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[Editress’ Note: Read the Supreme Court’s full decision here.] via Robert Barnes and N.C. Aizenman, The Washington Post The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the individual health-insurance mandate that is at the heart of President Obama’s landmark health-care law, saying the mandate is permissible under Congress’s taxing authority. The potentially game-changing decision — a major … Continue reading
via Robert Rizzuto, The Republican Although perhaps no statement this year was as landmark for the gay community as President Barack Obama’s endorsement of marriage equality, it isn’t just Democrats who are calling for increased rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people — often abbreviated as LGBT — ahead of the 2012 elections. Christian Berle, … Continue reading
via Jess Bravin and Miriam Jordan, The Wall Street Journal The Supreme Court upheld a key part of Arizona’s tough-immigration law but struck down others as intrusions on federal sovereignty, in a ruling that gave both sides something to cheer in advance of November elections where immigration is a major issue. The court backed a … Continue reading
via Owen Bowcott, The Guardian The US policy of using aerial drones to carry out targeted killings presents a major challenge to the system of international law that has endured since the second world war, a United Nations investigator has said. Christof Heyns, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, summary or arbitrary executions, told … Continue reading
via Peter Landers, The Wall Street Journal The Supreme Court is ruling next week on the Obama health law. Of the many possible scenarios, here are the most likely four, shown in order of how much of the law would be struck down: Scenario #1: The entire law is upheld. After all is said and … Continue reading
via Paul West, L.A. Times President Obama’s decision to extend administrative relief to an estimated 800,000 young illegal immigrants has won favor with Latino voters in key battleground states, according to a new poll. The Latino Decisions survey found that Obama’s move had wiped out an earlier “enthusiasm deficit” among Hispanic voters over the administration’s … Continue reading
via Editorial Board, The Seattle Times President Obama has sensibly and responsibly used his executive powers to temper the deportation of younger illegal immigrants building productive lives in this country. The announcement Friday by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is not a pathway to citizenship, but the immunity from deportation recognizes the reality of young … Continue reading
via Tyler Kingkade, The Huffington Post Even members of Congress are carrying student debt. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is $100,000 in the hole for student loans he took out in the 1990’s — and could owe as much as $250,000. The exact figure is unknown because members of Congress are allowed to report financial holdings … Continue reading
via David G. Savage and Melanie Mason, L.A. Times When the Supreme Court ruled that corporations had the right to political free speech, it set loose a tidal wave of campaign money that helped elect a new Congress in 2010 and is now reshaping the presidential race. But the impact of the Citizens United decision … Continue reading
via Len Lazarick, The Chestertown Spy The right and the left agree on a few things about current trends in voting laws: democracy is being threatened by a desire to win elections and wield power. But at panels a mile apart this weekend, the two sides presented very different views of the state of election … Continue reading
via Mary Bruce, ABC News In his first public reaction to the Wisconsin recall election that saved Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s job, President Obama said today that he “would have loved to have seen a different result,” but was adamant that the election does not have broader implications for November. “You have specific circumstances in … Continue reading
via E.J. Dionne, Jr., The Washington Post The left will make a big mistake if it ignores the lessons of the failed recall in Wisconsin of Gov. Scott Walker (R). The right will make an even bigger error if it allows the Wisconsin results to feed its inclination toward winner-take-all politics. The danger on the … Continue reading
via Douglas Belkin and Caroline Porter, The Wall Street Journal Wisconsin voters headed to the polls Tuesday to decide whether to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker in a bitter dispute over his efforts to curb unions that could affect the presidential race and influence policy toward organized labor nationwide. More than $60 million has flooded … Continue reading
via Jennifer Bendery, The Huffington Post President Barack Obama on Monday dropped in on a White House press call to urge the Senate to pass legislation that ensures women are paid the same amount as their male counterparts. “Tomorrow, Congress is going to have a chance to vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act,” Obama said … Continue reading
via MSNBC A federal appeals court has ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act, a law that denies a host of federal benefits to same-sex married couples, is unconstitutional. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled Thursday that the act known as DoMA, which defines marriage as a union between a man … Continue reading
via Sophia Tareen, The Huffington Post More than two dozen gay and lesbian couples filed lawsuits Wednesday arguing that it’s unconstitutional for Illinois to deny them the right to marry, a move advocates hope will lead to legalized same-sex marriage in the state. The two lawsuits – backed by the American Civil Liberties Union of … Continue reading
via Paul Blumenthal, The Huffington Post The push to raise unlimited contributions by a super PAC backing President Barack Obama’s reelection has run into a number of hurdles since Priorities USA Action was set up by former White House aide Bill Burton in 2011. Major Democratic donors have shunned the group, denying it funds to … Continue reading
via Ruth Marcus, The Washington Post President Obama is walking a tightrope on same-sex marriage, teetering between his stated view that marriage is the province of the states and his legal position that refusal to recognize same-sex marriage can violate the Constitution. In his interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts, the president emphasized the traditional state … Continue reading
Emanuel hails weekend as a ‘milestone’ for city via Kristen Mack, Rick Pearson, and Bob Secter Once again, the whole world was watching. But Chicago didn’t devolve into 1968 redux. It wasn’t the combustible World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, either. By that barometer, Chicago’s turn as host of the NATO summit could be declared … Continue reading
via Fran Spielman, Chicago Sun-Times Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday offered Chicago area residents a new and compelling reason to welcome a NATO summit many are dreading as a giant inconvenience: a place in world history. No matter what happens with the thousands of demonstrators on the streets of Chicago outside McCormick Place, serious foreign … Continue reading
via Nicole Brodeur, The Seattle Times The Little Rascals had the “He-Man Woman Haters Club.” We’ve got The Catholic Church. Just a few weeks after the Vatican started looking into the activities of the umbrella group representing some 57,000 American nuns, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) showed it had smaller fish to fry: … Continue reading
via Paige Lavender, The Huffington Post Mitt Romney said the protesters rallying against Bank of America in Charlotte this week are too young “to really understand how the economy works.” “Unfortunately, a lot of young folks haven’t had the opportunity to really understand how the economy works, and what it takes to put people to … Continue reading
via Yahoo! News President Barack Obama has signed a waiver to remove curbs on funding to the Palestinian Authority, declaring the aid to be “important to the security interests of the United States.” A $192 million aid package was frozen by the US Congress after the Palestinians moved to gain statehood at the United Nations … Continue reading
via Carrie Budoff Brown and Seung Min Kim, Politico President Barack Obama’s embrace of same-sex marriage was viewed for so long as such a risky move that operatives in both parties expected it to drop like a bomb, handing Republicans a powerful wedge issue in an election year. Instead, it’s landed like a feather. Top … Continue reading
Think the DNC should be moved out of North Carolina? Sign the petition here. via George E. Condon Jr., National Journal Democrats who already were queasy about the site of their national convention could be excused after Tuesday’s election in North Carolina if they asked, “Tell me again just why we’re going to Charlotte this … Continue reading
The Brandt Standard 