BOSTON (AP) — A former Boston University student who was ordered to pay $675,000 for illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs on the Internet says he will continue fighting the penalty, despite the Supreme Court’s refusal Monday to hear his appeal. (more)
In his coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court’s hearing on the validity of Arizona’s immigration law (S.B. 1070), ABC News reporter Terry Moran stated that the issue before the court is: “Does Arizona have the constitutional right to make its own immigration law?” This followed anchor Diane Sawyer’s statement in the same news segment that the issue before the justices is “whether people in this country can be stopped by the police [and] asked to prove they are here legally if the police have other reasons to be suspicious of them.” (more)
District of Columbia Circuit Court Judge Janice Rogers Brown raised eyebrows recently with a concurring opinion in an otherwise mundane economic-regulation case. Here is the passage that got keyboards tapping: (more)
On Wednesday the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments over the constitutionality of the “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act,” or SB 1070, a bill signed into law by Arizona Republican Gov. Jan Brewer two years ago. (more)
A federal judge in Iowa has ruled that evidence gathered through the warrantless use of covert GPS vehicle trackers can be used to prosecute a suspected drug trafficker, despite a Supreme Court decision this year that found such tracking unconstitutional without a warrant. (more)
President Barack Obama has thrown down the gauntlet: if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down his precious health care law, he’ll make the courts an issue in the presidential campaign. (more)
In Federalist No. 78, Alexander Hamilton famously argued that the federal courts were “the least dangerous” branch of government. What he did not understand was that they also proved, over time, to be the worst constructed. The problems here start at the top and work their way down to the bottom. As a recent New York Times column by Duke law professor Paul Carrington points out, the Constitution states that “the judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts shall hold their offices during good behavior,” which, except in cases of corruption or moral turpitude, effectively means for life. (more)
When President Obama forcefully lectured the Supreme Court last week on the constitutionality of his health care law, he may have done more than simply attack an independent branch of government — he seems to have violated the code of legal ethics. (more)
“War,” as political metaphor, is most often a tasteless accessory that demeans the term to those who have actually experienced it (“war on poverty,” “war on drugs”). But to the extent it connotes a full-fledged attempt to subjugate a group of people by depriving them of their rights, the term may appropriately describe the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) posture toward landowners. (more)
It wasn’t long ago that Newt Gingrich was coming under heavy fire for his comments regarding the judiciary. Over the course of the Republican primary, the former speaker has taken multiple shots at controversial U.S. District Judge Fred Biery of Texas. In a ruling last year that made national headlines, Biery prohibited the Medina Valley Independent School District from sanctioning public prayer at a high school graduation ceremony. The students were ordered not to use religious words such as “prayer” or “amen” and were instructed to replace the terms “invocation” and “benediction” with “opening remarks” and “closing remarks” in the official graduation program. Biery ordered that individuals who did not obey his dictate were to be either incarcerated or face other sanctions for contempt of court. (more)
More than a week after the Supreme Court concluded six and a half hours of oral argument over the constitutionality of Obamacare, the debate beyond the Court has hardly subsided. The president himself weighed in on Monday, of course, with his unbridled pre-emptive warning to the Court, some of which he walked back on Tuesday. Yet the next day, there was the hapless White House press secretary, Jay Carney, trying to convince reporters that the president didn’t intend to challenge the Court’s authority, even as Attorney General Eric Holder was telling a different press gathering that Obama’s comments were “appropriate.” Can life in Washington be any more entertaining? (more)
The Supreme Court struck down a complaint April 2 from a man subjected to invasive strip searches for an unpaid traffic fine. (more)
Liz Cheney, an attorney who studied at the University of Chicago when President Barack Obama taught there, told The Daily Caller that Obama is trying to “bully” the Supreme Court with “crazy” and “shameful” rhetoric. (more)
There is little question last week’s Supreme Court arguments over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act did not go as President Barack Obama had hoped. Five members of the Supreme Court, including Justice Anthony Kennedy — seen as a likely “swing vote” in the case — seemed skeptical of allowing the president’s signature legislation to provide the vehicle for the federal government to regulate virtually every aspect of citizens’ lives. (more)
The reason tea partiers carried signs saying “Read the Constitution!” was that we were hoping people would read the Constitution. (more)
President Obama this week took advantage of the fine spring weather and a meeting with Canada’s and Mexico’s leaders to make an extraordinary statement in the White House Rose Garden. He responded to questions about his health care takeover. Obamacare is currently being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court. The nine justices are expected to rule on the measure by this June. Their ruling could come right in the middle of a heated presidential election campaign. (more)
In an interview with The Daily Caller, Senator Ron Johnson warned of dire threats to individual liberty if the Supreme Court were to confirm the constitutionality of president Obama’s individual health care mandate, which requires all Americans to purchase health insurance or a pay a fine. (more)
President Obama says that the Supreme Court would be taking an “unprecedented, extraordinary step” by overturning the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), since the act was passed by “a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.” Although the president’s statement confirms his membership in the fraternity of left-wing constitutional law professors (over 100 of whom signed a statement defending the constitutionality of the act), he is wrong on both the history and the math. (more)
President Barack Obama spent Tuesday working the refs: He firmly nudged news editors and the nine Supreme Court justices toward treating his views as centrist, and seeing Republicans’ platform as “radical.” (more)
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