Last year, we experienced a national debate over the right of Colorado cake shop owner Jack Phillips can refuse to make a special cake for a same-sex marriage due to religious objections in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case. I supported the position on Phillips as a matter of free speech as opposed to free exercise. Now Ireland has had its own challenge which is remarkably similar to Masterpiece Cakeshop including lower court rulings against the owners at the Ashers bakery, Daniel and Amy McArthur, in Northern Ireland by lower courts. Continue reading “UK’s Highest Court Rules In Favor Of Bakery That Refused To Make Cake Supporting Same-Sex Marriage”
Category: Politics
I have previously criticized U.S. laws barring public contracts or employment with people who support the boycott or boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. Those laws raise troubling questions under the First Amendment and various courts have pushed back on the constitutionality of such laws. Now Israel is holding an American university student for a week because she supported the BDS movement. Lara Alqasem, 22, was held depending appeal at Ben-Gurion Airport. She has Palestinian grandparents and was told that she could be released if she apologizes and disavows any boycotting of Israel. Continue reading “Israel’s Denies Entry and Jails American Student on Suspicion Of Supporting The BDS Movement”
I have been critical of President Donald Trump’s rhetoric on social media and the campaign trail. The attacks are often personal and, in my view, often unsettling. That was the case yesterday at an Iowa rally where the crowd chanted “Lock her up, lock her up” after Trump taunted ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) over the leaking of a letter from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. It is a chilling development in a mass rally to have supporters calling for the jailing of Trump’s political opponents. That is not what this country represents and should be condemned by Democratic and Republican leaders alike. Continue reading “Iowa Rally Chants “Lock Her Up” After Trump Taunts Diane Feinstein”
If John Kerry was swift boated in 2004, the GOP appears to be Swift voted in 2016. In a measure of the power of celebrity status in our culture, Taylor Swift has reportedly caused a massive registration after she endorsed Tennessee Democrats. For the GOP hoping for a “Brett bounce” of Republicans going to the polls (with money pouring in for both parties after the Kavanaugh confirmation), Swift appears to have blunted the impact, particularly in Tennessee, with a single posting on Instagram. We remain a celebrity driven society.
As discussed today, the Kavanaugh nomination unleashed a form of primordial politics that seemed to reach horrifying levels on both sides of personal destruction and no holds barred attacks. No sooner had that column run in the Hill when Ariel Dumas, a writer for CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” declared that “Whatever happens, I’m just glad we ruined Brett Kavanaugh’s life.” It summed up in a Tweet that vicious character of our politics and discourse. Continue reading ““I’m Just Glad We Ruined Brett Kavanaugh’s Life”: Colbert Writer Tweets Out A Celebration Of The Politics Of Personal Destruction”
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the aftermath of the Kavanaugh confirmation. It is not that there is no winner and loser as much as both Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh are both winners and losers.
It will take time to decide which party will benefit, but there is clearly Brett bump for Republicans going into the midterms. Yet, the confirmation will also continue to resonate Democratic voters.
In 2010, I (and others) criticized the Democratic leadership (including then Majority Leader Harry Reid and many of the continuing Democratic senators) for their use of the “nuclear option” in curtailing the power of the filibuster. I was equally critical of Republican leaders who previously suggested such a course of action. The Democrats acted with little concern that they might ever be in the minority and need this critical power. They muscled through the Affordable Care Act on a marginal vote that cost various members their seats and passed a highly flawed bill that was plagued by problems of bad drafting and poor planning. Moreover, they secured relatively few confirmations to federal office. The result was the final demise of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees when the Republicans took power. The result for the Democrats is Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was confirmed by a 50 to 48 vote. Continue reading “A Bill Comes Due: Reid’s Folly Becomes The Democratic Nightmare”
Justice Elena Kagan had a curious comment on Friday when she publicly lamented the loss of a swing justice on the Court in the departure of Justice Anthony Kennedy. Kagan said that the loss of a middle would make the Court look too predictable and partisan. What is strange is that Kagan is not lamenting her own consistent vote on the left and unwillingness to take a more centrist position.
Continue reading “A Court Without A Center: Kagan Laments Loss Of Swing Justice”
There is a bizarre new rule in Scotland’s Islands Bill that bars mapmakers from showing the island of Shetland in a box. That is a standard approach to allow a large map of Scotland by not having to show the expanse of water between Scotland and Shetland. That made Shetland feel . . . well . . . boxed and isolated. So now the legislature is ordering mapmakers how to make maps — a ridiculous overreach of legislative authority in my view.
Continue reading “New Law Bans Mapmakers From Putting Shetland In A Box”
As I have written previously, I have long been a huge admirer of former Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens — not just for being a fellow Cubs fan. However, I was surprised to see that Stevens broke a long-standing uwritten rule of former and current justices not to speak on pending nominations or confirmations. According to The Palm Beach Post, Stevens spoke publicly at an event with a retirement group that Kavanaugh should not be confirmed. The event was described as “closed” so it is not clear that Stevens realized that he would be quoted, but it was obviously a large crowd setting. Stevens said that the anger and language used by Kavanaugh raises serious questions of his temperament. Continue reading “John Paul Stevens: Don’t Confirm Brett Kavanaugh”
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the growing pledges from House and Senate Democratic members to investigation and possibly impeach Brett Kavanaugh if he is confirmed this week. It would constitute a dangerous and reckless precedent for Democrats to pursue with any new majority.
Here is the column: Continue reading “Democrats Pledge To Revive A Cadaver Synod To Remove Justice Kavanaugh”
While Democratic politicians and groups continue to use Hillary Clinton as a matinee draw for fundraisers and campaign events, a new Gallup poll shows Clinton remains at record lows in the polls. Indeed, she remains more unpopular than Donald Trump at 36%. Trump has a 41% popularity. It is a striking disconnect. Many of us were critical when the Democratic establishment (and virtually every Democratic member of Congress) all but guaranteed the nomination of Clinton despite every poll showing her to be unpopular and the voters seeking an anti-establishment choice. Now, even after two years of book tours and speeches, Clinton is still distinctly unpopular but Democratic groups continue to make her the face of the Democratic campaign for the midterms. It shows the hold of the Clintons on some in the Democratic ranks even though she is likely to continue to alienate many who are looking for an alternative this election.
Dr. Carol Christine Fair, an associate professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown, has created a firestorm of controversy after she called for the castration and “miserable death” of Republican senators. This is not her first such controversy in profanely attacking Republicans.
We previously discussed Fair tirades against Republicans. Continue reading “Georgetown Professor Again Triggers A Firestorm of Controversy With Hateful Anti-Republican Comments”
Charles Ludington, a college friend of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, released a statement that directly contradicted the testimony of the judge on this drinking in college. Ludington told The Washington Post that he gave a statement to the FBI that Kavanaugh was “belligerent and aggressive” as a drunk in college and once threw a beer in the face of someone who insulted him. He is the third college friend who described Kavanaugh as a belligerent drinker in college.
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper that looks beyond this immediate controversy over the Kavanaugh nomination toward three basic reforms of the confirmation process. With the FBI investigation interviewing witnesses on the first two allegations of sexual assault, it is not clear what new information may surface at the end of the week. In the interim, it would be useful to discuss the now obvious failure of our confirmation process. I have been a long critic of the process, but the Kavanaugh confirmation process has magnified these flaws to a grotesque degree.
Notably, Kavanaugh now has been given the SNL treatment with a performance by Matt Damon that is that type of comical portrayal that hits hard in public controversy.
Here is the column: