Tag: U.S. Supreme Court

What The United States Constitution Really Says About ‘Birthright Citizenship’

Gregory Watson
Constitution Series 14th Amendment

In Section 1 of its 14th Amendment, the U.S. Constitution reads in pertinent part: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Proposed by Congress in 1866 — and deemed by a procedurally-rare subsequent vote of Congress to have been validly ratified by the sufficient number of state legislatures in 1868 — the 14th Amendment is among the Constitution’s lengthiest and it touches upon a number of different topics each of which could stand alone. Authorship of the above-quoted words has been attributed to United States Senator Jacob Howard of Michigan. This particular provision of the 14th Amendment is generally acknowledged to overturn the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the now-infamous 1857 case of Dred Scott v. Sandford in which it had been determined that African-Americans born in the United States — to parents likewise born within the United States — could not be deemed to be American citizens. Often overlooked by persons professing to be in-the-know about the 14th Amendment, and what it does — or does not — convey about birth citizenship are the key words…

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Commentary: The U.S. Constitution Narrowly Prevailed Over Mob Rule And Character-Assassination

Gregory Watson

On October 6, 2018, now-Associate Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh was formally confirmed by the U.S. Senate — in a rare Saturday session — with a slender vote of 50 yeas and 48 nays in the 100-member body. Both of Tennessee’s Senators, Republicans Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, cast their votes in favor of Kavanaugh joining the highest court in the land. The last time that someone gained membership onto the High Court by such a close margin was on May 12, 1881, when Thomas Stanley Matthews (nominated by President James Garfield) squeaked by with 24 yeas and 23 nays in the Senate.  Matthews went on to distinguish himself on the Court as a foe of racial discrimination when he wrote the Opinion in the 1886 case of Yick Wo v. Hopkins, striking down the City of San Francisco’s then-policies of restricting the ability of Chinese immigrants in that city — and placing extraneous procedural obstacles in their path — to establish businesses there, thus infringing upon the federal Constitution’s 14th Amendment. A short time after this past Saturday’s 50-48 vote, Chief Justice John Roberts administered the official oath to Kavanaugh as the 114th Justice of the Supreme Court, thereby…

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Phil Bredesen Afraid to Admit He’d Side With Schumer to Delay Vote on SCOTUS Nominee Until After Midterm Elections?

Chris Alto
Phil Bredesen, Chuck Schumer

On the heels of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announcing his retirement, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), called for delaying the Senate vote on the President’s nominee until after the November mid-term elections. Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07), who is running to succeed Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), issued a statement shortly after Kennedy made his plans known and indicated her intent to support President Trump’s nominee. The Tennessee Star asked Democrat Phil Bredesen who is also running to succeed Corker, a simple question – “Do you agree with Chuck Schumer that no vote should be held on the SCOTUS nominee until after midterms?” Whether out of loyalty to Schumer who personally recruited Bredesen to run for the Senate, or because he is afraid to alienate potential votes, Bredesen had no response. Bredesen has gone out of his way to avoid giving direct answers to some of the more defining issues in the November elections including whether he would vote for a Constitutional originalist like Neil Gorsuch and whether he agrees with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision upholding President Trump’s travel ban.          

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Supreme Court Lifts Ruling on Christian Florist Barronelle Stutzman, Who Refused to Decorate Same-Sex Wedding for Long-time Customers

Admin
Barronelle Stutzman

Reuters   After siding with a baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday sent back to lower courts a similar dispute over a florist who declined to create flower arrangements for a same-sex wedding based on her Christian beliefs. The justices threw out a 2017 ruling by Washington state’s Supreme Court that Barronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene’s Flowers in the city of Richland, about 200 miles (320 km) southeast of Seattle, had violated the state’s anti-discrimination law and a consumer protection measure. The court ordered the top Washington state court to revisit the case in light of its ruling on June 4 in favor of Colorado baker Jack Phillips, who similarly cited his Christian beliefs in refusing to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. Stutzman in 2013 refused to provide the arrangements to Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed, who were getting married after the state legalized same-sex marriage the prior year. She was hit with a $1,000 fine and directed to make floral arrangements for same-sex weddings if she does so for opposite-sex weddings. In the baker case, the court ruled that a Colorado state commission had…

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FACT’S David Fowler: Supreme Court Trampled States’ Rights In Ruling Creating Birth Certificate Rights For Same-Sex Couples

Wendy Wilson
U.S. Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Arkansas must put the names of same-sex couples on children’s birth certificates, a decision David Fowler, president of the Family Action Council of Tennessee, said reflects the high court “again eroding the rights of the states.” Justice Neil Gorsuch dissented in an opinion joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. The decision reversed an Arkansas Supreme Court ruling that upheld a state law defining the other spouse as the woman’s husband and presumed father. Alabama’s highest court had said “it does not violate equal protection to acknowledge basic biological truths.” The plaintiffs in the case before the U.S. Supreme Court were two married lesbian couples who had children through anonymous sperm donation. One woman in each couple gave birth and wanted her partner to be listed as her spouse, but the state would only issue certificates with the birth mother’s name. The presumption of motherhood for lesbian partners is “irrational, illogical and impossible,” Fowler told The Tennessee Star. Fowler said that when the high court moved to “deconstruct marriage” in a 2015 ruling that struck down state bans on same-sex marriage, it “started the process of deconstructing the family as a whole.” Birth…

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ACLJ Asking People to Sign Petition to Confirm Neil Gorsuch to Supreme Court

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  The conservative American Center for Law and Justice is asking people to sign a petition in support of confirming Judge Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court. President Trump’s nominee is facing a Democratic filibuster and Republicans in the Senate are talking about using the so-called “nuclear option” to stop it. That would involve changing Senate rules so that a nominee can be confirmed with a majority vote instead of meeting a 60-vote threshold. This is the first time in history that a nominee to the Supreme Court has faced a partisan filibuster. “We must replace Justice Scalia with a staunch conservative,” the ACLJ says on its website. “The next Supreme Court justice will likely be the determinative vote on the most monumental issues of our time: abortion, religious liberty, national security, and free speech.” The left has launched “a scorched-earth campaign to defeat him,” according to the ACLJ. “They don’t want a proven conservative on the court.” Meanwhile, former President Obama’s group Organizing for Action is asking supporters to sign a petition to stop Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell from changing the Senate rules to confirm Gorsuch. “This is a reckless tactic that could ruin the checks and balances…

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