Civil & Human Rights

Virginia is for Lovers: Chief Justice John Roberts holds the fate of marriage equality in Virginia in his hands

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An update from Equality on Trial. Supreme Court to decide whether to stay same-sex marriages in Virginia:

EqualThe Supreme Court will decide this week whether to halt same-sex marriage in Virginia. Couples will be able to marry on Thursday unless the Court stays the mandate, or formal judgment, in the Fourth Circuit case, Bostic v. Schaefer.

The request for a stay has been filed with Chief Justice John Roberts in his capacity as Circuit Justice for the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Chief Justice Roberts has called for responses by 5 PM Monday. Responses are expected from the Bostic plaintiffs, Virginia’s attorney general, and Lambda Legal and the ACLU on behalf of the Harris intervenors.

UPDATE: All three responses have now been filed. Chief Justice Roberts could rule on the request at any time, or he could refer the matter to the full Court to decide whether to grant the stay. Notably, all three responses ask the Court to treat the application for a stay as a petition for certiorari. Clerk McQuigg has noted that she intends to file a cert petition requesting that the Court review the Fourth Circuit decision on the merits, but she hasn’t filed one yet.

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Journalists Arrested in #Ferguson: ACLU Issues ‘Know Your Rights’ Bulletin

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Tucson Police
TPD officer filming me filming him while his partner gave me a ticket for being at Armory Park during Occupy Tucson. He ignored me when I said I was a journalist and had a right to be there and to film him and Occupy.

Twitter and Facebook have been ablaze with stories and photos about the shooting of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri. (Check out the AZBlueMeanie’s poignant analysis here, photos from the New York Times here, and running updates here from Huffington Post.)

As you are well aware, Michael Brown’s shooting is just one in a very long and disturbing list of unarmed young blacks (primarily men) being shot by police or armed citizens. What the hell is going on?! Do ya think there are way too many guns out there?

In this world of smart phones and social media, everything from cute kittens playing with boxes to police violence is photographed and shared. Problem is: the police don’t like being photographed or videotaped. Journalists are citizens are often arrested or roughed up and cameras confiscated or broken when they try to record police behaving badly. That is illegal!

Following the arrest of two journalists in Ferguson today, I found this very helpful post from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) about photographer rights. Here is an excerpt. Check out the link below for more.

Photographers Know Your Rights

Taking photographs of things that are plainly visible from public spaces is a constitutional right – and that includes federal buildings, transportation facilities, and police and other government officials carrying out their duties. Unfortunately, there is a widespread, continuing pattern of law enforcement officers ordering people to stop taking photographs from public places, and harassing, detaining and arresting those who fail to comply. Learn more »

Your rights as a photographer:

  • When in public spaces where you are lawfully present you have the right to photograph anything that is in plain view. That includes pictures of federal buildings, transportation facilities, and police. Such photography is a form of publicoversight over the government and is important in a free society.

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Two Americas, and two alternate realities

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Remember when many pundits suggested that America had become a color-blind Post-racial America after the election of Barack Obama in 2008? Yeah . . .

I watched the news coverage from Ferguson, Missouri last night. It reminded me of  Mayor Daley’s police riot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968. Spike Lee could use Ferguson as the setting of a sequel to his Do the Right Thing (1989).

I was struck by the disparity between two events this year.

Screenshot from 2014-08-14 16:06:28First, the Bundy Ranch standoff between armed right-wing militias seeking a confrontation with the “tyrannical” federal “guvmint” come to enforce a lawful seizure order of the court for the cattle of a deadbeat rancher who does not recognize the federal government, the government to which he owes a $1 million dollars for grazing fees and court costs, because “freedom!” Not a single shot was fired, and not one person was arrested for their armed insurrection against law enforcement officers.

The conservative media entertainment complex portrayed these anti-government insurrectionists as “patriots.”

Second, Ferguson, Missouri, where an unarmed teenager, Michael Brown, was shot allegedly multiple times by a police officer for walking in the street. Ferguson has a history of racial tensions with the local police. Even before Michael Brown’s slaying in Ferguson, racial questions hung over police. Wednesday night was a peaceful protest of citizens exercising their First Amendment rights of freedom of speech, peaceable assembly, and to petition their local government for a redress of grievances. A militarized police force insisted that they could not. Nor could the media covering the protest exercise its First Amendment right to freedom of the press. The police opened fire with rubber bullets, tear gas, and flash grenades. And arrested members of the media.

The conservative media entertainment complex portrayed the Black citizens of Ferguson as “lynch mobs,” Laura Ingraham calls protestors in Ferguson “lynch mobs”, and Fox News Fearmongers About The New Black Panther Party. And Conservatives Attack Reporters For Being Arrested In Ferguson.

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Pima County Seniors Protest Martha McSally’s Attacks on Social Security

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Seniors Mark Social Security Anniversary, Protest McSally’s Support for Privatization Local seniors will gather this afternoon on the 79th anniversary of Social Security’s enactment to call on Martha McSally to stop attacking seniors’ retirement savings and start supporting this important program. McSally has repeatedly said she supports Republican efforts to undermine Social Security by trying … Read more

Virginia is for Lovers: 4th Circuit Court of Appeals will not stay its same-sex marriage ruling

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The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals denied a stay order Wednesday in Virginia’s same-sex marriage appeal. Unless the U.S. Supreme Court issues a stay order (as it has done for the state of Utah), same-sex couples could begin getting marriage licenses to wed as early as next Wednesday. Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog.com reports, No delay on Virginia same-sex marriage ruling (UPDATED):

EqualThe Fourth Circuit’s three-judge panel denied the stay, in a two-to-one decision.  The decision itself was similarly divided.

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The Fourth Circuit late last month struck down the Virginia ban on same-sex marriages, and the state has now appealed that to the Supreme Court (Rainey v. Bostic), even though state officials support the decision.  A county clerk who has been defending the Virginia ban is also expected to file a petition for review of that decision, and both are likely to be considered by the Court early in the new Term starting this fall.

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