PUBLIC MARKS from jasontromm with tag justice

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid supports legislation that would enable illegal aliens in the United States to remain in the country and attain citizenship, but a dozen years ago he sharply criticized proposals that could be construed as amnesty, introducing a tough immigration-reform bill that argued open borders increased the threat of terrorism and rewarded lawbreakers who placed a heavy burden on the criminal justice system, schools and social programs.

In a largely symbolic gesture, voters in Supreme Court Justice David Souter's hometown weighed in Tuesday on a proposal to seize his 200-year-old farmhouse as payback for a ruling that expanded government's authority to take property.

The most likely victim of a hate crime in the U.S. is a poor, young, white, single urban dweller, according to an analysis of Justice Department statistics collected from between July 2000 and December 2003. ()() But when is the last time you heard of a black person being prosecuted for a hate crime? Never.

Do people have a right to medical treatment whether or not they can pay? What about a right to food or decent housing? Would a U.S. Supreme Court justice hold that these are rights just like those enumerated in our Bill of Rights? In order to have any hope of coherently answering these questions, we have to decide what is a right.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that a lower court was wrong to strike down New Hampshire's parental notification law. In a unanimous decision written by retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the justices let the abortion restriction stand.

He was going to be subjected to a filibuster. Now it appears that Supreme Court Justice Nominee Samuel J. Alito, Jr. will get an up-or-down vote.

You heard it here first: Ted Kennedy, the Democrat Party mascot, is a tone-deaf alien from a distant galaxy. How else to explain his impudent inquisition into the integrity of our nation's next Supreme Court justice, the Honorable Samuel Alito? In Senate Judiciary Committee hearings this week, Kennedy actually asserted that the nominee's association with a conservative Princeton alumni group two decades ago should disqualify him from a seat on the High Court.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson wrote in the landmark case of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) that “if there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.” His words were a ringing affirmation of the freedoms of conscience and expression that are central to American liberty.

Bipartisan congressional negotiators squelch independent counsel's findings Though it has had scant attention from the mainstream media, a bipartisan effort to squelch an independent counsel's final report on Clinton-era abuse of the Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department has gotten the attention of Web activists and commentators, causing a growing call for the release of the document that is said to including damning evidence against the 42nd president and his administration.

Attorneys with the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, will attend town council meetings in the Village of Wellington, Florida, and the Borough of Beaver, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, December 13, 2005, to request that their clients be permitted to erect nativity scenes on public property.

A woman is suing the Pizza Hut in Lehighton, Pa., because the hot poppers she ordered as an appetizer were, well, hot and popped when she bit into them. Sorana Georgescu-Hassanin claims she may be permanently impaired because the ''excessively hot'' oil in the deep-fried, cheese-stuffed hot pepper severely burned her chin.

Most debate about Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito has focused on his propensity to vote to overrule Roe v. Wade and the similarity between him and conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. But despite the superficial parallels between the two conservative, Italian-American Catholic jurists, it is important to recognize that Alito has a substantial libertarian dimension to his jurisprudence as well as a conservative one. In several key fields of law, he is more likely than Scalia and other conservatives to be skeptical of assertions of government power. More important, there is much in his record that should appeal to libertarians and -- to a lesser extent -- even left-wing liberals.

I hate it when I am sympathetic to arguments on both sides of an issue as it threatens my image as a benevolently close-minded, dogmatic, doctrinaire ideologue.

The White House is seeking the help of Republican activists in Iowa and New Hampshire to pressure GOP senators with presidential hopes to support Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers.

Which Democratic senator is most likely to damage himself politically in the Roberts fight?

The risk of running up the score on the Roberts confirmation vote.

The White House wants to confirm Judge Roberts, but conservative leaders have broader goals in mind.

US Senators (both Democrats and Replucians) have no business keeping secrets from the American people.

In addition to his ambiguous record as a lawyer and judge, Supreme Court nominee John Roberts has the benefit of opponents who seem determined to discredit themselves and guarantee his confirmation. This self-destructive impulse is epitomized by NARAL Pro-Choice America's despicable TV ad linking Roberts to "violent fringe groups."

Would someone please tell Sen. Barbara Boxer that John Roberts is not running for political office -- and get her a copy of the Constitution?