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Monday, without comment (because he could not make a coherent one), Chief Justice John Roberts denied a request by the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons and the Alliance for Natural Health USA for a stay in the implementation of Obamacare. The groups had made their application last Friday arguing that since the bill had been declared a tax by the Supreme Court with Justice Roberts himself the deciding vote, and it had originated in the Senate where the Constitution says revenue bills may not originate, the law was therefore unconstitutional and implementation of Obamacare should at least be stayed...

For an administration seeking to win a skeptical public over to ObamaCare, the Justice Department could not have picked a more sympathetic foe for a Supreme Court fight than The Little Sisters of the Poor. The administration is fighting back against a lawsuit filed by the non-profit, which does not meet ObamaCare's classification of a "religious employer" because it hires and tends to people of all religious and ethnic backgrounds. Supporters say The Little Sisters of the Poor epitomize service by caring for the elderly poor and those deemed "worthless" by society. In the United States, it runs 30 homes...

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court has refused a group of doctors' request to block implementation of the nation's new health care law. Chief Justice John Roberts turned away without comment Monday an emergency stay request from the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons, Inc. and the Alliance for Natural Health USA.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday put same-sex marriages on hold in Utah until a federal appeals court can rule on whether the state law banning the practice violates the Constitution. The unsigned, one-paragraph order did not spell out the court’s reasoning in the case -- orders that put lower-court decisions on hold frequently do not do so. The order did not indicate any dissents. The decision will block further same-sex marriages in Utah for at least several weeks. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Denver, has told both sides in the dispute to submit legal arguments...

A few months ago the Atlantic explained why no one should oppose extensions to unemployment insurance. The unemployed were jobless through no fault of their own. There were three applicants to every job but not enough jobs. There wasn’t enough demand for labor. The labor market was “broken,” it explained. What was needed was to create a demand for jobs. At least they never went as far as to suggest what Nancy Pelosi adventured: that unemployment insurance was itself a form of employment. Talking to reporters, the House speaker was defending a jobless benefits extension against those who say it...

Utah announced its plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court a district judge's ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in the state. The state announced its appeal plans Thursday as Utah's last four holdout counties began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, following the orders of Gov. Gary Herbert. The office of Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said that the state will consult with outside attorneys in the coming days and seek an emergency stay with the Supreme Court as soon as possible. "The Attorney General's Office is preparing an application to the United States Supreme Court requesting a stay...

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the state of Utah’s request to stop same-sex couples’ marriages during the appeal of the judge’s ruling that started those marriages on Friday. ... Interim requests of the type that would be filed in this situation would go to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who oversees such requests from the 10th Circuit. She could either decide the matter on her own or refer the matter to the whole court for consideration. ... Because of that Monday denial, most counties in the state were allowing same-sex couples to marry on Tuesday. Additionally, an email sent from...

Political predictions are tricky, but if you just assume that Democrats will expand government and their own power at the expense of yours, you’re already batting .800. Here are some prognostications for 2014: The Obama Administration: The President’s ratings will generally plummet, with the mainstream media hailing every minor uptick as a comeback. Look for panic as the unfolding Obamacare catastrophe teaches the Millennials what they should have learned in college – that all socialist enterprises are doomed to failure. The Administration will rule by executive fiat and pack the courts. It’ll also establish a precedent that will allow a...

The Republican was once savaged for suggesting polygamy could become legal if the Supreme Court killed anti-sodomy laws. Now a judge has ruled against Utah’s anti-polygamy statute. A decade ago, Rick Santorum said polygamy, among other things, would be allowed if bans on sodomy were struck down by the Supreme Court. “Sometimes I hate it when what I predict comes true,” the once and likely future Republican presidential candidate tweeted Sunday after a federal judge decriminalized polygamy in Utah. Judge Clark Waddoups ruled late Friday that parts of the state’s law are unconstitutional, based on a Supreme Court ruling that...

Obamacare is in serious danger. After weathering a Supreme Court challenge that threatened to gut the law by striking down the individual mandate, major pillars — the business penalty, the individual penalty, and the generous health-care subsidies that make the exchange plans affordable — are being challenged in court, with at least two lawsuits potentially dealing mortal wounds before New Year’s Day. The chink in the armor is that Obamacare subsidizes plans for people “enrolled in through an exchange established by the state under section 1311 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” but in a move Democrats didn’t...

(CNSNews.com) - Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a liberal Democrat, says decisions about health care should rest with the federal government, not with individual employers who pay for their workers' health insurance. "So, you know, this is one country," Dean told CNN's "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley on Sunday. "We all have to live by a set of things that are passed in Washington and agreed to by the court. We'll see what the court does, but I don't think a particular employer has a right to decide what kind of health care their employees are going to...

The Supreme Court has ordered Attorney General Eric Holder to respond to the Home School Legal Defense Association’s (HSLDA) petition on behalf of the Romeike family, a German family who sought legal asylum in the United States to escape persecution because homeschooling is largely prohibited in their home country... the order is a hopeful sign that the High Court will hear the case. ... the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals had denied asylum to the Romeikes following the Obama administration’s appeal of an earlier decision by a U.S. immigration judge who had granted them political asylum. Uwe and Hannelore Romeike...

It seems that the crumbling house of cards that is ObamaCare continues to crumble. Every day, some new scandal is reported, new heart-breaking stories of hard-working Americans losing their health insurance, and legal challenges mount. It's so bad that Obama supporters are madly spinning lies in the vain hope that the public will continue to be fooled despite the curtain already having been drawn back. Obama has done his best to deflect the mounting criticism over his so-called Affordable Care Act by pointing at the economy, making a terrible deal with Iran that lets them continue enriching uranium, and embarking...

This isn’t a final ruling on the merits. They simply affirmed the lower court’s decision to let the new restrictions take effect now while the parties continue to battle over their constitutionality in court. The Oct. 31 appeals court ruling prompted women’s clinics in five cities to stop providing abortions. It also meant that women seeking an abortion 15 or more weeks into pregnancy had to travel to Dallas or Houston, the only cities with open facilities that could legally perform those procedures.The law would require doctors to have privileges at a hospital within 30 miles (48 kilometers). The measure...

DEVELOPING: The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to block controversial Texas abortion restrictions that have been called some of the strictest in the country. The court by a 5-4 vote denied a request by Planned Parenthood to block a ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which allows key parts of the Texas abortion law to stay in effect while the case plays out.

Another day, another secularist attempt at religious cleansing. The United States Supreme Court, which, with jaw-dropping irony, opens every session with prayer, recently heard – for the umpteenth time – oral arguments on whether local governing bodies can likewise open every session with prayer. (The U.S. Congress does it, too. Always has.) The answer, of course, is a resounding “yes,” and, unless the high court goes completely off the rails this time (anything’s possible under its presently imbalanced liberal makeup), so it shall remain. The case is Town of Greece v. Galloway. Hyper-litigious atheists – always on the prowl for...

The United States Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday on whether or not the sectarian prayers offered at a New York town's meetings are constitutional. The highest court in the land will hear an appeal from a lower court decision regarding Greece, N.Y.'s practice of having explicitly Christian prayers open town meetings. Known as Galloway v. Town of Greece, the lawsuit was filed by two residents of Greece who felt the sectarian prayers made them feel excluded from the public affairs of the town. Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens, the two plaintiffs, are being represented by the Washington, D.C.-based group...

Abortion. The Second American Civil War, as was the First Civil War, will not be about economics and cultural differences. The ultimate dividing issue, as was slavery, will be abortion. Obama knows this and he is, with increasing desperation, trying to provoke a Second Civil War while he is still President of the United States. While he can still play the Abraham Lincoln role that Time Magazine gave him, while Tea Partiers such as Sarah Palin look like a rag-tag bag of rural "Rebs". There is "Liberal Fascism" as Jonah Goldberg has defined the Progressively Marxist American Left. Then there...

These allegations relate to the quid-pro-quo that caused Magistrate Judge Robinson to enter the improper and illegal order of dismissal of the Indictment of Elizabeth Duke. In return for her dismissal, she received extraordinary consideration in the prosecution of her son, Philip Robinson Winkfield, who was facing 40 years. April 25, 2008 – Police arrest Philip Robinson Winkfield and seize five loaded guns, including two semiautomatic pistols, two shotguns and a semiautomatic assault rifle; a bullet resistant vest; 157 grams of heroin; 180 grams of crack; more than six pounds of marijuana and $8,000 cash. May 23, 2008 – Winkfield...

Founders of religious communities, prominent lay Catholics, philanthropists and church leaders are among the many Catholics whose final resting places are located within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Many know that Archbishop John Carroll, the first Catholic bishop in the United States, is entombed beside other bishops in the crypt at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore. The Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Homeland is the final resting place for spiritual shepherds including Cardinal Lawrence Shehan and Archbishop William D. Borders. There are also lesser-known Catholics who have made an...