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From the category archives:

Civil Rights

At the polling place

November 6, 2008

I was a poll observer on election day. I saw:
One poll worker who called everybody "baby," as in: "Have you ever voted before, baby? Well, sweetie, you just fill out the bubble for the person you want, OK baby? But don't write anybody's name down there where it says 'write-in,' baby, because then you're voting [...]

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Why People Disagree About the Meaning of the Constitution: Policy Arguments

November 4, 2008

     The fifth and final type of argument under the Constitution is a policy argument.  Policy arguments are fundamentally different from arguments based upon text, intent, precedent, or tradition.  The four standard types of arguments are grounded in the past, while policy arguments look to the future.

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Ohio Election Law Action!

September 13, 2008

Ohio looks to be an important swing state (again!) in the upcoming Presidential elections. But you might not have realized that legal issues may determine the outcome. Efforts to settle these issues in advance seem to have failed. Here are a few of the battles currently being fought:

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The Supreme Court at the Tipping Point – Be Sure to Vote

September 2, 2008

     Between 1937 and 1943 President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed eight justices to the Supreme Court. These justices, who included Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurter, William Douglas, and Robert Jackson, changed the meaning of the Constitution. For the first time in American history the Court began to systematically protect the rights of individuals and minority groups [...]

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The Supreme Court at the Tipping Point – Freedom of Religion

August 18, 2008

     The focus of one of the starkest ideological divisions on the Supreme Court and an area of law that may undergo dramatic change as a result of the 2008 presidential election is the interpretation of the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment.

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The Supreme Court at the Tipping Point: Freedom of Expression

August 12, 2008

     In 1927 in the case of Whitney v. California Justice Louis Brandeis wrote that the First Amendment protects "freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think." Freedom of thought is absolute, but freedom of speech is not an absolute right because in some situations speech can cause harm, as Justice [...]

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The Supreme Court at the Tipping Point – Affirmative Action

August 4, 2008

     Affirmative action is a difficult issue for the same reason that abortion is – the stakes are high for both sides.

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The Supreme Court at the Tipping Point: Gay Rights

July 28, 2008

     Gay rights cases may be arranged in four categories that fall along a spectrum according to the level of hardship that the law imposes. The most serious cases involve criminal laws or legal disabilities that are imposed upon gays and lesbians; less serious, but no less significant, are laws that deny equal benefits to [...]

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Latest Revealed Torture Memo Calls Into Question Whether Earlier Torture Memo Was Really Withdrawn

July 25, 2008

     In recent days the A.C.L.U. has released three more Bush administration memos relating to the torture of prisoners.  The third memo raises a serious question regarding whether the Bush administration secretly continued to rely upon a legal opinion which it had publicly repudiated.

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Contraception as Abortion

July 22, 2008

     The Bush administration's Department of Health and Human Services has drafted a a proposed rule that would redefine certain forms of contraception as "abortion."  According to the New York Times:
The proposal defines abortion as follows: "any of the various procedures – including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any [...]

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The Supreme Court at the Tipping Point: Racial and Gender Equality

July 21, 2008

      
     Originally the United States Constitution did not embrace the principle of equality. Instead the Constitution protected slavery in gross contradiction to the Declaration of Independence that had stated "all men are created equal."

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The 160th Anniversary of the Women's Rights Movement

July 18, 2008

July 19 is the 160th anniversary of the Declaration of Sentiments, a document signed by 68 women and 32 men at Seneca Falls, New York at the first women's rights convention.  The Declaration, written by feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton as a take-off on the Declaration of Independence, was the launching point for the women’s rights movement in [...]

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