supreme court

Bush, Infallible to His Sycophants

Jul 12, 2006
Testifying before Congress yesterday, the Justice Department's top lawyer had a succinct answer to a question posed by a senator about whether Bush was wrong or right in his interpretation of the Supreme Court's Hamdan case: "The President is always right."

U.S. Will Give All U.S. Detainees Geneva Rights

Jul 11, 2006
The White House said this morning that every prisoner in Gitmo and in US military custody everywhere is entitled to Geneva Convention protections Bush spokesman Tony Snow claimed that this apparent about-face is "not really a reversal of policy," while admitting that it stems directly from the Supreme Court's striking down of Bush's military tribunals Reminder: This is far from total victory Constitutional expert Glenn Greenwald reminds us that the Hamdan ruling also removed any conceivable argument to support Bush's illegal wiretapping programs, and we haven't heard about any policy shift on that front .

Bush Is Flouting Court After Gitmo Ruling

Jul 10, 2006
Constitutional expert and best-selling author Glenn Greenwald reminds us that the Supreme Court's Hamdan decision not only outlawed Bush's military tribunals, but also removed any conceivable argument to support Bush's illegal wiretapping programs. Greenwald: "Journalists should begin asking the Justice Department every day what their legal justification for warrantless eavesdropping is now that Hamdan has rendered frivolous their prior legal arguments in defense of the President."
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Truthdigger of the Week: John Paul Stevens

Jul 1, 2006
Truthdig salutes the 86-year-old Supreme Court justice who wrote the majority opinion in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which struck down the military tribunals Bush set up to try Guantanamo detainees. But more important, this decision, in the words of a Yale law professor, "effectively undermines the Administration's strongest claims about Presidential power," and may constitute the legal framework necessary to halt the more egregious of Bush's civil liberties-infringing programs -- like warrantless wiretapping and holding terrorism suspects without trial.

Court Ruling May Cancel Bush’s ‘Blank Check’ for Terror War

Jun 29, 2006
Specifically, today's Supreme Court ruling held that the president overstepped his authority in ordering military war crimes trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees. But more important, Think Progress interprets the ruling to mean that "the Authorization for the Use of Military Force -- issued by Congress in the days after 9/11 -- is not a blank check for the administration." Also, SCOTUSblog says the ruling means that the Geneva Convention does apply to the conflict with Al Qaeda, and consequently "this almost certainly means that the CIA's interrogation tactics of waterboarding and hypothermia (and others) violate the War Crimes Act."

Court Upholds Gerrymandering Madness

Jun 28, 2006
The Supreme Court ruled that state legislators may draw new electoral maps as often as they like -- meaning that we'll likely see new gerrymandered voting districts every time there is a power shift at a state capital. Disgustingly enough, this ruling is actually a vindication for Tom DeLay.

Supreme Court Rejects Vermont’s Campaign Finance Law

Jun 27, 2006
This is a complicated issue. We'll let the Washington Post take it: "The Supreme Court struck down Vermont's strict limits on campaign contributions and spending yesterday, in a splintered ruling that left intact the constitutional basis of current campaign finance laws but may make it difficult to put new curbs on money in politics."

Supreme Court to Fact-Check Bush’s Global Warming Distortions

Jun 27, 2006
On the very day that Bush again peddled the blatant misrepresentation that "there's a debate over whether [global warming] is man-made or naturally caused," the Supreme Court injected some sanity into our discourse by announcing it will decide whether the federal government must regulate emissions of new cars to combat global warming. Bush's claims are only slightly more ludicrous in light of the fact that he made them while Washington, D.C., stands submerged in 18 inches of global-warming-propelled storm water.