U.S. District Judge John Bates has ruled that former White House Counsel Harriet Miers must testify in Congress — another ruling rejecting the arguments of Attorney General Michael Mukasey. Bates ruled that the House Judiciary Committee may proceed to schedule a hearing with Miers and Chairman John Conyers has indicated that he is going to do precisely that.
Continue reading “Showdown: Judge Orders Harriet Myers to Testify and Congress Moves to Call Her to Hearing”
Category: Constitutional Law
In an important decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has struck down Temple University’s prior sexual harassment policy as unconstitutional as a limit on the free-speech right of students. Christian DeJohn, a member of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, sued the university, its former president, David Adamany, and two professors, for preventing him from expressing his views about the role of women in the military. Adamany and the school were rightfully found guilty in the dispute and Temple University is an example of how educators have abandoned free speech tenets and have denied the free expression required for students to have a full and unfettered education.
In a measure clearly targeting gay and lesbian couples, Arkansas voters will vote Nov. 4th on a measure to prohibit unmarried couples from fostering or adopting children. Not only would it prevent gay and lesbian couples from adopting, but it is likely to increase the turnout of evangelical voters at the polls for the presidential election to the advantage of John McCain.
Continue reading “Arkansas Moves to Ban Adoption by Unmarried Couples”
The good people of Elyria, Ohio are in an uproar with the appearance of a school poster featuring a “Gay Jesus.” The poster was the work of a student atheist group at Lorain County Community College and the students are now facing allegations of violating school prohibitions of insulting a religious faith.
Continue reading “Appearance of “Gay Jesus” Causes Uproar In Ohio”
It appears that a principal at Ponce de Leon High School felt that he had made an important discovery himself in Florida. Principal David Davis was shocked when a student came to him about being harassed about being a lesbian. It was not the harassment but the lesbian part that shocked Davis who immediately lectured the girl on her immoral lifestyle, told her to stay away from children, and then outed her to her parents.
Today, the New York Times ran a book review that I wrote on The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight Over Presidential Power by Jonathan Mahler. The book details the development of the Hamdan case, which ultimately ended in the Supreme Court with a defeat for the Bush Administration.
Continue reading “How a Jihadist Curtailed a President’s Authority”
In Andalusia, Alabama, Covington County Circuit Judge Ashley McKathan has struggled to find ways to interject his faith into court proceedings. He had the Ten Commandments embroidered on his robe and,
as discussed earlier he asked the parties and staff in his courtroom to join in a prayer circle during a hearing earlier this year. Now, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed ethics charges against him over the incident.
Continue reading “Ethics Charges Filed Against Praying Alabama Judge”
The Supreme Court has been asked to consider an interesting case out of Saginaw, Michigan. Fifth grader Joel Curry, 11, was asked to remove religious expressions contained on candy canes being sold at Heritage High School. Despite the fact that he was still given an A for the exercise, he sued for being told to remove the religious expressions from the notes attached to the candy canes.
Continue reading “Supreme Court Considers New Religion Case Over Candy Canes”
A military panel of six officers shocked the Administration by giving Osama bin Laden’s ex-driver, Salim Hamdan, only five and a half years. In a demonstration of the Administration’s contempt for even judicial rulings from its own tribunals, the Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman stated that, after serving his time, Hamdan would revert back to being an “enemy combatant” and could be held indefinitely. So, after proclaiming to the world that he received a “fair trial,” here,the Administration is now saying that the trial and sentence are meaningless.
As President George Bush is in China lecturing his counterparts on human rights and detainee rights, pictures have emerged of the U.S. military’s use of small crates to hold detainees in Iraq. The wooden boxes are only 3 feet by 3 feet by 6 feet tall, but the Bush Administration insists that it is a perfectly humane way to hold detainees. That is no doubt something that Chinese will find instructive.
Continue reading “Shocking Pictures: U.S. Military Holding Detainees in Small Crates”
The head of Pakistan’s ruling coalition has announced a move to impeach President Pervez Musharraf, who took power in a coup in 1999. Given Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s continued refusal to allow an impeachment investigation into President Bush on ever-changing rationales, it is not clear what her position might be in other nation’s impeaching leaders accused of crimes in office.
Continue reading “Pakistani Legislators Move to Impeach Musharraf — No Word Yet From Speaker Pelosi”
As expected, Osama Bin Laden’s former driver Salim Hamdan was found guilty of five counts of material support to a terror organization in the September 11, 2001, attacks. He was tried before the military tribunal and found not guilty of conspiracy to aid a terror organization by a panel of six military officers. The verdict is likely to be dismissed around the world due to the means used to secure it. The tribunals have been rightly ridiculed as kangaroo courts, even by conservatives.
Continue reading “Bin Laden’s Driver Convicted in Military Tribunal”
A proposed Colorado constitutional amendment would define a fertilized human egg as a person. The Egg-As-Person amendment is set for a vote for November — a ballot initiative that could drive religious voters to the polls to the advantage of John McCain.
Continue reading “Microscopic People: Colorado Amendment Would Declare Fertilized Eggs To Be Persons”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has continued her search for book sales and it seems her search for a plausible rationale for personally blocking any impeachment investigation of President Bush. The latest explanation can in an interview with Time Magazine. It seems that she would not allow an investigation because Bush would never have supplied incriminating evidence against himself. It seems that House investigators rely on the accused to build an impeachment case.
For months, many experts (including myself) have been arguing that the Bush Administration’s claim of privilege in the congressional investigations (and the refusal to comply with subpoenas) is untenable, if not laughable. Nevertheless, Attorney General Mukasey has refused to allow a grand jury to see the evidence of the criminal contempt by Bush Administration officials. Now, a federal judge has ruled against the Administration. Judge John Bates has found that the Administration must comply with the subpoenas in the cases of he president’s chief of staff, Josh Bolten, and former legal counsel Harriet Miers on the firing of nine U.S. Attorneys. The decision not only puts pressure on Mukasey to stop his obstruction of the process, but it clearly reaffirms the view of many that Karl Rove is also in flagrant contempt.
Continue reading “Federal Court Rules Against Bush Administration on Subpoenas”