Gauging the Pope's Supreme Court

Well, it seems like America's fundamentalists and fascists have finally found a successful strategy when it comes to picking Supreme Court Justices. When in doubt, nothing but a Catholic will do. Can't ask a Supreme Court nominee about Roe vs. Wade? Nominate a Catholic. Bummed out about that pesky establishment clause in the First Amendment? Nominate a Catholic. Sick and tired of brown folks clamoring for equal opportunity? Nominate a Catholic. Get a little queasy imagining what homosexuals might be up to in the bedroom? Nominate a Catholic.

Let's review. Of the eleven Catholic Supreme Court Justices in the history of the United States, five of them currently darken the halls of Supreme Court. They are Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy, and Alito. Let's review the impact of the Court's Catholic Cabal (CCC) in recent decisions that have been handed down.

• Upholding the Partial Birth Abortion ban? Catholics yea, all other justices nay.
• Excise a student's free speech rights? Catholics yea, all other justices nay.
• Scrapping voluntary public school desegregation? Catholics yea, all other justices nay.

It goes on and on. Can't somebody just please, make it all go away? We're losing our country here. It's being ripped away, decision by decision. Arggghhhhh.

NSA Wiretap Slapdown!

See, warrantless wiretapping IS illegal.

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled today that the warrantless wiretapping program as carried out by the National Security Administration (NSA) is unconstitutional, as it violates our rights to free speech and privacy. Read her decision here (pdf file), but to sum it up nicely, she states that the defendants "are permanently enjoined from directly or indirectly utilizing the Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) in any way, including, but not limited to, conducting warrantless wiretaps of telephone and Internet communications, in contravention of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and Title III."

She also noted that the program "violates the separation of powers doctrine, the Administrative Procedures Act, the First and Fourth amendments to the United States Constitution, the FISA and Title III."

Then she points out that our Chief Executive has also violated his oath of office:

"The president of the United States ... has undisputedly violated the Fourth (amendment) in failing to procure judicial orders."

And to confront the Administration's never-ending efforts to grab powers they do not, by law, have the right to posess, she went on to say: “There are no hereditary kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution.”

It is amusing to observe Administration allies in Congress as they try to spin her adherence to 200 years of right to privacy precedents as "judicial activisim."

Judge Taylor's decision comes from a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which would still be counting me among its card carrying members if they could just refrain from sending me an endless stream of junk mail begging for contributions beyond my membership fee.