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Supreme Justice O'Connor Resigns and Leaves Legacy As Key Swing Vote
For this Fourth of July weekend, we are left to ponder the future direction of the SCOTUS (and gear up for some major fights for the future of America). It seems W will get to appoint at least two justices now that Sandra O'Connor has resigned and Renquist is expected to at any time. Replacing Renquist with another right-winger would not swing the court further to the right per se, but losing O'Connor's relative voice of moderation to a conservative nutjob will put many things such as reproductive rights, separation of church and state, and affirmative action into serious jeopardy. The U.S. is in danger of becoming a corporate theocracy with little concern for individual liberties or social safety nets. With other countries currently liberalizing laws against gay marriage and marijuana prohibition and other progressive issue, we seem to be moving in the exact opposite direction internally. Surely, W will be looking to please his evangelical supporters who voted for him in large part to overturn Roe v Wade and to fight "deviant" lifestyles. The time for counter-action is now!
Friday, July 1, 2005
(07-01) 08:17 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --
For a quarter of a century, Sandra Day O'Connor held down the center on the Supreme Court, pleasing liberals by standing firmly for abortion rights but voting with the majority to put Republican President Bush in office.
The first woman to serve on the court, O'Connor has been a crucial vote in holding the middle ground on landmark rulings from abortion to abuses in money and politics.
O'Connor held the center while the court became more conservative in the 24 years since President Reagan appointed her. Still, she often sided with the more conservative justices, as in the ruling that handed Bush victory in the 2000 election.
In 1992, O'Connor voted to uphold the 1973 decision legalizing abortion, calling it "a rule of law and a component of liberty we cannot renounce."
She added that some state restrictions on abortion were permissible as long as they did not represent an undue burden on a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy.
She was in the majority when the high court outlawed capital punishment for the mentally retarded. She was in the minority with the conservative wing of the court when more liberal justices ruled that juries, not judges, must make the crucial decisions that can lead to a death sentence.
In the 1980s, the Reagan administration moved to dismantle preferential treatment for minorities. O'Connor was a critical vote in thwarting the administration's plans.
She was the crucial vote when the court upheld affirmative action policies on the nation's college campuses. She played a crucial tie-breaking role as the author of the court's final word on race-conscious legislative redistricting.
"We proceed case by case as they come to us, and not with any overarching objective that the court itself" has developed, O'Connor has said. "We aren't here trying to develop something in the sense of where the country should go."
She voted to uphold a public Christmas display including a creche, but voted to bar a public Christmas display of a creche alone. Her view was that the Constitution prohibits any government action that is intended to send a message endorsing religion. Her vote determined the outcome in both cases.
The only member of the court who had held elective office, she co-authored the majority opinion supporting a law to clean up the system for financing political campaigns. O'Connor was a state senator and county judge in Arizona.
Amid many changes on the court over the years, O'Connor played a steadfast role in the middle as liberal justices were replaced by more conservative appointees. Reflecting the shift, Justice John Paul Stevens, an appointee of President Ford, became one of the more liberal members of the court in the 1990s, with O'Connor at the center.
Early in her tenure, O'Connor expressed hostility to the 1973 ruling legalizing abortion, saying that its central premise — permitting greater state control as a woman's pregnancy proceeds — has "no justification in the law or logic."
But on the much more conservative court of 1992, O'Connor declared, "Our obligation is to define the liberty of all. We reaffirm the constitutionally protected liberty of women to obtain an abortion."
O'Connor later voted with the 5-4 majority in striking down Nebraska's late-term abortion prohibition.
Some Republicans have recently seen potential vacancies, particularly O'Connor's possible retirement, as an opportunity to increase pressure on Bush to nominate a strongly anti-abortion candidate for the next Supreme Court vacancy.
___
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/
(07-01) 08:17 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --
For a quarter of a century, Sandra Day O'Connor held down the center on the Supreme Court, pleasing liberals by standing firmly for abortion rights but voting with the majority to put Republican President Bush in office.
The first woman to serve on the court, O'Connor has been a crucial vote in holding the middle ground on landmark rulings from abortion to abuses in money and politics.
O'Connor held the center while the court became more conservative in the 24 years since President Reagan appointed her. Still, she often sided with the more conservative justices, as in the ruling that handed Bush victory in the 2000 election.
In 1992, O'Connor voted to uphold the 1973 decision legalizing abortion, calling it "a rule of law and a component of liberty we cannot renounce."
She added that some state restrictions on abortion were permissible as long as they did not represent an undue burden on a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy.
She was in the majority when the high court outlawed capital punishment for the mentally retarded. She was in the minority with the conservative wing of the court when more liberal justices ruled that juries, not judges, must make the crucial decisions that can lead to a death sentence.
In the 1980s, the Reagan administration moved to dismantle preferential treatment for minorities. O'Connor was a critical vote in thwarting the administration's plans.
She was the crucial vote when the court upheld affirmative action policies on the nation's college campuses. She played a crucial tie-breaking role as the author of the court's final word on race-conscious legislative redistricting.
"We proceed case by case as they come to us, and not with any overarching objective that the court itself" has developed, O'Connor has said. "We aren't here trying to develop something in the sense of where the country should go."
She voted to uphold a public Christmas display including a creche, but voted to bar a public Christmas display of a creche alone. Her view was that the Constitution prohibits any government action that is intended to send a message endorsing religion. Her vote determined the outcome in both cases.
The only member of the court who had held elective office, she co-authored the majority opinion supporting a law to clean up the system for financing political campaigns. O'Connor was a state senator and county judge in Arizona.
Amid many changes on the court over the years, O'Connor played a steadfast role in the middle as liberal justices were replaced by more conservative appointees. Reflecting the shift, Justice John Paul Stevens, an appointee of President Ford, became one of the more liberal members of the court in the 1990s, with O'Connor at the center.
Early in her tenure, O'Connor expressed hostility to the 1973 ruling legalizing abortion, saying that its central premise — permitting greater state control as a woman's pregnancy proceeds — has "no justification in the law or logic."
But on the much more conservative court of 1992, O'Connor declared, "Our obligation is to define the liberty of all. We reaffirm the constitutionally protected liberty of women to obtain an abortion."
O'Connor later voted with the 5-4 majority in striking down Nebraska's late-term abortion prohibition.
Some Republicans have recently seen potential vacancies, particularly O'Connor's possible retirement, as an opportunity to increase pressure on Bush to nominate a strongly anti-abortion candidate for the next Supreme Court vacancy.
___
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/
For more information:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file...
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the Handmaiden's Tale was a movie that showed a potential future American theocracy. not a happy tale
the gears are in motion.
can we stop it in time?
"You had to take those pieces of paper with you when you went shopping, though by the time I was nine or ten most people used plastic cards. Not for groceries though, that came later. It seems so primitive, totemistic even, like cowry shells. I must have used that kind of money myself, a little, before everything went on the Compubank.
I guess that's how they were able to do it, in the way they did, all at once, without anyone knowing beforehand. If there had still been portable money, it would have been more difficult.
It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time.
Keep calm, they said on television. Everything is under control.
I was stunned. Everyone was, I know that. It was hard to believe. The entire government, gone like that. How did they get in, how did it happen?
That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on...
Things continued in that state of suspended animation for weeks, although some things did happen. Newspapers were censored and some were closed down, for security reasons, they said. The roadblocks began to appear, and Identipasses. Everyone approved of that, since it was obvious you couldn't be too careful. They said that new elections would be held, but that it would take some time to prepare for them. The thing to do, they said, was to carry on as usual..."
--The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood, 1985