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Health Care Reform Challenge Reaches Fourth Circuit
Earlier this week, the legal challenge to last year’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act moved one step closer to the Supreme Court. A three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals heard oral arguments for two lawsuits against the landmark health care reform bill — one brought by the State of Virginia and the other by Liberty University, a small religious-affiliated school located in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Read more...Supreme Court Debates looks at Miranda
Rules of evidence and what police must say and do during the arrest process have been an area of concern for the U.S. Supreme Court more or less since the founding of the Nation. The words “you have the right to remain silent” have been a staple of police TV dramas and movies ever since the Supreme Court formulated specific language to be used in custodial arrest procedures in the Miranda v. Arizona (1966).
Read more...The Next Fiscal Showdown: Raising the Debt Ceiling
With little time to recover from the eleventh-hour budget agreement that averted a government shutdown, Congress will soon be forced backed to the bargaining table as the Nation comes closer to its statutory debt ceiling of $14.3 trillion – the current legal limit on how much money the United States can borrow.
Read more...House Votes Against “Net Neutrality”
Overshadowed by the suspense over keeping the government running beyond the April 8 continuing resolution deadline was a House vote that same day on “net neutrality.”
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Court Upholds Funeral Protests
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that Westboro Baptist Church’s picketing of a slain U.S. soldier’s funeral is protected speech under the First Amendment. In an 8-to-1 decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Court upheld the decision of the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that threw out a $10.9 million judgment against Westboro Baptist resulting from a defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress lawsuit filed by the soldier’s father, Albert Snyder.
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Senate Preserves the Filibuster
Perhaps wary that they might soon find themselves back in the minority, most Democratic senators opted against major reforms in the filibuster rules, settling instead for modest changes in the way the chamber conducts its business. Senate leaders also fashioned a “gentlemen’s agreement” designed to avoid some of the procedural battles that have caused legislative gridlock in recent years.
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Obama Nominates a New Solicitor General
On Monday, President Barack Obama nominated White House Deputy Counsel Donald Verrilli Jr. to be U.S. solicitor general. If confirmed by the Senate, Verrilli would take over for Neal Katyal, who is principal deputy solicitor general and has been acting solicitor general since Elena Kagan vacated the office on May 17, 2010, to become a U.S. Supreme Court associate justice.
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Westboro Baptist Church Back in the News
Westboro Baptist Church, which has made a name for itself with its controversial high-profile protests of military funerals and a subsequent lawsuit that has reached the U.S. Supreme Court, is once again making headlines. This time, the small Kansas-based church led by Fred W. Phelps, Sr., has threatened to protest the funerals of victims of Tucson, Arizona, gunman Jared Loughner. A last-minute compromise, however, has avoided demonstrations during the first two of the six funerals. Instead, representatives for Westboro church will be given time on two radio talk shows, one based in Phoenix and one nationally syndicated.
Read more...February Digest to Examine Filibuster Reform
Democratic and Republican Senate leaders are currently engaged in negotiations regarding proposed changes in Senate rules that would decrease the threat of filibusters and promote bipartisan cooperation. In the wake of the Tucson shootings and the President’s call for more civil discourse, will these negotiations result in changes that are acceptable to both sides and might help alleviate legislative gridlock? The upcoming issue of Congressional Digest will discuss the history and use of the filibuster, and whether or not it should be reformed.
Read more...When Will Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Change?
In remarks delivered the December 22 signing ceremony repealing the Defense Department’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, President Obama said that the new law “will strengthen our national security and uphold the ideals that our fighting men and women risk their lives to defend.” The event was the culmination of a 17-year campaign to eliminate the Pentagon’s policy banning homosexuals from serving openly in the military (see “Gays in the Military,” Congressional Digest, April 2010). But when will the policy actually be phased out?
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