Cultural relativists like to talk about dialogue. They tell us that we need to engage in dialogue with people who are different from ourselves so that we can understand their perspective and become more tolerant. They tell us that we must listen to the voices of the marginalized and the excluded so that we can rethink our assumptions about the world.
The Supreme Court's decision today in the racial preferences case Ricci v. DeStefano will be a major story. Less noticed but equally important, the Supreme Court's decision on voting rights last week heralds a sea change in racial politics in this country. Taken with the Ricci decision, it's clear that a new era is dawning on race in America.
In Dearborn, Michigan, where the local mosque's call to prayer is broadcast over the town by loudspeakers, a group of Christian evangelists were told that they could not pass out Bibles on the sidewalk during a festival. This is part of a growing national trend to disfavor Christian expression and traditional speech, and reflects a disturbing direction in public policy in America today.
Supporters of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor claim that her Second Amendment rulings are examples of "judicial restraint." The problem is that she's restraining the Second Amendment.
Raging members of Congress, agitated TV commentators and hyperventilating bloggers have called for prosecuting George W. Bush administration officials they claim broke the law and committed war crimes by participating in what they say was illegal "torture" of captured high-level accused terrorists.
Last week President Obama appointed yet another "czar" with massive government power, answering only to him. Even before this latest appointment, the top-ranking Democrat in the Senate wrote President Obama a letter saying that these czars are unconstitutional. President Obama's "czar strategy" is an unprecedented power grab centralizing authority in the White House, outside congressional oversight and in violation of the Constitution.
Anti-Second Amendment politicians have a high-caliber hypocrisy second to none. Washington, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty and his anti-gun supporters at The Washington Post are heralding the shooting skills of the Special Police Officers at the Holocaust Museum: "Fast Action By Guards Saved Lives, Officials Say":
The first terrorist detained in Guantanamo Bay is on U.S. soil and is now in the civilian court system. Democratic officials and operatives are lauding President Obama's commitment to close Gitmo. They say that we can simply lock up all these convicted terrorists in U.S. federal prisons. But one question exposes the fatal flaw with this plan: What convicted terrorists?
In President Barack Obama's moral and constitutional universe, unfettering abortion and coddling terrorists trump innocent life. But most Americans reject his anti-life calculations.
The Supreme Court has rejected the ACLU appeal of a Circuit Court decision upholding the Georgia Voter ID law. This law requires new voters to present documentation to show they are both citizens and residents. The ACLU attacked this law, and similar laws in other states, claiming that such laws discriminated against the poor and persons of color.
Most of the facts for this article, but not the legal conclusions, come from an article in the Atlanta Constitution on 9 June 2009. The article reports that the US Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals […]
