Supreme Court
hrynyshyn | January 21, 2010By ruling that corporations are entitled to exercise unrestricted political speech, the U.S. Supreme Court has just made it much more difficult for Americans to make the transition from a fossil-fuel-based economy to a clean-energy economy.
Most democracies, including, until this morning, the U.S., recognize the danger of giving corporations free rein to influence the outcome of elections and so limit or ban political spending by corporations. But starting now, the $605 billion in profits available to the Fortune 100 can now be spent on advertising during American elections. This means those…
grrlscientist | June 19, 2009tags: The Constitution of the United States of America, DNA Evidence, criminal trials, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr, Supreme Court, William G. Osborne, justice, ethics
Some days, I am ashamed to be an American. These past two days, I've been astonished and outraged -- and ashamed -- by yesterday's 5-4 Supreme Court decision that prisoners have no constitutional right to DNA testing that might prove their innocence. This decision was inspired by Alaska prison inmate William G. Osborne's petition to be allowed to undergo DNA testing -- at his own expense -- to establish whether he is…
scientificactivist | April 20, 2007On Wednesday, when the Supreme Court upheld a federal ban on "partial-birth abortions" in its 5-4 decision on Gonzalez v. Carhart, it dealt a potentially huge setback to US reproductive freedoms. Although intact dilation and extraction makes up only a small subset of all abortions, this ruling is significant in that it explicitly does not allow for exceptions when the mother's health is at risk. The decision is also notable in its lack of adherence to Court precedence, its lack of reliance on solid legal reasoning, and its ignorance of medical opinion. Much can and should be written about…
stcynic | January 24, 2006Brian Ross of ABC News is usually one of the better investigative journalists in the mainstream media. I generally like the fact that he digs hard for information and doesn't let go of a legitimate story even if the 24 hour news cycle has forgotten about it in favor of covering the latest J-Lo breakup. But this article alleging a Supreme Court ethics scandal is not just bad, it's laughable. I'm not exactly the biggest Scalia fan in the world, but I can recognize a bad hatchet job when I see one.
At the historic swearing-in of John Roberts as the 17th chief justice of the United States last…