By Lois Beckett, ProPublica In mid-April, Kansas passed a law asserting that federal gun regulations do not apply to guns made and owned in Kansas. Under the law, Kansans could manufacture and sell semi-automatic weapons in-state without a federal license or any federal oversight. Kansas’…
“Out of Order”: Why SCOTUS matters
SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR spent some of her childhood riding horses and helping out with the chores on her family’s ranch in Arizona. She later wrote frankly about her “rough and tumble childhood” in a memoir of her early years, Lazy B: Growing Up on A Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest (2003). So it’s perhaps not surprising that her latest book, Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court, is such a refreshingly straight-forward, down-to-earth, and readable account of our nation’s highest court from its earliest days to the present. Her goal, she acknowledges, was simply to “write about aspects of the Court’s rich heritage that interested and inspired me,” which is exactly what she’s done.Continue Reading… … Read More
O’Connor: Maybe SCOTUS shouldn’t have ruled on Bush v. Gore
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said last week that in retrospect, perhaps the Supreme Court should not have elected to rule on Bush v. Gore, the 2000 decision that ended the Florida recount in the presidential race.”It took the case and decided it at a time when it was still a big election issue,” she told the Chicago Tribune editorial board in an interview on Friday. “Maybe the court should have said, ‘We’re not going to take it, goodbye.’”From the Tribune:The case, she said, “stirred up the public” and “gave the court a less-than-perfect reputation.” “Obviously the court did reach a decision and thought it had to reach a decision,” she said. “It turned out the election authorities in Florida hadn’t done a real good job there and kind of messed it up. And probably the Supreme Court added to the problem at the end of the day.”Continue Reading… … Read More
SCOTUS could soon rule on affirmative action
The Supreme Court could issue a ruling on affirmative action as early as Monday, after having heard arguments on a challenge to the University of Texas at Austin’s policy back in the fall of last year.Reuters reports:The case before the justices was brought by Abigail Fisher, a white suburban Houston student who asserted she was wrongly rejected by the University of Texas at Austin while minority students with similar grades and test scores were admitted. The ruling is the only one the court has yet to issue following oral arguments in cases heard in October and November, the opening months of the court’s annual term which lasts until the early summer. A decision might come as early as Monday, before the start of a two-week recess.The Court could also decide to hold off on ruling, since it will be taking up another affirmative action case, this one brought by the state of Michigan challenging a lower court decision that a ban on the policy is unconstitutional.As Bloomberg reported in March, when the Supreme Court elected to hear the Michigan case:Continue Reading… … Read More
Justice Stephen Breyer recovering after shoulder injury
US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer was recovering from shoulder surgery Saturday after injuring himself in a bicycle fall, court officials said. Breyer, 74, suffered a fractured shoulder following an accident in Washington on Friday during which he fell from his bike, a statement said….
Supreme Court rules immigrants cannot be deported for minor drug offenses
In a decision issued Tuesday, the United States Supreme Court ruled that immigrants living in the U.S. cannot be deported for minor drug crimes absent the presence of a large quantity of a controlled substance or direct evidence of a sale. “We must decide whether this category includes a…
Supreme Court strikes down warrantless blood tests in DUI cases
Police following up on drunk driving investigations will no longer be able to draw their suspect’s blood without a court order authorizing the search, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday. In a 5-4 decision, with Justices Sonya Sotomayor, Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony…
