SCOTUS Watch

There are no operational or legislative constraints which prevent the Federal government from eliminating deficits and debt forever.

Cynical subversion triumphs in the national debate on tax policy. Ezra Klein's review of the Tax Policy Center's report further dissects Romney's Tax Plan so that the regular guy can appreciate just how much worse off he will be with Romney. But what none of these analyses of the Romney or the Obama Tax Plans question is the fundamental rationale for taxation and borrowing to generate revenue in the first place. Read below the fold...

Izvestia:

This week, the Supreme Court will hear a case with many potential ramifications for American and international law, and for corporate responsibility for human rights around the globe. The justices will be asked to decide whether the corporations to which they have been extending the rights of individuals should also be held accountable for crimes against human rights, just as individuals are.

...in September 2010, a divided Second Circuit ... held that only individuals, and not corporations, can be sued under the statute.

Read below the fold...

On January 19, 2011, in Nelson v. NASA, the Supreme Court decided 8-0 in an opinion written by Samuel Alito that any government employee, even those who do not work with classified materials must submit to intrusive background checks. Read below the fold...

At what point do progressives stop being Democrats' whipped dogs and start acting like a movement capable of putting the Dems in their proper place as the party of the people? David Sirota wrote today about Obama's latest call to increase war spending beyond its already ludicrous proportions. Read below the fold...

Jon Walker over at Fire Dog Lake makes a very effective argument about why learning the wrong lesson from the defeat of Martha Coakley in Tuesday's Massachusetts Senate race will lead to disaster. Read below the fold...

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Via ThinkProgress, G. Gordon Liddy on Sotomayor:

LIDDY: Let’s hope that the key conferences aren’t when she’s menstruating or something, or just before she’s going to menstruate. That would really be bad. Lord knows what we would get then.

Nice. I wonder what former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and current Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg think about that? Read below the fold...

So a 13-year-old honor student goes to school one day, and her classmate gets busted for having ibuprofen. Classmate fingers the honor student as having supplied the pills ... and the girl ends up strip-searched. Lawsuit ensues, with the aid of the ACLU. The US Supreme Court justices don't seem to care as much about the Constitution and Bill of Rights as about the kiddie-porn imagery, though. Read below the fold...

Say Hello to Overruled. I'm expecting some quality stuff. Take a look at the "Why I blog" post:
Read below the fold...

Court rejects Exxon appeal in human rights case

Exxon Mobil Corp. has failed to convince the Supreme Court to halt a human rights lawsuit against it.

The justices, without comment, on Monday rejected the energy company's appeal of a ruling on a 2001 lawsuit filed by International Rights Advocates on behalf of 11 villagers in Indonesia's Aceh province.

Read below the fold...

The Supreme Court by a vote of 5 to 4 has just handed down a ruling that prisoners at Guantanamo do have a right under the U.S. Constitution, and in particular, the ruling restores habeas corpus to them, giving them the right to challenge their detention in U.S. courts. It does not specifically invalidate the entirety of the odious MCA as far as I can tell.

Need I tell you who the five and who the four were? Read below the fold...

On February 2, 2008, Punxsutawney Phil, the most well known of groundhog Spring prognosticators, did indeed see his shadow and predicted six more weeks of Winter.

However, Buckeye Chuck has challenged the outcome of Groundhog Day, citing the name recognition of Phil – a result of Bill Murray’s solid endorsement of Phil back in 1993.

Groundhog day insiders confirm that it is unlikely that the case of Chuck v. Phil will reach the highest Court.

Counsel to Chuck has advised against any legal action in light of the precedent set forth in Bush v. Gore. Read below the fold...

Barf:
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It’s been reported that:

Chief Justice John Roberts was hospitalized Monday after falling while on vacation in Maine, the Supreme Court told NBC News.

Roberts, 52, fell at his home and the court said he was taken to a hospital as a precaution.

Perhaps he was leaning too far to the Right?

Maybe there was a lack of balance… Read below the fold...

President Bush touts his appointments of Associate Justice Samuel J. Alito, Jr. and Chief Justice John Roberts to the Supreme Court bench lauding them as “strict constructionists.” In his speech congratulating Justice Alito for his confirmation , President Bush said:

“Sam Alito is a brilliant and fair-minded judge who strictly interprets the Constitution and laws and does not legislate from the bench.”

Read below the fold...