Supreme Court

Can Citizens United be rolled back?

by News Sources 12.16.2011

Andy Kroll reports: On Thursday evening, residents of 83 towns and cities throughout the country—places like Marietta, Georgia, and East Troy, Wisconsin, and Anchorage, Alaska—will make their way to the home of a friend or neighbor or outright stranger for a night of partying. But these aren’t holiday parties. They’re the ground-level rumblings of a [...]

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Obama reserves the right to use torture

by News Sources 11.22.2011

Eric Lewis writes: As a candidate in 2008, President Obama stated categorically, “We’ll reject torture — without exception or equivocation.” During his first month in office, he made good on his pledge, signing an executive order prohibiting torture or inhumane treatment. There is no reason to doubt that the order has been followed. This was [...]

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We’ve been warned: the system is ready to blow

by News Sources 08.15.2011

From Britain, Larry Elliott writes: For the past two centuries and more, life in Britain has been governed by a simple concept: tomorrow will be better than today. Black August has given us a glimpse of a dystopia, one in which the financial markets buckle and the cities burn. Like Scrooge, we have been shown [...]

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Big brothers: thought control at Koch

by News Sources 04.24.2011

In The Nation, Mark Ames and Mike Elk report: On the eve of the November midterm elections, Koch Industries sent an urgent letter to most of its 50,000 employees advising them on whom to vote for and warning them about the dire consequences to their families, their jobs and their country should they choose to [...]

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Once a terrorist, always a terrorist — unless you’re an Israeli

by Paul Woodward 01.05.2011

David Cole challenges the Supreme Court’s idiotic ruling on the definition of “material support” offered to designated terrorist organizations. Did former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Tom Ridge, a former homeland security secretary, and Frances Townsend, a former national security adviser, all commit a federal crime last month in Paris [...]

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Grave injustice: Maher Arar and unaccountable America

by Paul Woodward 06.27.2010

At Middle East Report Online, Lisa Hajjar writes: On June 14, the Supreme Court buried the prospect of justice for Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen of Syrian origin who was “extraordinarily rendered” by the United States (via Jordan) to Syria in 2002. Arar was suing the US officials who authorized his secret transfer, without charge, [...]

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Idiocy holds sway on the Supreme Court and inside the Obama administration

by Paul Woodward 06.25.2010

It seems hard to fathom but the evidence is now overwhelming: if someone repeats the word “terrorist” often enough their brain will become functionally useless. Consider the Supreme Court’s decision on Monday in support of the Obama administration’s sweeping definition of “material support” as applied to so-called Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) — a designation applied [...]

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The Israel lobby’s curious defense of an alleged Somali war criminal

by Paul Woodward 04.04.2010

Yousuf v. Samantar is the first human rights suit arising from abuses committed in Somalia under the brutal regime of Siad Barre. It is currently pending before the Supreme Court, where an odd coalition of defenders has filed briefs on behalf of the defendant, Mohammed Samantar, a prime minister under Barre and an alleged war [...]

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NEWS: Supreme Court stands up for torture (so long as it’s secret)

by Paul Woodward 10.10.2007

Secrecy defense prevails in torture case By David G. Savage, Los Angeles Times, October 10, 2007 In a victory for the Bush administration and its use of the “state secrets” defense, the Supreme Court refused Tuesday to hear a lawsuit from a German car salesman who said he was wrongly abducted, imprisoned and tortured by [...]

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NEWS: Supreme Court cover-up

by Paul Woodward 10.09.2007

Supreme Court won’t hear torture appeal By David Stout, New York Times, October 9, 2007 A German citizen who said he was kidnapped by the Central Intelligence Agency and tortured in a prison in Afghanistan lost his last chance to seek redress in court today when the Supreme Court declined to consider his case. The [...]

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