Free Republic

NEW YORK - New York State’s highest court said on Tuesday that the U.S. Constitution guarantees jury trials to noncitizens charged with crimes that could subject them to deportation, in a divided ruling that prompted a call for the Supreme Court to weigh in. The Court of Appeals rejected an argument by Bronx county prosecutors that deportation is merely a civil consequence of criminal convictions, and the Sixth Amendment did not require jury trials for defendants charged with minor yet deportable crimes. “It is now beyond cavil that the penalty of deportation is among the most extreme and that it...

Congress and the Bush administration could still save Terri Schiavo – if they would simply enforce legal subpoenas that were issued last week demanding that Congress be allowed to interview Terri and others in the controversial matter. Those Congressional subpoenas, however, have been wantonly ignored by a Florida state judge and local authorities in a brazen act.

Does "Gay" Marriage Harm the Institution of Marriage? by Daniel J. Phillips     Rogue court activism, and messed-up people with (evidently) far too much time on their hands and far too rich resources, have once again set out to push America in a direction in which it ought not go.I speak, of course, of "gay" (homosexual) marriage.My intent here is not to focus on the whole issue of homosexuality. I have a more modest aim. I want to address one argument which is heard frequently from the pro-"gay"-marriage faction: "Nobody has ever explained to me how 'gay' marriage threatens...

"Certainly our decision today marks a significant change in the definition of marriage as it has been inherited from the common law and understood by many societies for centuries," wrote Chief Justice Margaret Marshall in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court opinion finding a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. "But it does not disturb the fundamental value of marriage in our society." That is either the most dishonest assertion in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health or the most naive. Either way, it is false. Of course the most radical redefinition of marriage in centuries is going to have deeply disturbing...