Opening: Voting rights advocates in Pennsylvania yesterday told a state judge the state's new voter identification law violates the constitution, The Washington Post reports. Proponents of the law contend the measure's needed to fight voter fraud. The Legal Intelligencer has coverage of the opening salvos here.
Cleared: A federal appeals court has cleared the Church of Scientology in a dispute over human trafficking, The National Law Journal reports. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said two former ministers of the church could have left the organization at any time. The couple had claimed church officials required manual labor that included cleaning up dried human excrement.
14 Point: The Michigan state Supreme Court is studying typography in a dispute over whether the typeface on a petition to gather signatures was written in the type size specified by state law. "While the arguments at times sounded like a typography seminar, the underlying dispute isn't academic," a report in The Wall Street Journal said. "It involves a power struggle between the Republican-dominated state government and business leaders on one side, and public-employee unions and city officials on the other."
Cracking down: The authorities in Anaheim, Calif., are cracking down on groups of protesters as violence continues to plague the city following unrelated police shootings that left two men dead, The New York Times reports. “Violence and vandalism have no place in the conversation,” Mayor Tom Tait said. The Los Angeles Times has this story: "Protests reflect deep divisions in Anaheim."
14,000 Down: Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) cast his 14,000 vote yesterday, joining six other Senators who've reached that milestone. Vice President Biden was presiding over the Senate at the time. But not to see the historic vote. Rather, Biden was present in the event his vote would be needed to break a tie on a tax cut measure.
Defending: Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is defending the vote Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. cast in support of the Obama administration's healthcare law. Judges, O'Connor said, are not beholden to the president who appointed them. More coverage here in The BLT about O'Connor's remarks.
Comments