A federal appeals court, in a decision that may be mostly symbolic, ruled on Thursday that the National Security Agency does not have the authority to carry on its massive electronic sweeping-up of telephone data — authority that has been used for at least nine years but that is now due to expire at the start of… Read More
Apr 9 2015
Federal judge threatens to end new immigration policy
NOTE TO READERS: The following post catches up with developments while the writer was necessarily away from work this week. The federal judge in Texas who is handling the claim of 26 states that the Obama administraiton’s new deferred-deportation policy is illegal threatened this week to strike down that policy altogether, even without holding a full trial.
Mar 24 2015
Have voter ID laws survived a new round of challenges?
Reprinted from Constitution Daily, the blog of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Post by Lyle Denniston. Few constitutional issues over the right to vote divide the nation’s two dominant political parties more deeply than the question of whether elections would be fairer if every voter had to show a photo ID before casting a… Read More
Mar 20 2015
Puerto Rico ends defense of same-sex marriage ban
The government of Puerto Rico on Friday ended its defense in federal court of the territory’s ban on same-sex marriage The change in position was announced by commonwealth officials in San Juan, and was confirmed in a legal brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Five same-sex couples have a challenge to the ban… Read More
Mar 18 2015
Alabama judge urges quick action if same-sex marriage wins
This post also appears on scotusblog.com In the state where the law of same-sex marriage remains the most confused, an Alabama judge has asked the state’s highest court to get ready to promptly allow such marriages if the Supreme Court rules in their favor, avoiding “foot-dragging or other forms of resistance.”
Mar 13 2015
U.S. seeks to put immigration policy into effect
Deciding not to wait any longer for a federal judge in Texas to act, the Obama administration on Thursday asked a federal appeals court to clear the way for the government to put into effect its broad new immigration policy. That policy has been on hold under the Texas judge’s order, but that judge has… Read More
Mar 11 2015
New challenge for state judge on same-sex marriage
The Alabama Supreme Court on Tuesday pushed a state judge a big step closer to a serious legal bind on the issue of same-sex marriage. It extended to Don Davis, a probate judge in Mobile, its ruling last week barring the issuance of any more marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.
Mar 9 2015
U.S. foiled again on immigration policy
Ignoring a deadline that the Obama administration attempted to impose, the federal judge handling the twenty-six states’ challenge to the new government immigration policy said he would not rule for the time being on the plea to let that policy go into effect. Instead, District Judge Andrew S. Hanen of Brownsville said, he wants to… Read More
Mar 4 2015
New US plea for speed on immigration dispute
The Justice Department told a federal judge in Texas on Wednesday that it may go to a higher court in an effort to put its new immigration policy into effect, if the judge does not act by Monday.
Mar 3 2015
States want immigration policy kept on hold
Twenty-six states that had persuaded a federal judge last month to delay the Obama administration’s new policy on deferring deportation of more than four million undocumented immigrants argued on Tuesday that there was no emergency, so no need to let the policy go into effect.
