Category: Supreme Court rulings

Why We Gotta Talk About Court Reform–Now!

Photo by Sora Shimazaki on Pexels.com Something is really out of kilter in the land of the free and the home of the brave. You’ve probably heard about an imminent decision on abortion. The reason I’m writing about it now is that no matter what I’ve read or heard, I still haven’t come across a … Continue reading Why We Gotta Talk About Court Reform–Now! →

Has the Supreme Court Just Pulled Back From the Brink?

For those of you who are sensible enough not to follow all the machinations of the parts of our government that are really behaving very badly—that is, for people who’ve taken oaths to protect our democracy—the Supreme Court’s oral arguments about Moore v. Harper may not have been foremost in your minds. I understand. So … Continue reading Has the Supreme Court Just Pulled Back From the Brink? →

This Radical Supreme Court Majority Is Killing US: A Call to Action

I've been working on this post on and off for weeks, trying to decide if advocating for court reform sounds too pie-in-the-sky. Since the overturn of Roe, which for the first time ever removed a Constitutionally protected right from Americans—with promises of more such decimation of established rights to follow—I’ve been eager to complete it. This week, the radical court majority’s beyond the beyond rulings moved my thinking from “too pie-in-the-sky” to “Do or die.”

“Something Is Not Right Around the Court…”: Reblogging a 2020 Post

At the hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump's ultra-conservative nominee to replace the late liberal giant Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (Dem, RI) gave a remarkably clear and extremely important tutorial on the forces that are really moving the Supreme Court's decision-making in ways large and small...I hope you will view this video, which succinctly captures so much about why our government is failing to meet the needs of the American people.

Gun Safety: Small Step Forward; Big Step Back, But We Made a Difference!

The Supreme Court majority has just struck down a very sensible gun safety law--just as the often calcified Senate toddled toward a modest, though significant, breakthrough. Undeterred by my lack of legal credentials, I'm gonna venture that the American people had a say in both developments. Please bear with me...

What a “Weird Moment” We’re In…

Photo by Duanu00e9 Viljoen on Pexels.com (Excerpts below from historian Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American newsletter, May 2, 2022) “Tonight, news broke of a leaked draft of what appears to be Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s majority decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision establishing access to abortion as a … Continue reading What a “Weird Moment” We’re In… →

“We the Students” Want to Read Banned Books!

Photo by Janko Ferlic on Pexels.com In one of my previous lives as a freelance writer, I was active in the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA). One of ASJA’s yearly efforts was a celebration of the freedom to read through commemorating Banned Books Week, which you can read about here. One year, I … Continue reading “We the Students” Want to Read Banned Books! →

WHAT Did They Say About Judicial Activism?

Remember when we used to hear about the “judicial activism” by a left-leaning court? Sounds kinda quaint now that the 6-3 Republican majority on the Supreme Court (with no less than three Trump appointees, thanks to Mitch McConnell) has gone even further toward nullification of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and protecting the dark money that undermines the legislative process...

RAGE…DISGUST…COMPASSION…SADNESS…HOPE?

Last night, I finished reading Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own. The author, Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., is a Distinguished Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University. ... Though Glaude speaks of Baldwin’s rage, and his own rage, the rage that came to mind when I started this piece is mine.

“Something Is Not Right Around the Court…”

At the hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump's ultra-conservative nominee to replace the late liberal giant Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (Dem, RI) gave a remarkably clear and extremely important tutorial on the forces that are really moving the Supreme Court's decision-making in ways large and small...I hope you will view this video, which succinctly captures so much about why our government is failing to meet the needs of the American people.

Expanding the Definition of “Pro-Life”

I noticed it first when I watched Elizabeth Neumann speak about her reasons for resigning from her position as the Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary of Threat Prevention and Security Policy. She was tasked with following right-wing threats inside the United States, and she emphatically stated that President Trump had made her job harder. 

The Supreme Court Rulings Against The President: “Judicial Malpractice”?

I was one of many Americans who breathed a huge sigh of relief on Thursday when the Supreme Court emphatically said, in two 7-2 decisions, that the President of the United States is not above the law.

The small-minded part of me found it particularly delicious that President Trump's two appointees—Gorsuch and Kavanaugh—voted with Chief Justice Roberts and the liberal minority in both instances.

After all, Trump had referred to his appointees as “his” justices; how dare they cross him like that! Justices who uphold settled law going back 250 years—it’s all a plot against him!