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March 27, 2009 6:13 pm | By Drew Courtney
Homophobia and the Black Church Event
This week, People For Foundation’s African American Ministers Leadership Council is co-sponsoring the Harambee* celebration at Howard Divinity School. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend one of the panels we sponsored, “Homophobia in the Black Church.” It was, if…
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March 26, 2009 3:18 pm | By Marge Baker
Obama DOJ Invokes State Secrets For Second Time
This Washington Post recently had a story on a second instance of the Obama Department of Justice invoking "state secrets" in an effort to shut down a lawsuit challenging violations by the Bush Administration of individuals' constitutional rights. The first…
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March 24, 2009 12:47 am | By Marge Baker
More Nonsense from the Right on Hamilton
Late last week several leaders of the Right, including Tony Perkins, Edwin Meese, and Alfred Regnery issued a statement opposing the nomination of David Hamilton (currently the Chief Judge of the Southern District of Indiana) to the Seventh Circuit Court…
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March 23, 2009 9:47 pm | By Drew Courtney
Justice O’Connor Speaks Out. Kinda.
The New York Times has a short interview of former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and it’s interesting to see all the topics she doesn’t want to talk about. Whom did you vote for in the presidential election? Come…
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March 23, 2009 8:47 pm | By Paul Gordon
Torturing the Rule of Law
Newsweek is reporting: Over objections from the U.S. intelligence community, the White House is moving to declassify—and publicly release—three internal memos that will lay out, for the first time, details of the "enhanced" interrogation techniques approved by the Bush administration…
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March 20, 2009 8:08 pm | By Drew Courtney
Marriage Equality on the March
As if Ben and Jerry’s wasn’t enough reason to love Vermont, it looks like marriage equality legislation is moving forward in the state legislature: A Vermont Senate committee voted to advance a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in the…
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March 20, 2009 3:55 pm | By Josh
Kathryn Kolbert Talks Judges and GOP Hypocrisy on Air America Radio
People For the American Way president Kathryn Kolbert appeared recently on the David Bender Show on Air America to talk about President Obama’s judicial nominees. Even before Obama nominated a single person, GOP Senators threatened to filibuster his nominees. These are…
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March 19, 2009 5:35 pm | By Marge Baker
Truth Telling in the Senate Judiciary Committee
President Obama’s choice to head the Office of Legal Counsel moved out of the Judiciary Committee today on a not-quite party line vote of 11-7. All the Democrats on the Committee supported her nomination, and all the Republicans opposed it,…
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March 18, 2009 9:21 pm | By Stacey Gates
Stop Voter ID in Texas
The New York Times editorial board probably didn’t write their piece today directly in response to a vote in the Texas State Senate yesterday, but they might as well have. From the NY Times editorial: In last year’s presidential election,…
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March 18, 2009 4:16 pm | By Marge Baker
Hamilton, Due Process, and the Right
Ed Whelan in yesterday's post about Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals nominee David Hamilton bemoans Hamilton's "inventive invocation of substantive due process to suppress evidence of a criminal defendant's possession of cocaine." Sound ominous? Perhaps - if it were true.…
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March 18, 2009 1:46 pm | By Willard
Lift the Ban
Repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) is a prime issue for LGBT lobbyists and activists nationwide--including here at People For. Freedom from discrimination is a basic right that all Americans should enjoy. Repealing DADT is necessary for our nation to…
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March 17, 2009 10:05 pm | By Paul Gordon
Obama’s First Judicial Nomination: A Good Start
News reports state that David Hamilton, a federal district court judge in Indiana, will be President Obama’s first judicial nominee. He will apparently be nominated to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. I am…
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March 13, 2009 9:25 pm | By Willard
Do elephants really never forget?
From today’s Politico: McConnell said that Coleman’s team seems to have been laying the groundwork for a federal appeals challenge by citing the 2000 Supreme Court case in Bush v. Gore, which ended the Florida recount. McConnell argued that the…
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March 13, 2009 3:51 pm | By Willard
Obama Rebukes Radical Right on Stem Cells
The week started on a very positive note Monday morning with President Obama signing an executive order to overturn the ban on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. It was a great step toward "restoring scientific integrity to health…
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March 12, 2009 9:45 pm | By Marge Baker
Playing Politics with America’s Future
As weeks go, I think this has been a fascinating look at the Republican obstruction machine – and how willing they are to play politics with our future. First, the Republicans fumed and fumed about the omnibus appropriations bill, as…
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March 11, 2009 5:00 am | By Stacey Gates
Supreme Court Chips Away at Voting Rights Protections
Twenty four hours after thousands celebrated “Bloody Sunday” earlier this week – a voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery where civil rights marchers including Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) were attacked and brutally beaten by Alabama state and local police,…
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March 9, 2009 1:57 pm | By Willard
NYT: Who’s Filibustering Now?
Great editorial in New York Times this morning recognizing the hypocrisy of Senate Republicans threatening to filibuster President Obama's judicial nominees well before any are named and urging Senator Leahy to let the blue slip process -- under which senators…
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March 7, 2009 4:52 pm | By Marge Baker
Republican Silence in the Face of More Rush Outrage
Rush Limbaugh is at it again, this time with his glaringly offensive – and tasteless – reference to Senator Kennedy’s health. I’m sure you’ve seen the comment: "Before it’s all over, it’ll be called the Ted Kennedy memorial health care bill." …
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March 6, 2009 10:16 pm | By Deborah Liu
Supreme Court Dismisses Al-Marri Case
Today, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal by Ali al-Marri, who has been in federal custody in South Carolina since January 2002 when Bush designated him as an enemy combatant, claiming that he was an al-Qaeda sleeper agent. The order…
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March 6, 2009 8:25 pm | By Willard
The Right Re-Tools as ‘Resistance Movement’
Another week, another clear example of who is pulling the strings in the Republican Party. On Monday, Republicans in the Senate -- all 41 of them -- sent a letter to President Obama all but demanding that he re-nominate three…