Tag: SCOTUS

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WATCH: First Senate Vote On Kavanaugh Scheduled For This Morning

Brett Kavanaugh

After rough and tumble political upheaval, the U.S. Senate will begin to vote on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavansugh to the U. S. Supreme Court today.

According to many political reporters, Republicans have 48 of the 50 votes (Vice President Mike Pence would become the 51st in case of a tie) to approve Kavanaugh.

There are four unannounced senators at this time. Three Republicans – Sens. Jeff Flake, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski – and West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin.

The GOP needs just two of them.

The first cloture vote is scheduled for 10:30AM ET/7:30AM PT.

Watch the live feed below.

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FBI Investigation ‘Complete,’ Republicans Say Time To Move On To Kavanaugh Vote

Judge Brett Kavanaugh

Well, that was quick.

The ‘new’ FBI investigation into allegations that Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, sexually assaulted Dr. Christine Blasey Ford when the were teens, is done say Senate Republicans.

The report, which will not be released to the public, is available for all 100 U.S. Senators to review, albeit for only an hour.

And one at a time, as only one copy has been made available in an effort to ensure it’s not leaked to the public.

There are apparently 46 pages of interview summaries in the report, with nine pages devoted to Kavanaugh’s former bestie, Mark Judge, who agreed to cooperate.

Ford says Judge was in the room years ago when the alleged assault took place.

Republicans say there’s nothing new to see.

“There’s nothing in it that we didn’t already know,” Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement Thursday. “These uncorroborated accusations have been unequivocally and repeatedly rejected by Judge Kavanaugh, and neither the Judiciary Committee nor the F.B.I. could locate any third parties who can attest to any of the allegations.”

But Democrats counter that there’s nothing in the report that makes them believe Ford’s allegations any less.

Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley tweeted, “I read the FBI report. This whole thing is a sham. This stunted, strangled investigation was designed to provide cover, not to provide the truth.”

According to The New York Times, several leads and identified witnesses were not interviewed.

In any case, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already scheduled preliminary votes in the full Senate regarding Kavanaugh’s nomination.

The Times notes that Senators Jeff Flake of Arizona and Susan Collins of Maine, two important Republican swing votes, have indicated they seem satisfied with the report, although neither have announced how they ultimately plan to vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination.

Interestingly, Axios reports that the Kavanaugh debacle seems to have tightened several races in the upcoming midterm elections as the issue seems to have energized Republicans in states like Montana, Indiana, West Virginia, Missouri and Tennessee.

Plus, a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released yesterday found that the “wide Democratic enthusiasm advantage that has defined the 2018 campaign up to this point has disappeared.”

While last month the Democrats appeared to hold a double-digit lead over Republicans in a generic ballot, that lead has now dropped to only 6 points.

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Poll: Vast Majority Of Americans Support Roe v. Wade

Judge Brett Kavanaugh

 A new poll by Axios/SurveyMonkey shows the vast majority of Americans want Roe v. Wade to be left alone.

The results of the new survey come as the U.S. Senate is weighing the nomination of conservative Judge Brett Kavanaugh for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Legal eagles are concerned Kavanaugh could flip the high court to a solid conservative bent that might overturn the groundbreaking abortion ruling.

According to the survey, 71% of respondents say they would NOT like to see SCOTUS make abortions illegal, while 23% do support a change in the law.

Axios points out that even rural voters, who skew conservative, want Roe v. Wade to remain the law of the land.

Additionally, the poll found a plurality of Americans disapprove of the choice of Kavanaugh, 48% – 44%.

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16 States Ask SCOTUS To Limit LGBT Workplace Protections

Republican governors and attorneys general from 16 states have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that LGBT employees can be fired based merely on their sexual orientation and gender identity.

Republican governors and attorneys general from 16 states have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that LGBT employees can be fired based merely on their sexual orientation and gender identity.

The states that signed onto the friend-of-the-court brief are Nebraska, Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming, Maine, Mississippi, and Kentucky.

Currently, only 20 states plus Washington, D.C. have passed laws expressly banning LGBT discrimination in the workplace.

A study by the Human Rights Campaign in 2011 showed a whopping 87% of voters erroneously believe its illegal under federal law to fire someone just for being LGBT.

Its notable that Maine and Utah, two of the 20 states that have LGBT workplace protections in place, have signed on in support of the brief.

The request to the Supreme Court comes in response to a lawsuit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of a transgender funeral home employee in Michigan, Aimee Stephens, who was fired in 2013 after sharing with her supervisor she was transitioning.

In 2017, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Harris Funeral Homes illegally discriminated against Stephens in firing her referencing Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act which bans workplace discrimination based on sex.

At the time, Judge Karen Nelson Moore of the 6th Circuit wrote in the opinion that anti-trans discrimination is inherently sex based.

“[I]t is analytically impossible to fire an employee based on that employee’s status as a transgender person without being motivated, at least in part, by the employee’s sex,” she wrote. Businesses that discriminate against a worker on the basis of being “transgender or transitioning status,” is taking sex into account thus violating Title VII.

Led by Nebraska Attorney General David Bydalek, the 16 states are asking SCOTUS to overturn that appeals court decision saying Congress didn’t intend for the ban on sex discrimination in Title VII to cover bias against lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender employees.

“The States’ purpose is to note that ‘sex’ under the plain terms of Title VII does not mean anything other than biological status,” Bydalek wrote.

The Supreme Court will decide this fall whether to take up the case.

(h/t Bloomberg Law)

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News Round-Up: August 21, 2018

Ryan Worley

Some news items you might have missed:

• Chippendales’ Ryan Worley doesn’t care that its only Tuesday – he’s already looking to the weekend.

• San Francisco’s last gay strip club, the iconic Nob Hill Theatre, closes its doors.

• Utah public libraries are banning LGBTQ displays during Pride month due to complaints.

• The LGBTQ community has raised more than $29,000 to help a young transgender girl get the hell out of Bigotsville, OK.

• Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh pushed for some very graphic questions during the Whitewater investigation that led to Bill Clinton’s impeachment.

• Madonna got trolled something bad for attempting to honor Aretha Franklin at last night’s MTV Video Music Awards but ended up talking about herself more than anything. Never before has the word “I” been used so many times in a tribute to someone else. Watch from Billboard News below.

Madge offered something of a Mea Culpa this moring:

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Trump Nominates Judge Brett Kavanaugh To Succeed Justice Kennedy On Supreme Court

Ending wide-spread speculation, Donald Trump tonight nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit where he has served since 2006.

The 53-year-old was also a clerk for now-retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who he will possibly replace.

Watch the nomination announcement below.

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Podcast: Pop-Star and Pro-Soccer Player Come Out, Plus How Trump’s SCOTUS Pick Could Affect Marriage Equality

In this week’s podcast:

• The governor of Maine becomes the first in the nation to veto an ‘ex-gay therapy’ ban

• An Ohio congressman is accused of turning a blind-eye to sex abuse

• Starbucks expands healthcare for transgender employees

• New Jersey adopts new trans rights

• Ohio lawmakers want teachers to snitch on trans students

• How Trump’s new Supreme Court could affect marriage equality

• Pro soccer player Collin Martin comes out

• And Panic! At the Disco’s‘ Brendon Urie comes out

All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report podcast.

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Schumer Urged Trump To Nominate Obama’s Shunned Nominee For SCOTUS

According to The Washington Post, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Shumer has privately urged Donald Trump to nominate shunned federal Judge Merrick B. Garland to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York

THIS will never happen.

According to The Washington Post, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Shumer has privately urged Donald Trump to nominate shunned federal Judge Merrick B. Garland to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

You’ll recall Garland was President Obama’s nominee in 2016 who was blocked from consideration by Senate Republicans.

Trump had called Schumer on Tuesday afternoon for a Supreme Court-centered conversation that lasted less than five minutes, according to a person familiar with the call. Schumer, the person said, pressed the president to name Garland to succeed Kennedy, arguing doing so would help unite the country.

Schumer also warned the president that nominating a jurist who would be hostile to Roe vs. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that established a woman’s right to an abortion, and to Obama’s signature health-care law, would be “cataclysmic” and damage Trump’s legacy, the person added, requesting anonymity since they were not authorized to speak publicly.

“Perhaps the most consequential issues at stake in this Supreme Court vacancy are affordable health care and a woman’s freedom to make the most sensitive medical decisions about her body,” Schumer wrote in a New York Times op-ed earlier this week. “The views of President Trump’s next court nominee on these issues could well determine whether the Senate approves or rejects them.”

Garland still serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington.

Coincidentally, that’s the same court as the current leading candidate on Trump’s list for the replacement spot on the high court, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh.

Judge Merrick Garland

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Anti-LGBTQ Organizations Signal ‘Religious Freedoms’ To Be Top Priority For SCOTUS Pick

Far-right conservatives are signaling that 'religious freedoms' should be a top issue in Donald Trump's pick to replace Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy
Donald Trump

Since the announcement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement, LGBTQ activists and advocates have expressed their deep concern about the community’s rights and protections being threatened by what will be a much more conservative successor.

Over the weekend, in an interview with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo, Trump said he was “putting conservative people” on the high court, but “probably not” ask beforehand how those nominees might vote on specific issues.

What he didn’t say in his answer is he doesn’t have to ask. Trump has a pre-selected list of 25 candidates that have already been vetted by the ultra-conservative Federalist Society. It’s a foregone conclusion that all of them have been screened for far-right positions on the law.

While its unlikely that marriage equality would ever be overturned in a wholesale manner, what many legal experts say consider possible is the Supreme Court handing down ‘carve outs’ in rulings regarding ‘religious liberty’ that would allow for legalized discrimination of LGBTQ people.

This morning, hate group leader Tony Perkins, of the virulently anti-LGBTQ organization Family Research Council, made clear on Fox News exactly what his faction of conservatives are looking at in a new Supreme Court justice.

“Given the fact that the left wants to make this all about abortion – I think it’s much bigger, I think we have religious liberty, we’ve got freedom of speech, the First Amendment in the crosshairs of the left.

“But they want to make it about life and if I were the president, I’d say, ‘Game on. I’m going to pick someone that’s beyond reproach.’ I think this supercharges the president’s base to get behind him in his pick and I think that spills over into the midterm election.”

Even though Trump falsely campaigned on the premise he would be an “LGBT ally,” his actions since taking office have demonstrated exactly the opposite.

Buzzfeed’s Dominic Holden has compiled a list of the many ways the Trump administration has worked against the LGBTQ community including:

• Reversed a federal policy that said transgender workers were protected from discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Argued that its legal to fire LGBTQ employees for being

• Supported Colorado baker Jack Phillips at the Supreme Court for turning away gay customers

• Withdrawn guidance that said Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 bans anti-transgender discrimination in federally funded schools

• Proposed banning transgender service members in the U.S. military

• Declined to appoint an LGBTQ liaison for the White House that would help communication between the administration and LGBTQ organizations and advocates

This is clearly a time that we, as a community, have to stay woke. We have to stay vigilant. We have to be involved.

And most importantly, we have to vote.

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Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy Announces Retirement

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement today. His all-important 'swing vote' helped make major LGBTQ rights a reality
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy

This is very bad news for the LGBTQ community and for the entire country.

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has announced his retirement.

“It has been the greatest honor and privilege to serve our nation in the federal judiciary for 43 years, 30 of those years on the Supreme Court,” Kennedy said in a statement.

In his official letter to President Trump, Kennedy said his resignation would be effective July 31.

Kennedy has been the all-important ‘swing vote’ for years now.

Tom Goldstein, a Washington lawyer who argues frequently before the court and publishes the SCOTUSblog web site, told NBC News, “Justice Kennedy was the most important member of the court in a century, maybe ever.’

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan, Kennedy is responsible for many important rulings in favor of the LGBTQ community:

• He authored the court’s opinion for the 1996 ruling in Romer v. Evans, which reversed a provision in the Colorado Constitution denying homosexuals the right to bring local discrimination claims.

• In 2003, he wrote the Court’s opinion in Lawrence v. Texas, which invalidated anti-sodomy laws on the basis of the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution

• On June 26, 2013, the Court ruled Section 3 of the hideous Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional in United States v. Windsor. That decision required the federal government to recognize all legal marriages. The majority opinion, penned by Kennedy, read in part, “The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity. By seeking to displace this protection and treating those persons as living in marriages less respected than others, the federal statute is in violation of the Fifth Amendment.”

• On June 26, 2015, Kennedy authored the majority ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which made marriage equality legal in every state of the country.

But there were times when Kennedy was not our friend as well:

• In the 2000 case of Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, Kennedy and four other justices voted to uphold the Boy Scouts of America’s right to ban gays from being scoutmasters.

• In 2013, he voted to gut the landmark Voters Rights Act.

• In 2010, he voted with the other conservative justices in Citizens United v. FEC which allowed Super PACS to make enormous donations to political campaigns.

• More recently, he authored the 7-2 Masterpiece Cakeshop ruling which found Colorado baker Jack Phillips didn’t get a fair shake when he was fined for refusing to sell a wedding cake to a same-sex couple.

The vacancy gives Donald Trump another chance to turn the nine-member court even more conservative after the addition of Justice Gorsuch last year.

With five solid conservatives justices on the court, SCOTUS could repeal or limit gay rights, repeal the right to abortion, and more.