No sooner had the ink dried on Sandra Day O’Connor’s resignation letter, than the right-wing evangelicals began shouting threats: Bush had better pick a justice who would decimate the right to abortion as we know it. And corporate lobbyists promised to fight hard for a justice who would insulate big business from punitive damages, and… Read more »
“It is time to make good on those campaign promises, Mr. President. You have been given a mandate to end abortion in our nation by the American people who cast their votes for you.” — Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group “Al Gonzales is a great friend of mine. I’m the kind… Read more »
The year before Roe v. Wade was decided, I met a poor, young woman in a rural American town who had five children, born one year apart. Sally’s husband would show up about once a year, beat her up, knock her up, and leave her to fend for herself and the kids. She was a… Read more »
The nation’s attention is riveted on the fate of one poor woman in a Florida hospice. Terri Schiavo has been in a persistent vegetative state, with no upper brain function, for 15 years. Ten state courts have upheld Terri’s husband’s request to remove her feeding tube. Those courts have determined by clear and convincing evidence,… Read more »
Rumor has it that George W. Bush’s tailor is busily stitching a royal blue cloak to go with the gold crown that will adorn the president as he takes the oath of office on January 20. Now that Bush has secured a second term, it is no longer necessary to hide behind the subtle flight… Read more »
Most Republicans and many Democrats have hailed Bush’s nomination of White House counsel Alberto Gonzales for attorney general as a brilliant choice. Whereas John Ashcroft ruffled feathers with his coarse warnings that opponents of Bush’s post-9/11 agenda “only aid terrorists,” the soft-spoken Gonzales is much more palatable. And he’s Hispanic to boot, so the Bush… Read more »
After months of intense campaigning about Iraq, terror, taxes and jobs, the future of the Supreme Court has finally entered the public discourse. Chief Justice William Rehnquist is in the intensive care unit, after undergoing a tracheotomy for thyroid cancer. The Court issued a terse statement, saying the Chief would take the bench when the… Read more »
In 1988, while trying to convince skeptical conservative activists of his father’s Christian bona fides, George W. Bush reassured them that George I was with them on judicial nominations, as well as abortion and other issues dear to their hearts. Then he punctuated his declarations with the six words that would ensure their support for… Read more »
Cheers went up on both sides of the aisle last week when George W. Bush nominated John Danforth to be the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Easy confirmation is expected for the former Republican senator from Missouri who has much experience brokering agreements in the Senate. Coincidentally, Danforth, an ordained Episcopalian minister, was… Read more »
When the Supreme Court entertained arguments last Friday that could determine who will be the 43rd president of the United States, it worked virtually in private. Unlike the Florida Supreme Court, which let the sunshine (and television cameras) into the hearing that gave the green light to hand-counted ballots, the highest court in the land… Read more »