A Massachusetts school district is racially segregating students and threatening to punish them for subjectively “offensive” statements they make, violating their civil and constitutional rights at both the state and federal level, according to a new lawsuit seeking permanent injunctions.
Parents Defending Education is challenging the “affinity groups” and associated spaces created by Wellesley Public Schools’ diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) plan for 2020-2025.
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Both Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich joined separate amicus curiae briefs with other governors and attorneys general in an abortion case out of Missouri that would gut Roe v. Wade by banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Ducey joined 11 other governors led by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to demand that the Supreme Court uphold the state law and undo Roe v. Wade. Brnovich signed on with 23 other attorneys general led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to ask that the court overrule Roe v. Wade because it is “erroneous, inconsistent, uneven, and unreliable.”
Ducey said in a statement, “The Constitution preserves the rights of the states by specifically enumerating the authority granted to the federal government. Unfortunately, almost 50 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to ignore the Constitution and created policy which has led to the over-politicization of this issue for decades.”
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Thursday, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) upheld Arizona law prohibiting ballot harvesting and out-of-precinct voting. The three dissents in the case, Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee (DNC), came from Justices Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor. The DNC had argued that the state’s bans on ballot harvesting and out-of-precinct voting discriminated against minorities, thereby violating the Voting Rights Act. SCOTUS rejected that assessment.
Arizona law prohibits individuals from casting provisional ballots in person on Election Day outside of their designated precinct. It also prohibits ballot harvesting, meaning that only family and household members, caregivers, mail carriers, and election officials can handle individual’s ballots.
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Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed an amicus curiae brief Monday in the U.S. Supreme Court with 22 states signing on, demanding the court overrule a decision by the Sixth Circuit allowing state officials to surrender in lawsuits challenging state laws they don’t want to defend. The move comes as Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, is refusing to appeal adverse decisions striking down Arizona’s elections laws.
The brief relates to Kentucky v. EMW Women’s Surgical Center, where Democratic Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear failed to appeal a court decision striking down a Kentucky law banning dismemberment abortions during the second trimester of pregnancy. Kentucky’s Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron is trying to intervene in order to defend the law.
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A Vanderbilt University chair said that race-based admissions would prevent minorities from attaining leadership positions and “influential” employment. Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair Professor of Law and Economic Joni Hersch made this assessment in a legal studies research paper, “Affirmative Action and the Leadership Pipeline.” The paper is expected to appear in Tulane Law Review soon.
Hersch wrote the article in response to the ongoing court case, Students for Fair Admissions (SSFA) v. Harvard. In the lawsuit, SSFA alleges that Harvard University discriminates against Asian applicants in its admissions process by engaging in racial balancing.
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by Debra Heine The Supreme Court on Monday struck down a Republican challenge over absentee ballots received up to three days after Election Day in Pennsylvania. Republicans in the Keystone State had sought to block a state court ruling that allowed the Nov. 6 deadline extension in the 2020 election. The decision prompted dissents from three conservative justices; Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch. The trio argued that while the legal questions in the case may not have affected the outcome of the November election, the Supreme Court should take the opportunity to clarify election law because the same legal issues could impact future elections. Throughout his dissent, Thomas characterized the Court’s refusal to take cases challenging the election as “inexplicable,” “befuddling,” and “baffling.” “These cases provide us with an ideal opportunity to address just what authority non-legislative officials have to set election rules, and to do so well before the next election cycle. The refusal to do so is inexplicable,” Thomas wrote. “The Constitution gives to each state legislature authority to determine the ‘Manner’ of federal elections,” Thomas argued. “Yet both before and after the 2020 election, non-legislative officials in various States took it upon themselves to set…
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A Georgia Gwinnett College student appeared before the Supreme Court on Tuesday to defend free speech on campuses. The student, Chike Uzuegbunam, was prohibited by campus officials from speaking about the Christian faith on campus twice in 2016, following alleged complaints from other students.
A day before the Supreme Court hearing, Uzuegbunam published an opinion piece recounting his experience at the college and throughout the subsequent court hearings. Uzuegbunam explained that he was barred from passing out fliers and discussing his faith with fellow students publicly. According to his account, he was having one-on-one conversations with students when he was stopped by a campus official and told he needed to file a request for a speech zone.
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The Republican National Committee (RNC) has come out in support of the proposed “Keep Nine Amendment” that, if enacted, would prevent packing the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Resolutions Committee adopted the resolution of support, the RNC said in a statement Friday.
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Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Carol Swain to the studio to discuss voter fraud and the potential for legislative intimidation by left-wing groups.
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Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed former Vanderbilt Professor Carol M. Swain to the show who weighed in on Tennessee joining the Texas lawsuit and why the Supreme Court would take up the suit.
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Wednesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in the studio to discuss whether or not SCOTUS will take up the Texas lawsuit on election laws.
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Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist, Dr. Carol M. Swain, to the show to discuss the increasing diversity in the Republican Party and to pray for the SCOTUS.
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The highest court in the United States on Monday will hear oral arguments in a case seeking to reform a concept that gave police officers immunity after they nearly beat a college student to death six years ago.
James King, a 21-year-old college student, was walking between his two summer jobs in Grand Rapids, Mich., when two plain-clothes officers asked for his ID in a case of a mistaken identity involving a suspect of a non-violent crime.
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A poll worker who checked in voters at the Radnor Municipal Building located in Delaware County, Pennsylvania’s Sixth Ward – about 13 miles outside of Philadelphia – said Tuesday was “total chaos.”
The worker, who we will call Sue (to protect her identity and safety), said that she worked the greater Philly area polling precinct in 2016 and never saw what she witnessed in droves on election day 2020.
People were angry, according to the election volunteer.
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Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. issued an Order on Friday evening requiring all of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties to keep all ballots received after 8:00 p.m. on November 3 “in a secure, safe, sealed container separated from other voted ballots” and that “if counted, be counted separately.”
The Order was issued in a case already before the SCOTUS – Pennsylvania Republican Party v. Kathy Boockvar, Secretary of Pennsylvania, et.al.
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On Nov. 2, 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States will begin its November sitting. All arguments during its November and December sittings will be conducted via teleconference with live audio. The court made the decision to hold proceedings this way in accordance with public health guidance in response to COVID-19.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Clint Brewer to the studio to discuss Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation Monday evening.
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Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Senator Marsha Blackburn to the newsmakers line to discuss the vote for Amy Coney Barrett as Supreme Court Justice.
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The U.S. Senate confirmed Amy Coney Barrett to be an associate justice on the nation’s highest court Monday.
Barrett fills the vacancy of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in September at the age of 87 from complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Senior Advisor to the White House Chief of Staff Ben Williamson to the newsmaker line to weigh in on the expected confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett.
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Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed guest host Ben Cunningham to the show to discuss elements of the Amy Coney Barrett hearings related to power and corruption.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Clint Brewer to the show to discuss the Democrats’ desire to pack the Supreme Court.
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Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) called the confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett “a sham” in her opening statement.
Klobuchar and her colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee convened Monday morning for the opening day of hearings, which will continue through Thursday. Barrett’s nomination was announced by President Donald Trump last month during an event in the White House Rose Garden.
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The Michigan Supreme Court on Monday rejected Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s statement asserting her unconstitutional orders still hold power over Michiganders through Oct. 30.
Whitmer previously claimed her executive orders retained the force of law for 21 days after the court’s Oct. 2 ruling.
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The topic was high tech: the code behind smartphones.
But on Wednesday the Supreme Court looked to more low tech examples, from the typewriter keyboard to restaurant menus, try to resolve an $8 billion-plus copyright dispute between tech giants Google and Oracle.
The case, which the justices heard by phone because of the coronavirus pandemic, has to do with Google’s creation of the Android operating system now used on the vast majority of smartphones worldwide. In developing Android, Google used some of Oracle’s computer code.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn to the show to discuss how the Senate will move forward with the hearings for Amy Coney Barrett.
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Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio to discuss due process and institutional constraints on government.
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President Trump has pointed to several female judges — including a Michigan judge — to fill the seat of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, according to an interview he gave on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.”
Ginsburg passed away on Friday at age 87. She had served on the U.S Supreme Court for 27 years and was championed as a solid liberal vote.
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Senators Tina Smith (DFL-MN) and Amy Klobuchar (DFL-MN) stated that President Trump shouldn’t pick the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) nominee. Instead, Smith and Klobuchar say that the newly-elected president should, and the Senate should wait to vote until then.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died Friday from cancer complications. The SCOTUS vacancy is now the epicenter of political leaders’ attention.
Democrats focused on coronavirus, climate change, racial inequality and more during their party’s convention, but none pf the keynote speakers mentioned rising violence in cities across the country or the opioid epidemic during the primetime program.
The two issues have been worsening in part due to nationwide unrest and the pandemic, media reports and studies say. The Supreme Court — a large focus of the 2016 election — was also largely ignored.
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The United States Supreme Court ruled to uphold conscience exemptions from former President Barack Obama’s birth control mandate in a victory for the Little Sisters of the Poor.
SCOTUS ruled 7-2 that the Catholic nuns are exempt from Obama’s contraceptive mandate.
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The U.S. Supreme Court said Tuesday that states can’t cut religious schools out of programs that send public money to private education in a 5-4 ruling.
Hailed as a victory for religious freedom, the justices upheld a Montana scholarship program that allows state tax credits for private schooling in which almost all the recipients attend religious schools.
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The Supreme Court ruled against a ban on taxpayer funding of religious schools Tuesday in a monumental win for school choice.
Chief Justice John Roberts joined conservative justices in a 5-4 ruling backing a Montana tax-credit scholarship program that gives residents credit if they donated to private scholarship organizations, according to Fox News, which would help the students pay for the private school of their choice.
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by Mary Margaret Olohan Conservatives are turning against Chief Justice John Roberts after the Supreme Court justice sided with liberal judges in a monumental abortion ruling. Chief Justice John Roberts sided with liberal members of the court in the close 5-4 ruling, writing that “the Louisiana law imposes a burden on access to abortion just as severe as that imposed by the Texas law, for the same reasons.” Pro-lifers and conservatives alike had anxiously awaited Robert’s decision on the landmark abortion ruling, worrying that Roberts might side with the liberal justices based on his previous votes earlier in June. Conservatives ripped into Roberts Monday following news of the decision. Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk called the chief justice “a disgrace” while former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee condemned Roberts as “an empty black robe.” Political commentator Dinesh D’Souza labeled “a sizable majority of #SCOTUS justices” including Justices Souter, Kennedy, and Roberts, “unreliable turncoats.” Republicans have nominated a sizable majority of #SCOTUS justices, yet one after another—from Souter to Kennedy to Roberts—they have proven to be unreliable turncoats. The conservative strategy of naming judges supposedly faithful to “original intent” is now a confirmed failure — Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) June 29, 2020 “Roberts has destroyed any credibility the Court may have…
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The United States Supreme Court ruled Monday that a pro-life law violates the rights of both women and abortion providers in Louisiana.
Chief Justice John Roberts sided with liberal members of the court in the close 5-4 ruling.
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Just as the infamous Dred Scott case in 1857 would have extended slavery throughout America, so Thursday’s decision in Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California threatens to make the machinations of bureaucratic government supreme and unrepealable.
Chief Justice John Roberts’ 5-4 court opinion strengthens the grip of the administrative state – the interlocking network of bureaucracy and political correctness – over the democratically elected branches that are supposed to make us a nation of self-governing citizens.
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Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed in-studio all-star panelist Crom Carmichael.
During the second hour, Leahy and Carmichael discuss Juneteenth and how Trump has done more for the black and Hispanic communities than previous presidents. The men also touched on the recent position that Chief Justice John Roberts took on an executive order that was signed eight years ago by former President Obama called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
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Live from Music Row Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed in-studio all-star panelist Crom Carmichael.
During the third hour, Leahy and Carmichael discuss the recent Supreme Court ruling that said LGBTQ people can’t be legally discriminated against.
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The Supreme Court on Monday paved the way for a critical permit for a proposed natural gas pipeline that would cross under the Appalachian Trail, siding with energy companies and the Trump administration.
The justices ruled 7-2 to reverse a lower court ruling that had thrown out the permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. It would bring natural gas from West Virginia to growing markets in Virginia and North Carolina. Its supporters say the pipeline would bring economic development, thousands of jobs and reduced energy costs for consumers.
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The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a landmark civil rights law protects gay, lesbian and transgender people from discrimination in employment, a resounding victory for LGBT rights from a conservative court.
The court decided by a 6-3 vote that a key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 known as Title VII that bars job discrimination because of sex, among other reasons, encompasses bias against LGBT workers.
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Republicans are calling on Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) to condemn Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) threats against Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
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Salem Books – an imprint of Regnery Publishing – will publish Jack Phillips’ memoir, The Baker. Phillips became a household name in 2012 after the Colorado pastry chef refused to make a wedding cake for a same sex couple. The lawsuit was eventually argued in front of the Supreme Court, who decided 7-2 in favor of Phillips.
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The Trump administration told the Supreme Court there is no reason to fast-track its consideration of two petitions seeking review of a lower court decision that struck down the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate.
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In his annual year-end report, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court John Roberts, Jr., focused on civics education, calling for increased confidence in and education about the judicial system.
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All three of Minnesota’s Republican members of Congress along with Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN-07) joined more than 200 of their colleagues in asking the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday to “reconsider” Roe v. Wade.
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by Kevin Daley The Supreme Court heard arguments in a gun rights case for the first time in nearly 10 years Monday, involving a challenge to since-repealed New York City rules that greatly restricted the transportation of firearms. Though the case is closely watched as a possible bellwether for future disputes over the Second Amendment, several members of the court, including Chief Justice John Roberts, seemed ready to dismiss the case for procedural reasons, without a decision on the contested New York regulations. New York City’s gun transportation rules Under a since-repealed ordinance, New York residents had to obtain a “premises license” from city authorities to lawfully possess a firearm. That license restricted possession to the address listed on the license itself. The transportation guidelines that license holders had to follow were before the high court Monday. Those rules provided that gun owners could carry their firearms to one of seven shooting ranges in the city. To do so, however, they had to keep their weapons in a locked container, with ammunition carried separately. They could not carry their guns past city lines. If they wished to transport weapons to any location besides an approved range, they had to…
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday heard highly anticipated arguments in the lawsuit challenging President Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
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Several prominent businesses headquartered in Minnesota signed on to an amicus brief in support of upholding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
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Sen. Kamala Harris and fellow Democratic presidential candidates are calling for Congress to impeach sitting Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh after a report Saturday resurrected allegations against the justice.
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The Left’s crusade to destroy Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh isn’t over yet. Last week, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to the National Archives to demand the release of any records related to Kavanaugh’s tenure in the George W. Bush White House from 2001 to 2006.
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