In 2008, the Supreme Court decided a major voting-rights case, making it clear that laws requiring voters to show identification are constitutional if certain safeguards are in place. Now, it's not so clear anymore. An Indiana appeals court has now struck down that same law and the Indiana Supreme Court must override that decision.
The Senate Finance Committee-passed health care bill includes an "individual mandate" that Americans must buy an insurance policy or pay a fine, an approach that tracks President Barack Obama's health care proposals. But if enacted into law, this mandate would be glaringly unconstitutional.
The Obama White House hesitated not at all in labeling the AHIP study "an insurance industry hatchet job." The study in question was one conducted by a policy group that is funded by the industry.
Do you think Congress should vote on bills without reading them? How about voting on bills that don't even exist yet, except in fragments?
The Supreme Court joined in a fight between the ACLU and the federal government over a World War I memorial in the shape of a cross. While neither legal team hit the ball over the fence, the majority seems inclined to save this cross in what will be the first religious liberty case of the new Court.
Where is Art Carney when you need him? The straight man for the classic Honeymooners TV show could deliver a line sorely needed at today's Supreme Court hearing on the fate of the Mojave Desert war memorial cross: "Simmer down, Ralphie boy!"
Our voter registration system is a disaster, and I have the scars to prove it. I spent eight years in the partisan cross hairs of election administration while serving as Ohio's chief election official. No element of election administration is more fraught with controversy than how we register voters.
The courts should vindicate the First Amendment rights of the reporters and media outlets involved in breaking the ACORN scandal wide open. And they should strike down the oppressive and absurd Maryland law that makes it a crime to record someone's conversation without their knowledge.
It is a privilege to be here and to discuss such important and timely topics. As some of you may know, I used to represent the United States as the Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva. And while Geneva may sound like a plush gig, I often left the halls of the Palais des Nations with an overwhelming sense of sadness. Mary Ann Glendon is going to talk later this weekend about the abuse of "rights" talk, and that is precisely what I witnessed on a day to day basis.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held an "emotional" press conference to caution the rest of us "about the language" we use. "We all have to take responsibility for our actions and our words" and "any incitement they may cause." Some people aren't as "balanced" as we may think, Pelosi pontificated.
