaccurate, says Dahlia Lithwick, scrutinizing the Supreme Court’s 2007-8 term in a panel discussion hosted by the Heritage Foundation. Anyone who attempts to make broad conclusions about the Court’s political leaning, or predicts which way the justices will vote, does so in the way of an “optical illusion.” Lithwick explains that it involves...

For decades, critics of affirmative action have contended elite colleges, in their zeal to form racially diverse student bodies, have discriminated against top white applicants. In a twist on that long-running feud, federal authorities are investigating an allegation that Princeton University discriminates against Asian-American applicants by accepting black and Hispanic students with lower entrance scores. At the heart of both arguments lies the question of whether and how colleges should consider race when choosing a class. The Supreme Court has ruled race can be a factor in the process, though racial quotas have long been declared unconstitutional. Critics say admission...

On Monday the province of Ontario announced it is paying $6.5-million to Steven Truscott in compensation for nearly hanging him about 50 years ago. Back then all except a handful of people believed that Truscott, 14 in 1959, raped and killed 12-year-old Lynne Harper. Today all except a handful of people believe that he didn't. Did some cutting-edge science, such as DNA, change our minds? Or did somebody confess? Not really. What changed was the Zeitgeist, the spirit of the times. That's how we saw it then, and that's how we see it today. Last year's Ontario Court of Appeal's...

Three years ago today the nation was halfway into 18 days of feverish speculation about whom President George W. Bush would name to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court, with high drama and several major false rumors preceding the choice of now-Chief Justice John Roberts. Next year at this exact time, odds are high that we'll all be doing the same exercise, this time about whom President John McCain or President Barack Obama will choose for the high court. Liberal Justice John Paul Stevens will be 89 by then, and a couple of other justices sometimes seem...

Right up front, let me state that this column is for ACADEMIC purposes only. According to friends of mine still with our government, because of my last novel, my home phone and computer became the subject of curiosity for at least two of our three-letter agencies. The novel was entitled “America’s Last Days” and dealt with a revolution led by a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a former Director of the FBI. Both men felt that the United States of their childhoods, of traditional values, and of true sovereignty, was in a death-spiral from which it...

Guns and Health Jeffrey M. Drazen, M.D., Stephen Morrissey, Ph.D., and Gregory D. Curfman, M.D. The Supreme Court has launched the country on a risky epidemiologic experiment. The announcement by the Court last month of its decision in District of Columbia v. Heller,1 which struck down a ban on handgun ownership in the nation's capital, has set the stage for legal challenges to gun regulation in other major American cities. Such challenges have already been introduced in Chicago and San Francisco. If there is a widespread loosening of gun regulations, we will learn over the next few years — in...

McCain: Bork Was No "Maverick Jurist" John McCain is planning to be in North Carolina tomorrow where he is scheduled to give a speech on judicial nominations: John McCain’s campaign said Friday that Fred Thompson and Sam Brownback will join the presumptive GOP nominee in North Carolina next week for a major speech on judicial appointments. Both Thompson and Brownback have endorsed the Arizona senator, and both Republicans presented themselves throughout the Republican primary battle as “consistent conservatives,” particularly regarding social issues and judicial appointments. The speech, to be held Tuesday at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, will be just...

I was walking around Rutgers the other day when I came upon a memorial to students who had fought in World War II. The list of names was impressive, but I imagine most major universities in America have similar memorials. It was only when I happened to walk by Old Queens that I noticed something you wouldn't see on just any campus. It was a plaque honoring the Rutgers men who had fought in the Revolutionary War. Nearby is the spot from which Alexander Hamilton directed cannon fire against the British in cover of George Washington's army. You don't see...

Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr tells the Brody File that when it comes to judges John McCain cannot be trusted. Basically what he is saying is that voters shouldn’t just accept the line that McCain will nominate judges like Roberts and Alito. Watch above [link in post #2]. Read below. Bob Barr: “I know that many conservatives for example say well we have to vote for McCain even though we don’t like him because he’ll give us better judges. Well, ask people to think a little bit about what they’re saying. John McCain gave us McCain/Feingold which is the most...

Comment on to previous post points out at p.2 of the Stevens dissent he refers to NFA and US v. Miller: "Upholding a conviction under that Act, this Court held that..." Same mistake the 9th Circus made years ago and had to issue a new opinion, since Miller was never convicted -- commentators noted this was pretty suggestive the court hadn't bothered to read Miller before citing it. First thing you look for in reading a case is what happened below, and what the Court do to that. Very first thing. I'd add that at 41 he refers to: "In...

Put War Powers Back Where They Belong By JAMES A. BAKER III and WARREN CHRISTOPHER THE most agonizing decision we make as a nation is whether to go to war. Our Constitution ambiguously divides war powers between the president (who is the commander in chief) and Congress (which has the power of the purse and the power to declare war). The founders hoped that the executive and legislative branches would work together, but in practice the two branches don’t always consult. And even when they do, they often dispute their respective powers. A bipartisan group that we led, the National...

Why has Republicanism failed? Republicanism has failed and will fail because of single of idea which America under President Bush has become fixated upon. The new idea and hegemony of Bush and America is the realization of freedom. It has been American’s claim to an absolute idea predicated on the absolute strength of such an idea in the world for other regimes to become and emulate. Is not” You are either with us or against us” a favorite slogan of this moment in history?

The 2008 presidential election is "foremost about the United States Supreme Court," the president of the National Right to Life Committee said at the group's annual convention Thursday. "It's not the economy, stupid," said Dr. Wanda Franz, referencing President Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign slogan. "No, for us, it's the Supreme Court." The power of the president to appoint judges to the U.S. Supreme Court, potentially changing the composition of the court and moving it to the right or left, is the "overriding issue" for this election, Franz said, speaking before an audience of pro-life advocates in Arlington, Va. "Whoever wins...

Whatever side of the Second Amendment controversy you may be on, the clear winner in District of Columbia v. Heller (striking down a Washington, D.C., ban on hand guns) was intentionalism, the thesis that a text means what its author or authors intend. The text in dispute is 27 words long, and it is cited in the opening pages of each of the three opinions: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” None of the words in this sentence is...

The right to life. The Ten Commandments. Prayer in schools. Flag desecration. Same-sex marriage. As the federal courts consider cases that involve the most deep-seated convictions of Americans and issues upon which Americans are sharply divided, they understandably strike raw nerves. Public frustration is redoubled because, of the three branches of government, the judiciary is the farthest removed from popular election and public influence. It seems to many that the nation is being governed by the “majority vote of a nine-person committee of lawyers, unelected and holding office for life,� as Professor Lino Graglia has said.As the federal courts render...

Exactly as some legal experts predicted, Boulder's courts saw a spike in claims of "adverse possession" filed by people apparently trying to beat the clock on changes to the controversial land law. Of the 25 active adverse-possession lawsuits in Boulder County -- where a person or company claims someone else's land after trespassing on it for at least 18 years -- 15 of those cases were filed in June Some of those cases were filed just hours before changes to the law went into effect last Tuesday, court records show. The changes, drafted by a bipartisan group of state legislators...

The Supreme Court openly violated its separated powers under the Constitution by defying Congress' Article I, Section 9 authority to suspend habeas corpus "when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it." Congressional Democrats cheer the decision because it provides them with political cover for what they could not accomplish legislatively - their preference to execute a battle as you might an indictment and prosecute a war as you might a trial. This once co-equal branch has morphed into a tyrannical tree and President Bush has foolishly said that he'll "abide by their decision." Question: How...

The best book about the constitution in two hundred years Akhil Amar’s America’s Constitution: A Biography is the second best book ever written about the U.S. Constitution. The best, of course, is The Federalist—but this may be unfair, as it requires counting a coauthored serial work (by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison) that first appeared as a series of newspaper essays, later collected into a single volume. Still, The Federalist, considered as a whole, counts as the most important single exposition of the U.S. Constitution, masterfully, lucidly, and colorfully written by a marvelous composite political and constitutional theorist...

Afghanis Get It, Too Bad Anti-Gun Elitists Don’t: NRA To Target Chicago + Neighboring Suburban Hand Gun Bans, After Supreme Court Ruling Commentary by Bill Zettler * According to the Associated Press, June 27, 2008, "The number of civilians killed in fighting between insurgents and security forces in Afghanistan has soared by two-thirds in the first half of this year, to almost 700 people, a senior U.N. official said Sunday." We have all seen pictures on TV of Afghan citizens walking the streets with AK-47's draped over their shoulders. And who can forget the Afghan weddings where hundreds of shots...

A man shot and critically wounded by police early Sunday on the city's Southwest Side has died, according to the Independent Police Review Authority. A spokesman said the victim was an adult male and that a gun was recovered at the crime scene. At about 2:13 a.m., police responded to a call of shots fired in the 6100 block of South Kedzie Avenue, the Chicago Police News Affairs office said in a release. Police and the armed person exchanged gunfire. The suspect was struck and transported to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in critical condition, according to police.

Sen. John McCain is making surprising headway with religious conservatives - that part of the Republican electoral coalition he was expected to find the most resistant. For a campaign that Republican critics have called ill-managed, disorganized and message-challenged, the Arizona senator's organization has, from all outward appearances, been doing things right in its appeals to evangelicals and other religious conservatives. In the past week, Mr. McCain won over a major group of social conservatives, thanks to personal appeals, and the campaign has made personnel moves appealing to religious voters. In Denver last week, a meeting of nearly 100 religious conservative...

The director of the FBI is not happy with the Supreme Court's recent handgun ruling. Robert Mueller says he tends to believe that "weapons harm people, and more often than not they harm the people carrying them." Mueller said the high court's decision, which threw out a handgun ban in Washington, D.C., "does throw a lot of things up in the air." Mueller said communities will now have to decide their own licensing programs. Mueller was speaking at a convention of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators in Hartford, Connecticut. He says with his grandchildren going to college,...

Howard Kaloogian is a lawyer and a former member of the California State Assembly. GITMO AND GUNS are getting all the press. But energy mavens are talking about another recent far-reaching — but little noted — U.S. Supreme Court decision on the California energy crisis: It took them seven years but they finally figured it out. The revisionist part of the story is well known: Big bad oil traders like Enron gamed the market and drove up energy costs fifteen-fold. The blackouts, insolvent utilities and economic chaos are remembered as the worst energy crisis in American history. But the Supreme...

Kennedy is the court's most important swing vote and its worst justice. He expects the nation to bend to his moral whimsy. He said "You know, in any given year, we may make more important decisions than the legislative branch does - precluding foreign affairs, perhaps." He was wise to include the "perhaps," in light of the recent Guantanamo decision. He went on to note how judges need an "understanding that you have an opportunity to shape the destiny of the country." So much for country's destiny being shaped by a free people acting through their legislative institutions.On any politically...

July 4, 2008 The Manifold Dangers of a Liberal Supreme Court Christopher AdamoAs far back as Sun Tzu, military strategists have well understood the concept that victory in war does not require the destruction of one's enemy, but merely convincing that enemy that destruction is inevitable if the fight continues. Similarly, in a dictatorship, absolute control is neither necessary nor, in most cases, even possible. All that is needed for the dictator to endure is the presumption among the underlings that the leader does indeed hold a monopoly of power. It is a point that Americans ought to seriously...

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has departed for summer vacation, but what a mess he's left behind, especially for the U.S. military. His 5-4 decision requiring habeas corpus review for foreign terrorists is already creating confusion and problems about how to handle these dangerous enemies. The Bush Administration is currently debating how to respond to Mr. Kennedy's war-fighting ukase in Boumediene v. Bush, with President Bush set to make a decision soon. Some in the Administration want Mr. Bush to abolish not merely Guantanamo but even military commissions, the special tribunals set up to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others...

In some ways, the Supreme Court term that just ended seems muddled: disturbing, highly conservative rulings on subjects like voting rights and gun control, along with important defenses of basic liberties in other areas, including the rights of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The key to understanding the term lies in the fragility of the court’s center. Some of the most important decisions came on 5-to-4 votes — a stark reminder that the court is just one justice away from solidifying a far-right majority that would do great damage to the Constitution and the rights of ordinary Americans. The Supreme...

The handling of Barack Obama calls to mind a movie called The Harder They Fall, in which Humphrey Bogart played a boxing promoter whose client was a heavyweight named Toro Moreno. Bogey learned early on that Toro couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag, but that didn't stop him from guiding the palooka to a shot at the world title. Likewise, the Democrats, and therefore the news media, declared Obama to be a future presidential nominee at the 2004 convention, despite the fact that he was only a state senator at the time. Like the chiseled Toro,...

Governor says the court overlooked precedent in banning death penalty for those convicted of raping childrenGovernor Bobby Jindal says the U.S. Supreme Court made a factual error when it banned the death penalty as a sentence for those convicted of raping children. The court claimed there was no federal precedence in providing that type of sentence, but Jindal says the death penalty is authorized for child rape under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The Governor is asking Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell and Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick to consider petitioning the court for a rehearing. The 5-4...

In some ways, the Supreme Court term that just ended seems muddled: disturbing, highly conservative rulings on subjects like voting rights and gun control, along with important defenses of basic liberties in other areas, including the rights of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The key to understanding the term lies in the fragility of the court’s center. Some of the most important decisions came on 5-to-4 votes — a stark reminder that the court is just one justice away from solidifying a far-right majority that would do great damage to the Constitution and the rights of ordinary Americans. The Supreme...

Judicial activism. Legislating from the bench. Ideological decision-making by judges. No sooner had the Supreme Court announced its decision in District of Columbia v. Heller than critics of the 5-4 majority decision and the court's sometimes-conservative majority cried all the above. In holding that the Second Amendment granted individuals the right to keep and bear arms, the court's conservatives -- those champions of judicial modesty and originalism -- were now engaging in judicial activism of their own. Yes, everybody does it, and conservatives are just hypocrites for pretending otherwise. The Washington Post's E.J. Dionne Jr. was at the head of...

There has been a lot of talk about the need for change in this country. That is Senator Obama's mantra, of course. And all of the commentators say, "It is a change election." Well, I can understand why the call for change is so powerful considering the pitiful condition that our country is in. We simply have the most prosperous, freest and strongest country in the history of the world. So we can understand why liberal politicians and their supporters see the need for great change. On a more serious note, we have long recognized the role change plays in...