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Roberts court
High court takes giant steps backward
High court takes giant steps backward
HELEN THOMAS
HEARST NEWSPAPERS
July 4, 2007
WASHINGTON -- The new Supreme Court is more conservative than it has been in decades. It's also meaner.
It is a dream come true for Republican presidencies dating back to the "strict constructionist" court aspirations of President Nixon and now made possible by the conservative George W. Bush.
Before closing down for the summer last month, the high court tossed out a flurry of decisions that overturned or reinterpreted long-standing liberal precedents.
The court under Chief Justice John Roberts seems intent on rolling back advances in race and gender relations that have helped America achieve a more equal and humane society.
Supreme Court Reversed Denying a Petition Decision - 1st time in Sixty Years
US Supreme Court in surprise order sets hearing for Guantánamo prisoners
By John Burton
WSWS
2 July 2007
Last Friday, the Supreme Court reversed itself unexpectedly by granting the petition for review (certiorari) filed in two consolidated cases challenging the provision of last October’s Military Commissions Act that stripped prisoners at Guantánamo Bay of their right to habeas corpus. The case, filed on behalf of 45 prisoners by attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights at the New York University School of Law, is scheduled for argument next fall.
High court has entered a new era
High court has entered a new era
The Supreme Court
The chief justice, with help from fellow Bush appointee Alito, carries big rulings to the right -- a generational shift.
By David G. Savage
Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times
July 1, 2007
WASHINGTON — In what may signal a generational shift in power, new Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. led a confident conservative majority at the Supreme Court this year and moved the law to the right on abortion, religion, campaign funding and racial diversity.
Working with a 5-4 majority, Roberts prevailed in nearly all the major cases.
Court Allows Student's Anti-Bush T-Shirt
Court Allows Student's Anti-Bush T-Shirt
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Friday, June 29, 2007
WASHINGTON, (AP) --
Putting its recent ruling on student speech into practice, the Supreme Court on Friday rejected a school district's appeal of a ruling that it violated a student's rights by censoring his anti-Bush T-shirt.
A seventh-grader from Vermont was suspended for wearing a shirt that bore images of cocaine and a martini glass — but also had messages calling President Bush a lying drunk driver who abused cocaine and marijuana, and the "chicken-hawk-in-chief" who was engaged in a "world domination tour."
After his suspension, Zachary Guiles returned to school with duct tape covering the offending images.
Court limits use of race in admission
Court limits use of race in admission
Roberts Court
Justices split, 5-4, with Roberts delivering judgment in key ruling
The Associated Press
June 28, 2007
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected school diversity plans that take account of students’ race in two major public school districts but left the door open for using race in limited circumstances.
The decision in cases affecting schools in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle could imperil similar plans in hundreds of districts nationwide, and it further restricts how public school systems may attain racial diversity.
Student Loses Ruling Over “Bong Hits 4 Jesus”
Meant to be nonsensical and funny
June 25, 2007
Student Loses Ruling Over “Bong Hits 4 Jesus”
by James Vicini
WASHINGTON - A divided U.S. Supreme Court on Monday curtailed free-speech rights for students, ruling against a teenager who unfurled a banner saying “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” because the message could be interpreted as promoting drug use.In its first major decision on student free-speech rights in nearly 20 years, the high court’s conservative majority ruled that a high school principal did not violate the student’s rights by confiscating the banner and suspending him.
Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation (American taxpayers just got kicked in the ass)
It’s a bad day for the First Amendment
Supreme Court Slams Courthouse Doors Shut on Taxpayers in Religious Liberty Case
6/25/2007
In response to the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision today in Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation limiting the standing of individual taxpayers to challenge government expenditures that violate the Establishment Clause, People For the American Way Foundation President Ralph G. Neas released the following statement:
