Informed Speculation

It can kill a blog to go dark for extended periods, so forgive my considerable absence.  It signifies nothing more than a need for a break – but perhaps I should have at least delivered a head’s-up. The three big stories for me right now are the Sotomayor nomination, the pending GM bankruptcy, and the [...]

Oh, dear, me…we appear to have a pattern here. “I support the FISA bill except for that terrible bit about retroactive telecom immunity that unfortunately is in the bill I support – only I don’t support that part of the bill, and I promise to filibuster this bill while campaigning for the Democratic nomination, and [...]

There are many quite reasonable people who say that McCain-Feingold is unconstitutional, in that money donated to political causes is, in fact, nothing more or less than protected speech.  As such, the law occasionally comes up for review, and the Supreme Court has agreed to take another go at it: The Supreme Court today agreed [...]

Ann Althouse has a piece in the New York Times that is not only delightfully dismissive of the Judge Taylor anti-eavesdropping decision, but also instructive on the point of ‘above the law’ versus testing the limits of the law: So often, we’ve heard complaints about “activist” judges. They’re suspected of deciding what outcome they want, [...]

You can look at it as a necessary step on the way to the Supreme Court ruling on this very important program, as the Washington Post did: THE NATION would benefit from a serious, scholarly and hard-hitting judicial examination of the National Security Agency’s program of warrantless surveillance. The program exists on ever-more uncertain legal [...]

Chalk this one up as a (temporary) victory for the foes of the ‘imperial presidency’: A federal judge in Detroit ruled today that the Bush administration’s eavesdropping program is illegal and unconstitutional, and she ordered that it cease at once. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor found that President Bush exceeded his proper authority and that [...]

…and perhaps a few others, as well: the newly redrawn Texas congressional districts (following the Supreme Court’s very limited invalidation of the 2004 redistricting) can be viewed here; and Ohio State vs. Texas (played here in Austin) will be another huge event this year, as the Buckeyes are #1 and the Longhorns #2 in the [...]

mcjoan, writing at Daily Kos (the site founded by the co-author of Jerome Armstrong, who, as you may recall, has entered a consent decree with the SEC regarding charges of stock manipulation), has seen through the careful disguise we conservatives have been at pains to construct: It comes as no surprise, but today the Washington [...]

…comes, not surprisingly, from our good friend Tom Maguire: …[I]s this decision a great day for democracy?  Well, I suppose so, especially since Bush did not put troops in the capitol or arrest the Supremes. But I have never thought Bush was on a path to an imperial Presidency; I have believed that Congress was [...]

The legal architect of the post 9-11 strong executive himself weighs in: As commander in chief, President Bush has the authority to decide on wartime tactics and strategies. Presidents Washington, Jackson, Lincoln and FDR settled on military commissions, sometimes with congressional approval and sometimes without, as the best tool to punish and deter enemy war [...]

Good roundup at Pajamas; the MinuteMan; AJ… (hey, that was 8 words – maybe I could start subbing for Atrios! “Ooopen thread”…no, wait…”Opppen Threde”…dang, I guess it’s harder than it seems)…

President Bush appears to be taking an ‘out’ provided by the Supreme Court regarding war crimes trials of Gitmo detainees: After a Supreme Court decision overruling war crimes trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees, President Bush suggested Thursday he would seek Congress’ approval to proceed with trying terrorism suspects before military tribunals. “To the extent that [...]

If you’re familiar at all with Texas politics, you know that the redistricting battle that began in 2002 is probably the biggest story in the last decade or so. I don’t have a link yet, but MSNBC is reporting that the Supreme Court has overturned part of the 2002 map. More later… UPDATE 9:31 a.m.: [...]

…, though I forgot to mention it at the time, was Disrobed: The New Battleplan To Break The Left’s Stranglehold On The Courts, by Mark W. Smith, author of The Official Handbook Of The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.  From the introduction, it’s apparent that Smith believes the right way for conservatives to take back the [...]

Richard Baehr has a way for Rudy to appease social conservatives: That would be to state publicly that he believed that President Bush had made two very good appointments to the Supreme Court in John Robert and Sam Alito. He could also say that if elected, he would seek to find similar justices for the [...]

The Washington Post has a short item up noting that once more, in the area of Supreme Court justices, the nay-sayers had it wrong: Samuel Alito is no Scalia clone…

No link yet Here’s a link – the law goes into effect July 1, and has a prison sentence of up to 5 years for doctors performing abortions where the mother’s life is not in danger… In other legal news, a welcome decision on the Solomon Amendment…

The Washington Post adds its voice to those who think the South Dakota bill will not result in a challenge to Roe: Despite the intention of its authors, this bill seems unlikely to serve as a test case for Roe v. Wade . Assuming Gov. Mike Rounds (R) signs it, as he has indicated he [...]

From all indications, Texas Democrats have failed in their bid to get the Supreme Court to rule against the 2002 redistricting that is the backstory to the Tom Delay case: The current case, arising from a Texas-sized tale of partisan maneuvering that helped force U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay from his post as House majority leader, [...]

Part XXXVIII: If the South Dakota Rapist Rights bill goes through, it won’t matter how many brave souls are willing to staff an abortion clinic, they won’t be able to do so. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: there is no more important task right now before the pro-choice movement than changing [...]