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May 3, 2010 8:42 pm | By Jen Herrick
DOD puts breaks on DADT repeal, veterans to lobby Congress
Late Friday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen urged Congress to hold off on repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell until the Pentagon completes its policy review. This was followed by a White House statement (cited…
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April 30, 2010 7:08 pm | By Jen Herrick
LGBT families included in immigration reform framework
Senate Democrats made news this week with the release of their framework for moving forward on immigration reform. It is by no means perfect, and there is much work left to be done. However, these Senators should be commended for…
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April 30, 2010 2:35 pm | By Miranda Blue
Majority of Americans Comfortable with Obama Picking Supreme Court Justice
Jeff Sessions take note: a new Washington Post-ABC News poll has found that a large majority of Americans are just fine with President Obama picking the next Supreme Court Justice.Overall, two-thirds of Americans say they are comfortable with Obama selecting…
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April 29, 2010 4:33 pm | By Miranda Blue
Senators Introduce Crucial Citizens United Fix
This morning, Senate Democrats announced a sweeping legislative remedy to the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which opened up elections to unlimited corporate spending. The DISCLOSE Act would require the disclosure of corporate money spent on influencing…
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April 29, 2010 1:33 pm | By Miranda Blue
Sessions warns of Obama’s “dangerous” SCOTUS philosophy
Don’t say he didn’t warn you. Sen. Jeff Sessions has taken issue with several of President Obama’s criteria for picking a Supreme Court nominee, but he’s especially concerned about the stipulation that the new justice have a “keen understanding of…
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April 27, 2010 11:09 pm | By Miranda Blue
Senate Republicans continue to warn of “bailout,” stall reform
Senate Republicans this afternoon again voted in a bloc to stall debate on a Wall Street reform measure, after a concerted effort to brand the increased regulations a fat-cat bailout. The “bailout” label, as People For’s Peter Montgomery explains in…
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April 27, 2010 8:28 pm | By Ben Betz
Breathing While Undocumented in Arizona
Linda Greenhouse, writing for the New York Times Opinionator blog, rightly points out that Arizona's new anti-immigrant law quite literally creates a new crime of "breathing while undocumented" due to a provision that someone lacking authorization to be in the…
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April 27, 2010 5:52 pm | By Ben Betz
Two Must-Read Op-Eds on the Stevens Vacancy and What This Court Fight Should Be About
In his column yesterday, E.J. Dionne laid out exactly the right prescription for liberals and Democrats in the upcoming confirmation battle over the Supreme Court seat being vacated by Justice John Paul Stevens. We don't know who the nominee is yet, but we…
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April 26, 2010 8:04 pm | By Miranda Blue
Double your delay: Senate GOP picks another tactic off the obstruction menu
Some more evidence of the Senate GOP’s extraordinary efforts on behalf of getting nothing done: trying to put off a vote on Wall Street reform, Senate Republicans are filibustering the motion to proceed to the legislation, adding yet another layer…
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Federal UpdateApril 22, 2010 8:46 pm | By Miranda Blue
Senators Study How to Break the Filibuster Gridlock
Yesterday’s confirmation of Chris Schroeder to head the Office of Legal Policy was a welcome break in the gridlock that GOP senators have created over President Obama’s Executive Branch nominees. (Though, as has become the pattern, they made sure Schroeder’s…
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April 21, 2010 8:45 pm | By Miranda Blue
The Greatest Hits of GOP Obstructionism
The Senate Rules Committee is holding a hearing tomorrow to discuss the history of the filibuster, as Democrats consider their options for limiting GOP abuse of stalling tactics.People For’s Marge Baker just released a memo on some of the GOP’s…
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April 21, 2010 8:42 pm | By Miranda Blue
New People For Report Tracks the Rise of the Corporate Court
When the Supreme Court decided this year to open the electoral process to floods of money from corporate interests, it provoked a vehement public backlash. But Citizens United v. FEC was just the tip of the iceberg of a decade…
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April 21, 2010 4:22 pm | By Jen Herrick
Justice delayed is justice denied
I recently reported that an agreement had been reached to move forward on the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act. Four days later came word that this was no longer the case. The fight is not over, but DC’s…
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April 20, 2010 7:03 pm | By Ben Betz
Undermining Trust in Government: A Cynical, But Winning, Strategy
John Perr wrote what I consider a must-read post over at Crooks and Liars about how Republicans, when in power, fail miserably at governing and seem to do their best art destroying our country. The results of their policies --…
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April 20, 2010 1:41 pm | By Miranda Blue
An economic historian debunks the originalist rhetoric of Citizens United
Justin Fox, on his Harvard Business Review blog, has an interesting take on the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC. He interviews Brian Murphy, a history professor at Baruch College who studies the economics and politics of early…
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April 16, 2010 11:27 pm | By Drew Courtney
Senator Sessions Plays the “Judicial Activism” Card
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today, Senator Jeff Sessions said that that Goodwin Liu’s writings represent “liberal judicial activism.” And he doesn’t like it!But what Sessions apparently does like is conservative judicial activism. Overturn more than a century of…
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April 16, 2010 6:55 pm | By Jen Herrick
DC voting rights bill expected to move next week
DC has waited over 200 years to have a voting voice in Congress. Today the nation’s capital may be as close as it’s ever come to making that dream a reality. On Wednesday afternoon came the breaking news that an…
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April 15, 2010 8:15 pm | By Miranda Blue
Kyl disagrees with 69% of Americans on SCOTUS nominee
In his remarks on the retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens, President Obama alluded to his displeasure (which he hasn’t exactly been keeping secret) with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC. Now the GOP is crying “litmus…
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April 15, 2010 4:01 pm | By Miranda Blue
Can the filibuster be fixed?
The threat of filibuster is holding up Senate business more than ever before, and Senators are at odds over whether to do away with or amend the rule that’s causing so much trouble. People for Executive Vice President Marge Baker…
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April 14, 2010 8:34 pm | By Drew Courtney
Democrats Figure out GOP Strategy on Nominations
In an article in Politico today, titled “Dems: Ignore GOP in court choice,” some Senate Democrats show that they’ve got the GOP strategy on the upcoming Supreme Court nomination figured out already. “I don’t think you can count on any…