Courts & Law

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a forceful and impassioned defense of
the Voting Rights Act on Monday, condemning laws and other moves in
some states that she said are reviving “old demons of discrimination.” Clinton
defends Voting Rights Act:

“Anyone that says that racial discrimination is no longer a problem in
American elections must not be paying attention,” said Clinton.

Clinton’s address to the American Bar Association’s annual meeting in
San Francisco was the first in what she said will be a series of major
addresses this fall about the challenges undermining Americans’ faith in
government.

“We do — let’s admit it — have a long history of
shutting people out: African Americans, women, gays and lesbians, people
with disabilities,” she said. “And throughout our history, we have
found too many ways to divide and exclude people from their ownership of
the law and protection from the law.”

Clinton criticized the
Supreme Court’s recent decision to strike down Section 4 of the Voting
Rights Act, urging Congress to reconsider the 1965 landmark law and
calling on citizen activists to mobilize in their communities.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Republican Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina on Monday signed into law "the single worst voter
suppression law in the country."

Ari Berman of The Nation reported the new state law imposes voter-ID restrictions never needed before in
North Carolina, narrows the early-voting window, places new restrictions
on voter-registration drives, makes it harder for students to vote,
ends same-day voter registration during the early voting period, and makes it
easier for vigilante poll-watchers [i.e., the Tea Party's True The Vote] to challenge eligible voters. North Carolina Republicans Push Extreme Voter Suppression Measures.

The new law was immediately met with legal challenges in federal court questioning its constitutionality. Lawsuits filed after Gov. Pat McCrory signs voter ID bill:

Just hours after McCrory signed the bill, two separate lawsuits
challenging the law were filed in federal court in Greensboro. A third
lawsuit is expected to be filed in state court Tuesday. Congressman G.K.
Butterfield also asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to “take swift
and decisive action by using any legal mechanisms” to protect North
Carolina’s voting rights.

“With one stroke of the pen, McCrory has
effectively reversed 30 years of progress and reinstated practices
similar to the discriminatory ‘Southern Strategy’ adopted by the
Republican Party in the ’60s and ’70s,” said Butterfield, a former N.C.
Supreme Court justice. “Without question, today is a shameful day for
Republicans in North Carolina.”

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

If you do a Google search for Texas + secession, you will be shocked at the number of hits (or maybe not).

The question is not whether Texas can secede — it can't — but rather can the rest of America kick Texas out of the Union for ignorant racist crap like this?

Adam Serwer reports, Texas on voting rights: It's not about race, just politics:

Texas didn’t discriminate against minority voters. It was only
because they were Democrats. And even if it did, the racial
discrimination Texas engaged in is nowhere near as bad as the stuff that
happened in the 1960s.

These are some of the arguments the state of Texas is making in an
attempt to stave off federal supervision of its election laws.

* * *

Shortly after the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act decision, Texas moved to reinstate restrictive voting laws
that had previously been blocked by the feds. As far as it’s 2011
redistricting plan goes, the state’s brief argues that’s all in the
past, and it was a partisan issue rather than a racial one anyway.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

A century ago this country permitted child labor and sweatshop labor, and did not regulate the hours and conditions of employment because of U.S. Supreme Court decisions like Kidd v. Pearson (1888) (intra-state commerce), Locher v. New York (1905) (economic liberty and private contract rights), Adair v. U.S. (1908) (labor unions), and Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918) (child labor). The Reel Foto: Lewis Hine: The Littlest Laborers (h/t photo).

"Tentherism" is a dormant and long-discredited legal theory today, but tenthers dominated the
Supreme Court from the late 1800s until 1937, when a majority of the
Court finally recognized that national leaders must be empowered to
solve a national economic crisis like the Great Depression.

Now our "Tenther" Tea-Publican Senators want to repeal the advances of the 20th Century. Think Progress reports, 36 Senators Introduce Bill Prohibiting Virtually Any New Law Helping Workers:

More than three-quarters of the Senate Republican caucus signed onto
legislation introduced Wednesday by Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Rand
Paul (R-KY) that could render it virtually impossible for Congress to enact any legislation intended to improve working conditions
or otherwise regulate the workplace. Had their bill been in effect
during the Twentieth Century, for example, there would likely be no
nationwide minimum wage, no national ban on workplace discrimination, no
national labor law and no overtime in most industries.