Courts & Law

Redistricting trial in U.S. District Court this week

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The lawyers/lobbyists of the GOP's secretive redistricting organization FAIR Trust take their wild conspiracy theories about the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC) to court today in U.S. District Court. These hucksters are challenging the state legislative districts which they believe should have been gerrymandered to create a permanent Republican majority in perpetuity because, after all, it is the divine right of Republicans to lord over us all.

Based upon the biased reporting of Howard Fischer today in the Arizona Daily Star, Arizona redistricting challenge heads to US court today, it appears that lawyer/lobbyist David Cantelme from FAIR Trust is pinning his hopes on  the claim that population deviation between the districts is a violation of law. He apparently believes that state legislative district populations must be strictly equal.

Challengers are pinning their hopes on the fact that 30 districts
crafted by the Independent Redistricting Commission are not all equal in
population.

Attorney David Cantelme contends the differences were
done "deliberately, intentionally and in violation of the
one-person/one-vote principle."

The goal of the commission, he charges, was to cluster as many
Republicans as possible together in districts, leaving the other,
underpopulated districts with more Democrats than otherwise would occur,
giving Democrats an unfair and illegal advantage in electing their own
candidates to the Legislature.

Historic civil rights arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court this week

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

GavelThis week historic civil rights arguments will he heard in the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the rights of gays and lesbians to marriage equality. On Tuesday, the Court will hear Hollingsworth v. Perry, the challenge to California’s Proposition 8, and on Wednesday the Court will hear United States v. Windsor, the challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Spectators started camping out in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday for the handful of public seats available to these historic arguments. You can be certain that both pro and anti gay marriage demonstrators will be out in force in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday and Wednesday to create a circus atmosphere for the Beltway media villagers.

Anti-abortion Christian Taliban waging a crusade in Republican-controled state legislatures

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

TalibanEalier this month, the state of Arkansas passed the most restrictive abortion law in the nation — a 12-week ban that prohibits most abortions when a fetal heartbeat can be detected using an abdominal ultrasound.

Arkansas' action touched off a race to the bottom among Republican-controled state legislatures where the Christian Taliban is firmly in control.

The state of North Dakota passed two anti-abortion bills last week, one banning most abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected,
something that can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy (before many women are even aware that they are pregnant).
Another measure would prohibit women from having the procedure because a
fetus has a genetic abnormalities, such as Down syndrome. Lawmakers urge governor to veto North Dakota abortion bills:

If the governor signs the measures, North Dakota would be the only state with those laws.

North
Dakota is one of several states with Republican-controlled Legislatures
and GOP governors looking at abortion restrictions, ranging from
denying funding under the federal health care law to requiring women to
get an ultrasound and teenagers to get parental permission before having
abortions. Just days before North Dakota lawmakers approved the ban,
Arkansas instituted a 12-week ban that prohibits most abortions when a
fetal heartbeat can be detected using an abdominal ultrasound.

A
fetal heartbeat can generally be detected earlier in a pregnancy using a
vaginal ultrasound, but Arkansas lawmakers balked at requiring women
seeking abortions to have the more invasive imaging technique. North
Dakota’s measure doesn’t specify how a fetal heartbeat would be
detected.

Tea Party temper tantrum: Arpaio ‘Birthers’ sue to stop Arpaio recall

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Earlier this week, Respect Arizona, the organization behind the recall of crazy uncle Joe Arpaio, announced that it is suspending its paid signature gathering campaign due to a shortage of funds (you can help alleviate this cash flow problem by using the link to contribute and to volunteer to circulate petitions).

Respect Arizona

This announcement from Respect Arizona caused The Arizona Republic(an), which first opposed the recall effort and then supported it, to have another manic depressive episode. Laurie Roberts clutched her pearls and reached for her smelling salts with a post assigned two doom and gloom captions. Joe Arpaio recall doomed by political miscalculation and Joe Arpaio recall in trouble:

Just 12 days after anti-Joe Arpaio forces announced that they had collected an impressive 120,000 signatures in the campaign to recall Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the campaign has taken a nosedive.

Lilia Alvarez, campaign manager of the Arpaio recall, confirmed the campaign is out of money and can no longer pay petition circulators. Instead, Respect Arizona will rely on volunteers to get to the promised land of 335,317 valid signatures by May 30.

Alvarez remains optimistic that it can be done.

The Iraq War: 10 years later no one has been held accountable

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War — an unnecessary "war of choice" built upon a mountain of lies and deception, fabricated intelligence, and media propaganda — that was illegal under international law and treaties because Iraq did not pose an "imminent threat of harm" to the United States.

To this day, not one of the architects of this unnecessary and illegal war, whether the Neocons in the conservative think tanks, members of the Bush-Cheney administration or Congress, members of the Tony Blair government in Britain, military contractors and military leaders of the Pentagon, the spectacularly failed intelligence agencies, or members of the propagandist media have been held to account for their crimes under the law. Not one.

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