Tag: Supreme Court

Doug Wardlow’s Record of Discrimination Pushed by Trump to Supreme Court

Trump Administration is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a case Doug Wardlow originally argued, to allow LGBTQ people to be fired for who they are

Throughout his life, Wardlow has fought to discriminate against Minnesotans based on who they are

MINNESOTA – Today, Congressman Keith Ellison, candidate for Minnesota Attorney General, and LGBT elected officials denounced Republican candidate Doug Wardlow’s record of discrimination which is headed for the United States Supreme Court.

“Minnesotans believe that everyone should be treated fairly, regardless of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation,” said Ellison. “Doug Wardlow’s career of discrimination has now caught the attention of President Trump, and threatens to allow LGBT people across the country to be fired simply for being who they are. Our state needs an Attorney General who will enforce the rights of all, not enact a political purge to push a discriminatory agenda.”

Yesterday, the Trump Administration announced that it would ask the United States Supreme Court to rule that businesses can discriminate against workers based on their gender identity. The case the Trump Administration is asking the Court to consider was originally argued by Doug Wardlow on behalf of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an anti-LGBTQ hate group, to uphold the discriminatory firing of a funeral home employee in Michigan. Continue reading “Doug Wardlow’s Record of Discrimination Pushed by Trump to Supreme Court”

Want to Know More About: The Kavanaugh Hearing

Jeffery Toobin: “You Know What, Donald Trump Was Right, Roe V. Wade Is Going To Be Overturned If Brett Kavanaugh Is Appointed.” JEFFERY TOOBIN: “But let’s remember how Brett Kavanaugh was picked and by whom. You know, Donald Trump said if I have two appointments to the supreme court, Roe V. Wade is going to be overturned. And You know what, Donald Trump was right, Roe V. Wade is going to be overturned if Brett Kavanaugh is appointed.” [New Day, CNN, 9/4/18; Video]

Jan Crawford: “Democrats Who Are Arguing, Among Other Things, That Kavanaugh On The Bench Means The Future Of Abortion Rights Is At Stake.” JAN CRAWFORD: “So, today you’re going it see lawmakers on both sides of the aisle try to frame the debate over Kavanaugh. Republicans say they want to have him confirmed to the bench by the time the supreme court returns that first Monday in October, so they’re going to have to kind of maintain a united front to fend off Democrats who are arguing, among other things, that Kavanaugh on the bench means the future of abortion rights is at stake.” [CBS This Morning, CBS, 9/4/18; Video] Continue reading “Want to Know More About: The Kavanaugh Hearing”

Kavanaugh Could Unlock Funding for Religious Education, School Voucher Advocates Say

The following article by Erica L. Green was posted on the New York Times website August 14, 2018:

Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, in Washington in July. Over his decades-long legal career, Judge Kavanaugh has argued in favor of religious freedom in education. Credit: Erin Schaff for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, in a speech last year, gave a strong hint at his views on taxpayer support for religious schools when he praised his “first judicial hero,” Justice William Rehnquist, for determining that the strict wall between church and state “was wrong as a matter of law and history.”

Mr. Rehnquist’s legacy on religious issues was most profound in “ensuring that religious schools and religious institutions could participate as equals in society and in state benefits programs,” Judge Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee to succeed Justice Anthony M. Kennedy on the Supreme Court, declared at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research organization.

Words like that from a Supreme Court nominee are breathing new life into the debate over public funding for sectarian education. Educators see him as crucial to answering a question left by Justice Kennedy after the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional for the state of Missouri to exclude a church-based preschool from competing for public funding to upgrade its playground: Can a church-school playground pave the way for taxpayer funding to flow to private and parochial schools for almost any purpose?

View the complete article here.

Kavanaugh Feared Looking ‘Silly’ on Flip-Flop on Presidential Records

The following article by Todd Ruger was posted on the Roll Call website August 13, 2018:

Boxes representing roughly 1 million pages of documents to be submitted to the committee on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Credit: Tom Williams, CQ Roll Call file photo

Long before the current Senate fight over access to presidential records as part of his Supreme Court nomination, Brett Kavanaugh sent an email to his co-workers in the White House counsel’s office about a soon-to-be-published article on access to presidential records that “makes me look very silly.”

Kavanaugh let the office know that Washington Post columnist Al Kamen planned to write a blurb to highlight how he had switched legal positions — now that he was a lawyer in the George W. Bush administration — when it comes to how much power former presidents and their families had to block the release of presidential records.

“I apologize in advance,” Kavanaugh wrote in the email, one of about 88,000 pages of documents about his work in the White House released Sunday as part of the confirmation process. “I will be screaming into a pillow at staff meeting in the morning. Uggghhhhh.”

View the complete article here.

Voters want their senators to reject Trump’s Supreme Court nominee

The following article by Emily Crockett was posted on the ShareBlue.com website July 31, 2018:

Red state Senate Democrats have every reason to vote against Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court — and nothing to lose if they do.

AP Photo, Alex Brandon

According to recent polling, even vulnerable Senate Democrats in red states have absolutely nothing to lose by opposing Trump’s extreme Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.

Republicans are eager to push Kavanaugh’s nomination through the Senate before the November midterm elections. And some Democratic senators from red states — namely West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, North Dakota’s Heidi Heitkamp, Indiana’s Joe Donnelly, and Missouri’s Claire McCaskill — have been noncommittal about opposing Kavanaugh.

But they really don’t need to be. Yes, their Republican opponents would probably try to use such a vote against them. But those attacks just aren’t likely to land with voters, and could even backfire.

View the complete article here.

Meet With Kavanaugh? Not Until There’s a Deal on His Documents, Democrats Say Image

The following article by Sheryl Gay Stolberg was posted on the New York Times website July 23, 2018:

Judge Kavanaugh, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, on Capitol Hill. Credit: Al Drago,The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats are largely giving Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh the brushoff, refusing the customary “courtesy visits” until Republicans agree to turn over voluminous documents from the Supreme Court nominee’s past.

In the two weeks since President Trump nominated him to succeed the retiring Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Judge Kavanaugh has met with 23 Republicans, and not a single Democrat. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said in an interview Monday that he would not meet with Judge Kavanaugh until the top Republican and the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee reach agreement on what documents should be produced.

And those two senators, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and Dianne Feinstein of California, are still far apart.

View the complete article here.

NBC/WSJ Poll: Support for Roe v. Wade Hits New High

The following article by Carrie Dann was posted on the NBC News website July 23,2018:

A majority of Republicans — 52 percent — say the Supreme Court decision should not be overturned.

As President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick readies for his eventual confirmation hearing, support for the court’s landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade has hit an all-time high.

A new poll from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal finds that 71 percent of American voters believe that the decision, which established a woman’s legal right to an abortion, should not be overturned. Just 23 percent say the ruling should be reversed.

That’s the highest level of support for the decision — and the lowest share of voters who want Roe v. Wade overturned — in the poll’s history dating back to 2005. In 1989, according to Gallup’s survey, 58 percent said they believed it should stay in place while 31 percent disagreed.

View the complete article on the NBC News website here.

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh piled up credit card debt by purchasing Nationals tickets, White House says

The following article by Amy Brittain was posted on the Washington Post website July 11, 2018:

The Post’s Robert Barnes explains some of the factors that could influence whether Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh is confirmed. (Video: Monica Akhtar/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh incurred tens of thousands of dollars of credit card debt buying baseball tickets over the past decade and at times reported liabilities that could have exceeded the value of his cash accounts and investment assets, according to a review of Kavanaugh’s financial disclosures and information provided by the White House.

White House spokesman Raj Shah told The Washington Post that Kavanaugh built up the debt by buying Washington Nationals season tickets and tickets for playoff games for himself and a “handful” of friends. Shah said some of the debts were also for home improvements.

In 2016, Kavanaugh reported having between $60,000 and $200,000 in debt accrued over three credit cards and a loan. Each credit card held between $15,000 and $50,000 in debt, and a Thrift Savings Plan loan was between $15,000 and $50,000.

View the complete article on the Washington Post website here.

Will Kavanaugh Make Trump a Monarch?

The following article by Joe Conason was posted on the Creators.com website July 11, 2018:

Credit: Associated Press

To Donald Trump, the qualifications of any individual for a seat on the nation’s highest court are meaningless. He knows nothing of judicial decisions except Roe v. Wade, the reproductive rights precedent that his supporters want overturned. He has no idea how to assess any judge, beyond his own superficial impressions. He could scarcely care less what any potential nominee may think about the law — with one important exception.

That exception brought us Brett Kavanaugh, winner of Trump’s Supreme Court sweepstakes, and an advocate of executive immunity from precisely the kind of investigations and lawsuits that now threaten this president.

Naturally, Kavanaugh displays all the right (and far-right) credentials, including a Yale law degree, a career dedication to the Federalist Society, and a lifetime of activism in the Republican Party, as well as a current position on the prestigious Second Circuit Court of Appeals. As Democratic senators warn, he can be expected to vote consistently to please his party’s major donors on everything from health care to voting rights. He probably hasn’t changed his mind on any public issue since college.

View the complete article on the Creators.com website here.

Showdown on a Trump Subpoena Could Overshadow Brett Kavanaugh’s Confirmation Image

The following article by Adam Liptak was posted on the New York Times website July 10, 2018:

Judge Brett Kavanaugh visited the Capitol with Vice President Pence, has expressed deep skepticism of the wisdom of forcing a sitting president to answer questions in criminal cases.Credit: Lawrence Jackson for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — It is not every day that a potential constitutional showdown over a presidential subpoena coincides with a confirmation hearing for a crucial Supreme Court seat. Less likely yet is a nominee who has written extensively about the very question at the heart of the dispute.

But that novel historical moment is here.

“It is not at all far-fetched to think that the question of whether President Trump must respond to a subpoena could come before the Supreme Court shortly after the confirmation process,” said Walter Dellinger, who served as acting United States solicitor general in the Clinton administration.

View the complete article on the New York Times website here.