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February 23, 2011 3:00 pm | By Jamie Raskin
Bruesewitz v. Wyeth: As Sotomayor Comes Out Strong Against Pro-Corporate Judicial Activism, Scalia May Have Met His Match
There is something wearily predictable about Justice Scalia’s straitjacket reinterpretation of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 (NCVIA) to eliminate the possibility of injured families suing manufacturers for design defects in vaccines. Justice Scalia brings his trademark sleight-of-hand…
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February 18, 2011 10:20 pm | By Paul Gordon
Obama Rescinds Dangerous Bush-Era “Conscience Regulation”
Earlier today, the Obama Administration rescinded most of a Bush-era "conscience clause" regulation that gave special legal rights to health workers who refuse to provide care they find objectionable on personal or religious grounds. Under the Bush rule, hospitals, health…
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February 18, 2011 5:55 pm | By Brian
Wisconsin’s Governor Wants Working Families to Pay for His Corporate Handouts
According to the spin in the right-wing media, Wisconsin’s Republican Governor Scott Walker is standing up to public workers by pushing for hefty cuts to their compensation and stripping their collective bargaining rights. While this story fits nicely into the…
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February 18, 2011 5:04 pm | By Miranda Blue
Women in Congress Speak Out on Attacks on Women’s Health
Last night, as the House debated an amendment from Rep. Mike Pence that would strip Planned Parenthood of federal funding, some women in Congress responded with personal stories. Rep. Jackie Speier of California revealed that she had had an abortion…
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February 16, 2011 10:40 pm | By Paul Gordon
The House GOP’s Aboogaboogaboogabooga Constitution
For the past few decades, Republicans have aggressively and notoriously acted as if only they love the flag, only they appreciate families, only they are religious, and only they care about national defense. In the past couple of years, inspired…
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February 14, 2011 11:23 pm | By Miranda Blue
Dehumanizing Rhetoric, Inhumane Policy
The Arizona State Senate is considering a bill that would require hospitals to check whether patients are in the country legally, and contact federal authorities if they are not. The bill is similar to Arizona’s legislature’s attempt to require local…
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February 14, 2011 7:10 pm | By Brian
Judge’s Children Respond to GOP Congressman Who Wanted to Put Their Father “On the Endangered Species List”
In an address to the Montana State Legislature, Republican Congressman and Senate-candidate Denny Rehberg blasted a federal judge who ruled that the grey wolf had to remain on the Endangered Species list, saying: “When I first heard his decision, like…
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February 9, 2011 10:07 pm | By Paul Gordon
Anti-Equality Testimony May Have Backfired in Maryland
Yesterday in Maryland, both equality advocates and far right groups testified before a state senate panel considering a marriage equality bill. Opponents of the bill offered their standard arguments against marriage equality. And those arguments did succeed in giving at…
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February 9, 2011 7:37 pm | By Brian
Arizona Effort to End Constitutional Citizenship Faces Backlash
Two bills proposed by Republican legislators in Arizona that would revoke constitutional citizenship are running into trouble in the State Senate. State Senate President Russell Pearce, a key force behind the state’s draconian SB-1070 anti-immigration law, is leading efforts to…
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February 8, 2011 9:23 pm | By Miranda Blue
Another Attempted Smear of Planned Parenthood
Live Action, the anti-choice group that has been attempting to smear Planned Parenthood with heavily edited videos of its activists posing as sex traffickers in Planned Parenthood offices, has released another video. And this one, according to a Planned Parenthood…
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February 8, 2011 5:12 pm | By Miranda Blue
LA County Sheriff Calls Peter King’s Bluff on American Muslims
Los Angeles County sheriff Lee Baca—who heads the nation’s seventh largest law enforcement agency, overseeing the safety of ten million people — is calling Rep. Peter King’s bluff on the congressman’s claim that the American Muslim community “does not cooperate”…
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February 8, 2011 4:20 pm | By Miranda Blue
Senate Confirms Three Judges…But What About the 99 Vacancies Left?
Last night, the Senate struck an agreement to confirm three of President Obama’s non-controversial judicial nominees. That’s great—but, as of this morning, it leaves 99 seats on the federal judiciary left to fill. And, as the long road to last…
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February 4, 2011 11:02 pm | By Miranda Blue
Censorship and the Right’s Culture Wars
In the Huffington Post today, People For President Michael Keegan looks at the battle over censorship at the Smithsonian and what it means for the coming right-wing culture wars. The fight over the Smithsonian, he writes, is “just the beginning”:…
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February 4, 2011 8:08 pm | By Brian
Progressive Coalition Stands Up for Planned Parenthood
A diverse coalition of twenty six progressive groups, including People For the American Way and African American Ministers In Action, signed on to a letter to Congress standing up for Planned Parenthood against right-wing attacks originating from the radical anti-choice…
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February 4, 2011 6:01 pm | By Miranda Blue
ACORN Cleared of Voter Fraud Charges in Connecticut
As the Right revs up its efforts to discredit and defund Planned Parenthood, it’s important to remember its last attempt to bring down a national organization through sheer force of repeated falsehoods.ACORN, which at its height was the largest anti-poverty…
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February 3, 2011 8:31 pm | By Brian
New Legislation Threatens Critical Women’s Health Services
In wake of Live Action’s smear campaign against Planned Parenthood, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) introduced the “Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act.” Pence’s bill would cut off funding to Planned Parenthood, which Katha Pollitt of The Nation notes is the…
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February 3, 2011 7:19 pm | By Miranda Blue
Horrible, Terrible Anti-Choice Bill Now Only Terrible
The House GOP met with widespread outrage last week when the news broke that a radical anti-abortion bill it is backing would, among other things, exclude many instances of rape from already very limited federal abortion coverage. The bill, written…
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February 1, 2011 10:00 pm | By Miranda Blue
White House Counsel Calls for End to Judicial Gridlock
The Obama Administration is making another call for the Senate to stop its unprecedented holdup of the president’s judicial nominations. White House Counsel Bob Bauer said today that it’s time for the Senate to end its “cold war” over judicial…
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January 31, 2011 5:59 pm | By Miranda Blue
In Overcrowded Courts, Justice Delayed
We write a lot about “judicial emergencies”—situations where slow-downs in the judicial nominations process have led court systems to be woefully understaffed. These cases are not emergencies because judges have to work harder—they’re emergencies because when courts are overworked, access…
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January 31, 2011 5:54 pm | By Miranda Blue
Hundreds in California Protest Corporate Influence in Elections
In the year since the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC, there has been new scrutiny on the increasingly cozy relationship between corporate funders of elections and national policy makers. Exemplifying that relationship have been the Koch brothers,…