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Polls Show Falling Approval for U.S. Supreme Court
According to a recent survey by the Gallup polling firm, more Americans (46 percent) disapprove of the way the U.S. Supreme Court is handling its job than approve (43 percent). This marks only the second time since Gallup began asking the question in 2000 that the High Court has had a negative favorability rating. The other time was in June 2005. (Interestingly, the 2004-05 term featured few high-visibility, controversial cases, although the Court was criticized by many for its decision in favor of giving government broad eminent domain powers in Kelo v. City of New London.) Digging down into the…
Read more...Another Filibuster Showdown Averted
With his announcement on July 11 that he would start a process to change the rules to make it easier for the Senate to confirm Obama Administration nominees, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV-D) had set the stage for a confrontation with Republicans over the Senate filibuster rule for Executive Branch nominations. But on July 16, an eleventh-hour deal averted a floor battle that could have led to the most significant change in the Senate rules since 1975, when the number of votes needed to cut off debate was reduced from 67 to 51. How the Drama Played Out Reid…
Read more...Gay Marriage, Voting Rights Make Headlines in Court’s Last Week
The U.S. Supreme Court closed out its 2012-2013 term last week, and as predicted, it handed down blockbuster decisions on the Voting Rights Act and gay marriage in its final days. The week started with the Court issuing a ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, which challenged the consideration of race as a factor during the undergraduate admissions process. Rather than issuing a decisive opinion on the subject, Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for a seven-justice majority, remanded the case back to the circuit court, with instructions that the court reconsider the case and apply “strict scrutiny” to…
Read more...Food Stamp Funding Presents Biggest Hurdle in Farm Bill Debate
On June 10, by a vote of 66 to 27, the Senate easily passed a five-year reauthorization of the Farm Bill, sending it to the House, where it now faces an uncertain fate. Officially known as the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act, the legislation sets national agriculture, nutrition, conservation, and forestry policy. The last Farm Bill was passed in 2008 and expired in 2012. Congress approved a partial extension on January 1 to continue funding for certain programs. The Senate version of the Farm Bill would end direct and countercyclical payments to farmers, which account for most current commodity…
Read more...Court Upholds DNA Testing of Arrestees
On Monday, the Supreme Court upheld Maryland’s DNA Collection Act, which allows law enforcement officials to collect DNA samples on anyone they arrest for a serious crime. In the case, Maryland v. King, Alonzo Jay King, Jr. had been arrested for assault after pointing a shotgun at a group of people. Police took a DNA sample from King, and four months later, after the sample had been sent off to a national crime database, DNA evidence linked King to an open rape case from 2003. King was tried and convicted for rape based on that evidence. He appealed, and Court…
Read more...Obama Talks Terrorism, Drones, and Guantánamo in Major Speech
In a major address on national security and counterterrorism at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., last Thursday, President Barack Obama declared that America is at a crossroads and “this is the moment to ask ourselves hard questions — about the nature of today’s threats and how we should confront them.” He said that after the elimination of Osama bin Laden and other high-ranking leaders, al-Qaeda is on the path to defeat and its regional affiliates — in places like Iraq, Yemen, and North Africa — pose regional threats to U.S. interests abroad, not direct threats to the U.S….
Read more...New Fracking Rules Draw Fire From Both Sides
New Federal draft rules governing hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” on public and tribal lands are drawing sharp criticisms from both industry and environmental groups. The proposed regulations, released on May 16, include changes designed to alleviate opponents’ objections to an earlier version. Fracking is an extraction process that involves pumping water, chemicals, and sand deep into hard-to-reach rock formations at high pressure to force cracks and release natural gas, allowing it to flow freely to the production well. Now used in over 90 percent of vertical and horizontal oil and gas wells in the United States, the technique is enabling…
Read more...New Round of Benghazi Hearings on the Hill
On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Reform Committee, chaired by Representative Darrell Issa (CA-R) held a hearing on the September 11, 2012, terrorist attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that led to the deaths of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens. It’s the ninth time a congressional committee has held a hearing investigating the circumstances of the attack and the Obama Administration response in the hours and days that followed. Testifying before the committee were Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission for Libya; Eric Nordstrom, the regional security officer posted to Libya; and Mark…
Read more...Congress Prepares to Debate Immigration Reform
With Congress now back in session after a holiday break, lawmakers appear ready to start debating the details of immigration reform legislation. A bipartisan “gang of eight” senators is on track to introduce a comprehensive bill within the next week, according to Senator Charles Schumer (NY-D), one of its members. The group reportedly has reached agreement on several major provisions, while other somewhat less prominent issues have yet to be resolved. The package is expected to address the following: Pathway to Citizenship In December 2010, Congress rejected the DREAM Act when Republican opposition denied supporters the 60 Senate votes needed…
Read more...Court Strikes Down Warrantless Use of Drug-Sniffing Dogs Outside Homes
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that the use of trained police dogs to sniff around the outside of a suspect’s house without a warrant constitutes an unreasonable search, prohibited by the Fourth Amendment. Although overshadowed by this week’s landmark oral arguments on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8 (which will be covered extensively in the May issue of Supreme Court Debates), the decision in Florida v. Jardines is a noteworthy one. For instance, the case created some strange ideological bedfellows Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas…
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