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The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to hear an emergency appeal of vaccine requirements for Maine health care workers. The high court has previously rejected a challenge to a vaccine mandate for New York City teachers. Vaccine mandates have been challenged across the country over the pandemic. The US Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stop a state-imposed COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers in Maine that's expected to take effect next week. The high court declined to hear an emergency appeal of the Maine vaccine requirement. The order was handed down by Justice Stephen Breyer, a Democratic appointee...

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Tuesday to hear an emergency appeal of a vaccine requirement imposed on Maine health care workers, the latest defeat for opponents of vaccine mandates. It was the first time the Supreme Court weighed in on a statewide vaccine mandate. It previously rejected challenges of vaccine requirements for New York City teachers and Indiana University staff and students. Justice Stephen Breyer rejected the emergency appeal but left the door open to try again as the clock ticks on Maine’s mandate. The state will begin enforcing it Oct. 29. The Maine vaccine requirement that was put in...

The U.S. Supreme Court has delivered two major rulings that are favorable to police officers. The nation’s highest court overruled two decisions and handed law enforcement big wins in a pair of cases over qualified immunity. Republicans overwhelmingly support qualified immunity, arguing that if it was taken away officers would be subject to lawsuits for nearly every difficult call they are faced with on the job. This would make it nearly impossible to recruit or retain good officers, they say. The justices reversed two federal appeals courts that allowed excessive force lawsuits to proceed against officers in separate cases in...

The Supreme Court on Monday sided with law enforcement in a pair of cases that implicated “qualified immunity,” the controversial legal doctrine that gives police broad protection from lawsuits. In a pair of unsigned summary rulings issued without noted dissent, the justices reversed two federal appeals courts that had permitted excessive force lawsuits to proceed against officers in separate cases arising from California and Oklahoma. The justices ruled the officers should be granted qualified immunity, which shields government officials from liability unless it is proven they violated a “clearly established” right, a difficult legal hurdle. Both lawsuits dealt with police...

On the eve of a public hearing, President Joe Biden’s commission released a series of reports on various proposals to reform the Supreme Court. The report appeared to reject the idea of expanding the court, receptive to term limits for justices, and proposed confronting the so-called “shadow docket” with increased transparency.Setting out explicitly to avoid “partisan conflict” and “polarization,” the commission disappointed many on the Democratic Party’s left flank by criticizing the idea of adding justices to the Supreme Court — a theory described as “expansion” by its supporters and “court packing” by its critics. Former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt...

Attorney General Merrick Garland was one President Barack Hussein Obama’s choice for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. He may yet be again if Congressional Democrats get their way somehow and pack the Supreme Court beyond its current nine justices. As Dementia Joe Biden’s AG he has proven no moderate as he was advertised to be as he seeks to eviscerate the U.S Constitution one amendment after another. Forget the Bill of Rights – it is just Russian misinformation. Tucked away in the corner of the First Amendment written by old white male supremacists, you know, the guys...

Documents released Thursday were not final report but draft discussion materials ahead of Friday meeting -------- Initial progressive reaction to draft discussion materials released by the White House's presidential commission on the Supreme Court Thursday was not positive, as Democratic activists and commentators derided the commission for its apparent reluctance to endorse court-packing. "This report is an abomination," Slate writer Mark Joseph Stern tweeted.

Biden commission’s draft materials on Supreme Court reform show split over adding justices A growing chorus of critics — especially those furious with the tactics used by Republicans to appoint the three most recent justices — have called to expand the size of the bench. Proponents include former presidential candidates and Cabinet members. Some of the commissioners agree with the pro-expansion arguments, “at least in part,” the draft materials said. But other commissioners concluded that adding seats “is likely to undermine, rather than enhance, the Supreme Court’s legitimacy and its role in the constitutional system,” the commission wrote. “There are...

Liberal Justice Elena Kagan clashed with her conservative colleague Brett Kavanaugh during a Supreme Court hearing over the Boston Bomber on Wednesday as they heard arguments about whether an appeals court was justified in overturning Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's death sentence. It was a rare breach of protocol as liberal and conservative wings clashed over the punishment for Tsarnaev's role in the 2013 attack that killed three people. The court's conservative majority appeared sympathetic toward the Justice Department's challenge to a 2020 lower court ruling that upheld his conviction but overturned his death sentence. The three liberal justices asked tough questions but...

Confronted on his claim that Republicans “stole” the 2000 election, Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe refused to say on Sunday that George W. Bush won that election. CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash played a couple soundbites of McAuliffe falsely saying that Democratic nominee and former Vice President Al Gore won. A third soundbite of McAuliffe falsely claiming that Bush lost the 2004 election was also played. “You’re being criticized for saying, well wait a minute, the Republicans are questioning election integrity when that’s exactly what you did multiple times in more than one...

A federal appeals court Friday night quickly allowed Texas to resume banning abortions after heartbeats have been detected, just one day after clinics began racing to serve patients again for the first time since early September. A one-page order by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the nation's strictest abortion law, which bans abortions once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks. It makes no exceptions in cases of rape or incest. "Patients are being thrown back into a state of chaos and fear," said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents several...

The past six weeks in Texas have been hellish for pregnant women seeking abortions. The decision by a federal judge in Austin on Wednesday night to pause enforcement of Texas’ ultrarestrictive anti-abortion law, S.B. 8, offered them a reprieve — if only temporary. The conservative-tilted U.S. Supreme Court is planning to hear arguments in December about a separate restrictive abortion law in Mississippi, which activists fear could lead to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Though the ruling in Texas is welcome, the inevitability of an appeal seeking to overturn that decision and the looming Mississippi case are casting a...

Turns out, Merrick Garland's daughter is married to a man who is the co-founder of an "education service company" called Panorama Education, which, you will not be surprised to learn, provides materials on critical race theory to school districts – including dismantling "unconscious bias and systemic racism in schools." Oh, so the thing that parents are complaining about, is the thing that Merrick Garland’s family is getting rich from. Two days ago, Merrick Garland made it a crime to complain about the beliefs that are enriching his family. Does this make sense? This specific company has raised a ton of...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday advised a lower court to reconsider earlier decisions that blocked an estimated $3.6 billion from being used for construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall championed by former President Donald Trump. After taking office in January, President Joe Biden has sought to halt funding for the border wall construction that was pushed by his predecessor. The Biden administration had argued that the Supreme Court did not need to weigh in on the border wall funding case because the project was closed down by the new administration. But the Court's Monday ruling called for a reassessment...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed the Biden administration a stunning defeat with regard to construction on former President Donald Trump’s border wall, which currently sits incomplete as illegal immigrants continue to flood across the open border. The country’s high court ordered lower courts to vacate previous rulings about the wall, citing “changed circumstances” in the case. Environmental activists, activist judges, Democrats in Congress and private law organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union have of course opposed the wall since before concrete was ever poured. [snip] On appeal, the Ninth Circuit agreed with the lower court ruling...

The billion-dollar abortion chain Planned Parenthood just lost another attempt to block the Texas heartbeat law in court, meaning babies will continue to be saved from abortion violence. On Monday, the Texas Supreme Court refused the abortion chain’s request to allow its lawsuit to proceed, the Texas Tribune reports. Texas Right to Life, one of the parties named in the lawsuit, celebrated the ruling. “We are thankful that Planned Parenthood’s attempt to shortcut the normal process of litigation was again denied,” said Kimberlyn Schwartz, media and communication director for the pro-life organization. Federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, also...

Liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, said he doesn't 'intend to die on the court', in a hint toward retirement Progressives are pushing Breyer to step down so President Joe Biden can appoint a younger, liberal replacement Breyer also warned against court packing despite a 6-3 conservative majority 'If the Democrats can do it, the Republicans can do it,' he told NPR President Biden has set up a commission to look at reforming the Supreme Court But Breyer said more justices could likely cause people to lose trust in the court The party has expressed anxiety that the justice...

(CNN)US Capitol Police on Tuesday took into custody a suspect from a "suspicious vehicle" parked near the Supreme Court after giving the person commands and using a flash bang device. "One of our teams just moved in and extracted the man from the SUV. The man is in custody. Everyone is safe," Capitol Police said on Twitter. More than a half-dozen law enforcement vehicles, including a tactical vehicle, could be seen in the area after USCP said on Twitter they were investigating a "suspicious vehicle" and closed roads in the area. The Supreme Court, which returned to in-person arguments for...

Just heard an explosion outside the US Capitol. Sounded like something blown in place

Click here to view the full articleClick here to view the full articleThe Supreme Court on Monday turned away an appeal by Washington, D.C., residents over their lack of voting rights in Congress.The justices’ move affirmed a lower court ruling that held that D.C. residents are not entitled to voting representation in the U.S. House.In a brief unsigned order Monday, the justices indicated their ruling was based on a Supreme Court decision from more than two decades ago that found that Washingtonians do not have a constitutional right to a vote in Congress.Two of the court’s more conservatives justices —...