Curious what people think of this. Veterans groups and members of Congress are panning the new drone warfare medal because it will outrank the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, both of which are combat medals. It’s hard for me to see how this doesn’t make sense. Obviously some medals are awarded for things beside physical bravery. But it does seem kind of off that the medal awarded to someone wounded in combat would rank inferior to one awarded to someone who wasn’t in any physical danger.
TPM Reader JM looks at Justice Scalia’s increasing indifference to hiding his judicial activism …
Searching for consistency from Justice Scalia is a sucker’s chore, but his comments today are especially gobsmacking. This is someone whose entire mission in life is to torpedo the “living Constitution” and finish off the idea that legal meanings and judicial interpretations should change over time, adjusting to changing circumstances.
The big non-Tea Party potential Senate candidate for the open seat in Iowa just said he’s not running.
TPM Reader JS chimes in on Justice Scalia’s textualism …
Compare and contrast.
1. Justice Scalia today regarding the voting rights act: “This is not the kind of question you can leave to Congress.”
2. The United States Constitution, Amendment XV: “SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. SECTION 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” (My emphasis.)
Sahil Kapur has more on Justice Scalia’s questioning during today’s oral arguments on the Voting Rights Act — and on Justice Sotomayor’s indirect rejoinder to Scalia’s line of questioning.
Let’s not be too hasty escalating penalties for assault and domestic violence, says one New Hampshire lawmaker, because “a lot of people like being in abusive relationships.”
While the Supreme Court was hearing oral arguments on the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act this morning, across the street at the Capitol President Obama and the congressional leadership were unveiling a statue of Rosa Parks.
Our initial report from today’s Supreme Court oral arguments on the Voting Rights Act.
How did it go?
This question from Chief Justice John Roberts to Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, Jr., who was defending the law, gives you a good sense of the proceedings: “Is it the government’s submission that citizens in the South are more racist than citizens not in the South?”
Sahil Kapur has more.
Others have done an excellent job explaining why so many pundits and news analysts are constitutionally unable to describe the impasse over sequestration as anything other than a bipartisan failure — while also revealing, perhaps unintentionally, that President Obama is advocating the very compromise they claim to believe is necessary.
But mark down Feb. 27, 2013, as the day this self-deception morphed into something more like the establishment’s very own Obama derangement syndrome. Read More
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), the top Republican in the House on immigration reform (he’s the chair of the relevant committee) seems to be opening the door to supporting a ‘path to citizenship’ as part of immigration reform.