Free Republic

I know Jim DeMint has requested a ruling on the Constitutionality of the HealthCare bill but, doesn't the Supreme Court automatically review legislation? And given that the makeup of the court is still in our favor, for the most part, don't we stand a good chance of having the whole thing ruled as un-Constitutional even if we do lose the final vote? Checks and balances, you know?

John J. O'Connor III, 79, an Arizona lawyer and civic leader who became active in Washington's social and charitable circles after his wife, Sandra Day O'Connor, became the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, died Nov. 11 in Phoenix. He had Alzheimer's disease. As a lawyer, Mr. O'Connor specialized in business and real estate law and commercial litigation. He represented leading companies in industries including mining, manufacturing, real estate and financial services. He was a partner at one of Phoenix's largest firms, Fennemore, Craig, von Ammon & Udall, before moving to Washington when his wife was confirmed to...

Link to AP story on yahoo

A new CNN poll has revealed numbers that are hardly a ringing endorsement either of President Obama or his nominee to the Supreme Court. Regarding CNN's polling, there is a large disparity between their poll that says 72% feels Obama "inspires confidence" and their poll that shows that only 47% has confidence in his decision to nominate Sotomayor. It calls into question the accuracy of CNN's polling and whether Obama's positive numbers in other polls are skewed. The fact that only 70% of Democrats want to see her confirmed is also a poor number. One would think the number would...

3:22 Mario Diaz At first you can feel very proud that a Hispanic has been nominated. You have to look deeper because we can not allow any politician to bribe us, to manipulate us through emotion and pride. We have to dig deeper because the implications are enormous. 3:59 Sonia Sotomayor Court of Appeals is where policy is made. And I know and I know this is on tape and I should never say that because we don't "make law." I know. (Audience laughter) OK (laughter) I know. I know. I'm not promoting it. I'm not advocating it. I'm you...

Breaking on CNBC: USSC delays Chyrsler asset sale! Mourdock: USe of Tarp Funds in automotive industry was illegal Obama admin had urged USSC NOT to keep chrysler deal on hold

Associated Press link only.

1. Clarence Thomas 2. William Rehnquist 3. Antonin Scalia 4. John Roberts 5. Samuel Alito 6. Warren Burger 7. Sandra Day O’Connor 8. Lewis Powell 9. Charles Whittaker 10. Anthony Kennedy Based on “conservative” or “liberal” votes, 1937-2006 Source: “Rational Judicial Behavior: A Statistical Study” (Richard Posner, William Landes, April 2008); usnews.com

Dane von Breichenruchardt and Dick Heller are going to be on The Micro Effect radio show today at 3 pm EST to discuss the next Heller case. You can listen live at the site.

"Hillary: The Movie" made its Supreme Court premiere Tuesday morning with reviews from the justices suggesting the case could lead to the banning of political books during the election season and the possible collapse of the nation's campaign finance law. Citizens United, a conservative group that produced the documentary of the former presidential candidate and released the film during the primary season last year, refused to abide by the McCain-Feingold law that required they include political disclosure language in movie advertisements.

No further updates but I'm sure there will be soon.

It looks as though the USSC or for that matter any of our elected representatives are going to do anything to call into question Barrack Obama's foreign national status. So, it's up to us (American Citizens) to apply the pressure to get them to take notice. We can BOYCOTT any spending on luxury/non-essential items. This will get the governments attention. Pay your bills but don't spend your tax refund, don't spend your stimulus payment. Call in to local radio talk shows.......you know the drill. If it's good enough for Jesse Jackson, then it is certainly good enough for us in...

too bad

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline)-The former deputy Pennsylvania attorney general who challenged Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's qualifications to be president has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Lafayette Hill, Pa.-based attorney Philip Berg, a self-described "moderate to liberal" Democrat who supported Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, alleged that the Illinois senator is not a U.S. citizen and therefore ineligible for the presidency. He had his lawsuit rejected Friday by U.S. District Judge Richard Barclay Surrick of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Jewsvote.org, whose purpose is to support Barack Obama's election, admits openly that Obama will appoint more Supreme Court Justices who will rewrite the Constitution without going to all the trouble of getting a supermajority vote in Congress and ratification by three quarters of the state. Squealer the Pig from George Orwell's Animal Farm comes to mind; he was the one who, while all the other animals were asleep, would get on a ladder and change the laws of Animal Farm. The Flash presentation at Jewsvote.org says openly, "Obama would appoint Supreme Court Justices like Breyer and Ginsberg." ...In the infamous...

THE former president Bill Clinton is to ride to Barack Obama’s rescue in the coming weeks by holding joint events with the Democratic presidential candidate. The Obama team hopes the “Bubba factor” - Clinton’s appeal to white, working-class voters - will revitalise its campaign and staunch defections to Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee. A source close to the Obama campaign said: “Bill Clinton is on board. He’s making all the right moves and he and Barack Obama are going to campaign together.” The former president met Obama over lunch at his New York office last Thursday on the seventh...

<p>“Judges play an important role in deciding whether a chosen policy is consistent with our laws and the Constitution,” he said in remarks delivered before the American Enterprise Institute. “But it is our elected leaders who have the responsibility for making policy choices in the first instance.”</p>

I'd like some assistance understanding the Majority opinion in the Heller vs DC case, specifically how it will affect States, especially a state like NJ which doesn't have a RKBA provision in the State Constitution. Here is a relevant quote, but I don't know what it means without background:  On the question of the Second Amendment’s application to the States: “23 With respect to Cruikshank’s continuing validity on incorporation, a question not presented by this case, we note that Cruikshank also said that the First Amendment did not apply against the States and did not engage in the sort of...

In a 5-4 decision the Supreme Court ruled that Capital Punishment for convicted child rapists was unconstitutional under the 8th Amendment tenant of Cruel and Unusual Punishment. Just Kennedy wrote the opinion for the majority stating that the use of Capital Punishment was: “not proportional for the rape of a child.” My question to Justice Kennedy is then, what IS proportional punishment for the rape of an innocent child? A slap on the wrist? A short prison stay followed by your name in a database full of other like minded perverts? What is taken from these children can never be...

The Supreme Court is meeting to issue opinions and announce whether it has accepted any new cases. Major cases still undecided include the rights of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, the ban on handguns in Washington, D.C., and whether people convicted of raping children can be given the death penalty. The court's term ends in late June.

Bearing Arms... Against Bears... Justice Kennedy thinks D.C. residents need protection — from grizzlies. Is the D.C. gun law constitutional? With all due respect to those who complain that the justices on the Supreme Court are too secretive, and for those who wish, perhaps, that David Souter was more like David "West Side Days Inn" Paterson, oral argument today in District of Columbia v. Heller offers up a bounty of alarming personal revelations. The least of which is that judges are completely political. But who knew that a case testing the scope of the Second Amendment's "right to bear arms"...

Riots inspired by the Newsweek report have broken out elsewhere in the region. But at least 17 people have died in Afghanistan, where the worst violence erupted in the town of Ghazni, south of Kabul.The magazine said that notes from Marc Falkoff, who is representing 13 Yemenis held at Guantánamo, blamed a guard stomping on a Koran for an incident in August 2003 when 23 detainees tried to kill themselves. One of the 13 told Mr. Falkoff, according to his notes, that another detainee had attempted suicide "after the guard took his Koran and threw it in the toilet." A...

The comment came during an interview with CNN this morning. I’m not going to rant about this. I will point out that Huckabee’s position doesn’t square up well with the Constitution’s amendment process — a process laid out precisely because it ought to be difficult to change the Constitution, but change is sometimes necessary, and it’s necessary because the Constitution isn’t a living, breathing document. If it were, as the proponents of that understanding tend to believe, you can find meanings in the penumbras of what’s actually written, meanings that might in fact be at odds with the plain understanding...

This morning I heard that one of the other candidates commented that the Constitution is a “living, breathing document.” Frankly, I assumed this came from Senator Clinton or Senator Obama. It is identical to what Al Gore said when he was running for President in 2000, when he said he would look for judges “who understand that our Constitution is a living, breathing document, that it was intended by our founders to be interpreted in the light of the constantly evolving experience of the American people.” Imagine my surprise when I learned that this statement actually came from my opponent,...

In March of this year, firearms owners everywhere celebrated the Parker decision, in which the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declared the D.C. gun law unconstitutional to the extent that the law prohibits all firearms possession. You can read our original analysis here: http://www.jpfo.org/alert20070312.htm . In May, the full D.C. Court refused to hear the case "en banc", paving the way for a Supreme Court decision. The Harvard Law Review recently published an article discussing the ramifications of the Parker decision, and what the Supreme Court might do if they hear the case. You...

Supreme Court Rules Against Student Who Displayed 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' Banner. Just Breaking

Top court bars regular taxpayers from challenging faith-based initiative funds Just Breaking

In an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday this morning, retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor continued her pet campaign of persuading Americans to stop chafing under the yoke of judicial supremacy. Convinced, for some odd reason, that "in many, if not most, high schools today, civics education is no longer required," Justice O'Connor plans to lend her name to a website that would instruct young people that they do not really govern themselves—judges do: Indeed, when we got a Bill of Rights giving every citizen the right to due process of law, to freedom of speech, and freedom...

In a pointed dissent from decisions overturning death sentences for two Texas inmates, Roberts accused Stevens of engaging in revisionist history......... Roberts concluded his 16-page dissent on a sarcastic note, at odds with his amiable image. "Still, perhaps there is no reason to be unduly glum," Roberts said, taking direct aim at Stevens. "After all, today the author of a dissent issued in 1988 writes two majority opinions concluding that the views established in that dissent actually represented 'clearly established' federal law at that time. So there is hope yet for the views expressed in this dissent." "Encouraged by the...

Justice Thomas's Life A Tangle of Poverty, Privilege and Race By Kevin Merida and Michael A. FletcherWashington Post Staff WritersSunday, April 22, 2007; A01 Adapted from the book "Supreme Discomfort:The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas" by Kevin Meridaand Michael A. Fletcher, Doubleday, New York, © 2007. Drugs have been a persistent problem in Pin Point, Ga., a tiny rural settlement best known as the birthplace of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Neighborhood leaders tried everything to chase the scourge away -- a march, a warning sign along the main drag, even a pilgrimage by the local church congregation, which prayed...

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday from Guantanamo detainees who want to challenge their five-year-long confinement in court, a victory for the Bush administration's legal strategy in its fight against terrorism. The victory may be only temporary, however. The high court twice previously has extended legal protections to prisoners at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. These individuals were seized as potential terrorists following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and only 10 have been charged with a crime. Despite the earlier rulings, none of the roughly 385 detainees has yet had a hearing in a civilian court challenging his...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Monday rejected appeals by American Indians to step into a decade-old lawsuit accusing the government of mismanaging more than $100 billion in oil, gas, timber and other royalties from their lands. The justices declined to disturb an appeals court ruling that removed U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth from the case. The appeals court said Lamberth, who held successive Democratic and Republican Interior Department secretaries in contempt of court, had lost his objectivity in the case.

LUCASVILLE, Ohio - The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the execution of a man who had been scheduled to die Tuesday for killing a woman in 1991 and scattering her remains across two states. Inmate Kenneth Biros ? and the family of the victim, Tami Engstrom ? had waited for the decision more than six hours past his 10 a.m. scheduled execution time at Ohio's death house. The justices' one-sentence decision agreed with two lower courts that delayed the execution so he could continue arguing that Ohio's method of lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court...

ST. LOUIS, March 7, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In March 1856, a black slave named Dred Scott was judged by the US Supreme Court to be less than a person. Today his great, great granddaughter, Lynne Jackson, is pointing to the case as a beacon of hope that full human rights will be extended to all citizens, regardless of their age, size or degree of dependency. The March 6, 1857 Dred Scott decision ruled that any person descended from black Africans, whether slave or free, is not a citizen of the United States, according to the U.S. Constitution. Blacks, the ruling...

Book Excerpt: Jan Crawford Greenburg's New Book Takes an Unprecedented Look Into the History of the Supreme Court Jan. 22, 2007 — In her new book, "Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court," ABC News correspondent Jan Crawford Greenburg was allowed an unprecedented look at the highest court in the land, starting with the Rehnquist court and extending through the nominations of Samuel Alito and John Roberts. She also covers the failed nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers, which she says Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez tried to hard to prevent....

A voter can discern honesty by examining what a candidate believes is a "winning issue." Rudy Giuliani has flipped on abortion several times. Does that mean he is too liberal or too dishonest for a conservative to vote for him? In 1989, he informed the Conservative Party of New York that he was pro-life. That stance was reported in local newspapers, and he lost to Mayor David Dinkins. In 1993, he dropped the pro-life plank, asserting that he believed women had the right to abortion. The decision was nakedly political, and the New York Times published the paper trail to...

Clarence Thomas has borne some of the most vitriolic personal attacks in Supreme Court history. But the persistent stereotypes about his views on the law and subordinate role on the court are equally offensive -- and demonstrably false. An extensive documentary record shows that Justice Thomas has been a significant force in shaping the direction and decisions of the court for the past 15 years. That's not the standard storyline. Immediately upon his arrival at the court, Justice Thomas was savaged by court-watchers as Antonin Scalia's dutiful apprentice, blindly following his mentor's lead. It's a grossly inaccurate portrayal, imbued with...

This article in the Philadelphia Bulletin criticizes Mark Levin's column calling for a change in the Supreme Court. The author - a former Philadelphia police officer - makes some good points. He says the rules don't need to be changed as much as there is a need for conservatives to play differently. If you cannot connect to the link cut and paste to your browser: http://www.thebulletin.us/site/news.cfm?newsid=17624417&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=6

The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that legal immigrants cannot be deported when convicted of relatively minor drug-possession offenses, a decision likely to affect thousands of people. By an 8-1 vote, the high court handed a setback to the Bush administration and ruled the immigrants cannot be deported for drug offenses that are felony crimes under some state laws, but less serious misdemeanors under federal law. A number of civil rights, immigrant advocacy and criminal defense groups, along with former U.S. government immigration lawyers, had urged the Supreme Court to reject the administration's position --snip-- The case before the court...

Until June, the (Seattle) school district's Web site declared that "cultural racism'' includes "emphasizing individualism as opposed to a more collective ideology,'' "having a future time orientation'' (planning ahead) and "defining one form of English as standard.'' The site also asserted that only whites can be racists, and disparaged assimilation as the "giving up'' of one's culture. After this propaganda provoked outrage, the district, saying it needed to "provide more context to readers'' about "institutional racism,'' put up a page saying that the district's intention is to avoid "unsuccessful concepts such as a melting pot or colorblind mentality.'' The Supreme...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Cookies mailed to the U.S. Supreme Court last year contained enough rat poison to kill all nine justices, retired member Sandra Day O'Connor said at a conference last week. Barbara Joan March, a 60-year-old Connecticut woman, was sentenced last month to 15 years in prison. She sent 14 threatening letters in April 2005 -- each with a baked good or piece of candy laced with rat poison -- to a variety of federal officials: the nine Supreme Court justices; FBI Director Robert Mueller; his deputy; the chief of naval operations; the Air Force chief of staff and...

Liberals have been clucking non-stop since election night at the prospects of what Democrat victory means to their radical causes. In first recruiting, then funding, faith-friendly, conservative, and in a couple of instances even born-again candidates -- the Democrat party captured needed numbers to swipe leadership posts. The strategy proved extremely effective. Nancy Pelosi will bring San Fran values to the Beltway debate, and Kennedy, Kerry, and Clinton will clamor to be first in line. But how did she get there? In many instances - by taking advantage of terrible Republicans - and their own criminal wrong doing. But the...

With the important exception of Arizona, 2006 was an excellent election for those who believe that marriage is the union of a man and a woman. Amendments defining marriage as a man-woman union passed in seven out of eight states (Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Colorado, South Dakota, and Idaho) by an average vote of 61 percent. The narrow loss in Arizona was not because voters favored gay marriage, but because of a successful campaign against the measure’s ban on domestic partner benefits. The Arizona result might seem to indicate that voters favor domestic partner benefits, yet even here the...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal grand jury has again indicted the self-proclaimed "Guru of Ganja" on charges that he grew hundreds of marijuana plants for a dispensary. Ed Rosenthal was convicted in 2003 for cultivating the plants for a city of Oakland medical marijuana program. An appeals court overturned the conviction in April, citing jury misconduct, but it upheld federal powers to charge marijuana growers. An indictment unsealed Thursday charges Rosenthal with 14 felonies, including conspiracy to manufacture marijuana at his Oakland warehouse and distribute it to a San Francisco pot club. He also faces four counts of money laundering...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 — If Year 1 was the transition for the new Roberts court, Year 2 is likely to be the test. During the first term under the leadership of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the justices were able to find common ground with some regularity by agreeing not to decide much. By the time the term ended in late June, the extent to which the members of the newly configured court were prepared to confront either precedent or one another remained unclear. Chances are high that the new term, which begins on Monday, will be different. The...

WASHINGTON, September 28, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Supreme Court plans to hear a suit to reverse the landmark abortion US case, Doe v. Bolton, from the case’s original plaintiff, who claims the facts of the original case were fraudulent and she was misrepresented by attorneys. The Court plans to consider the case on October 6, which with its companion case Roe v. Wade remains the chief obstacle to national and state laws restricting or prohibiting abortion. Both Doe and Roe were decided by the Court the same day, thereby overturning the nation’s abortion laws. However, it is the “health exception”...

The era of the free-masons. Between 1937 and 1958, an amazing succession of publicly Masonic Supreme Court justices were appointed to the Supreme Court. Collectively, they radicalized American politics. Since their ascension, it can truly be said that every major socio-political change in America has been brought about by judicial, rather than legislative, means. They utterly dominated the Supreme Court during the Warren, Stone, and Vinson courts (1941-1969.) At times, as many as eight of the nine justice were Masonic. The following is a listing of Masonic US Supreme Court justices appointed in the last 70 years. This is no...

What is it about Michael Chertoff, President Bush's unqualified, unsuccessful, unrepentant and yet still unreplaced Homeland Security Secretary? After (1) bungling the federal response to Hurricane Katrina by treating FEMA as an unwanted step-child in a massive Homeland Security Department focused on the War on Terror and (2) hamstringing former FEMA Director Michael D. Brown by officially putting him in charge and then tethering him to Baton Rouge when he needed to be in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coat, it was Mr. Chertoff who should have resigned, but did not. For an encore, Mr. Chertoff ran Homeland Security...

Just heard about this case on FOX... Very interesting case to discuss. In essence Mohawk Industries, a carpet manufacturer is being sued under RICO as a result of thier efforts to hire illegals. for more background visit http://www.scotusblog.com/movabletype/archives/2006/04/todays_argument_9.html

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham may have a future as a fiction writer. He's being accused of fabricating a Senate debate and sending it to the U.S. Supreme Court, which didn't think much of the work. The high court dismissed it. At issue is an account of an exchange that Sens. Graham, R-S.C., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., wrote last year to be inserted into the Congressional Record. It details what the two lawmakers purported was part of the Senate's debate over why terror detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should not be tried in civilian U.S. courts. The actual discussion Graham...