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August 26, 2010, 9:07 pm
Nine Justices and Ten Commandments
LINDA GREENHOUSE
Linda Greenhouse on the Supreme Court and the law.
While the politically manipulated controversy over the proposed Islamic center in Lower Manhattan will eventually end, there is one dispute over religious symbolism and identity that remains, apparently, endless. I’m referring to the continuing effort by state and local governments to post the Ten Commandments in public places.
Believe it or not, a familiar Ten Commandments case is now heading back to the Supreme Court. The court has spent years making a nearly complete hash out of the public display of religious symbols, and the prospect of watching lawyers and justices engage in still more contorted efforts to attach supposedly secular meaning to obviously sectarian objects and texts is not a pleasant one. But the case could provide a window on how committed the Roberts court is to the project that some justices have clearly embraced, that of carving out more space for religion in the public square.
The new/old case is McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, which the Supreme Court last encountered in 2005. Its history is convoluted, which is part of the point. Eleven years ago, officials of two Kentucky counties, McCreary and Pulaski, decided to post framed paper copies of the Ten Commandments on the courthouse walls. Faced with a lawsuit, they retooled the display to make the Commandments part of a bigger collection of documents, most of which happened to be religiously oriented, including the national motto, “In God We Trust,” and a statement by Abraham Lincoln that “the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man.”
In case of separation of church and state, the retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens is likely to have the greatest impact.
When this tactic did not satisfy a federal district judge, who ordered the displays removed immediately, the counties tried again. They came up with the “Foundations of American Law and Government” displays, which included the Ten Commandments along with nine other documents, including the lyrics of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the texts of the Declaration of Independence and Magna Carta. An explanation informed viewers that “the Ten Commandments have profoundly influenced the formation of Western legal thought and the formation of our country” and have provided “the moral background of the Declaration of Independence.”
The federal courts remained unimpressed. The district court’s preliminary order to remove the display was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and, over a stinging dissenting opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia, by the Supreme Court. Justice David H. Souter, writing for the 5-to-4 majority, cited a 1980 Supreme Court decision that overturned a Kentucky law requiring a copy of the Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom. In that decision, Stone v. Graham, the court described the Commandments as “an instrument of religion.” Justice Souter said the First Amendment’s inclusion of the clause prohibiting the “establishment” of religion meant that “the government may not favor one religion over another, or religion over irreligion.” He added that when the government departs from that principle, “nothing does a better job of roiling society.”
Noting that “reasonable observers have reasonable memories,” Justice Souter said that an observer of the Foundations display “would probably suspect that the counties were simply reaching for any way to keep a religious document on the walls of courthouses constitutionally required to embody religious neutrality.”
That seemed to be that. But what happened next illustrates the tenacity of those, in Kentucky and across the country, who are bound and determined to have those Commandments on the wall. As a procedural matter, the case was only at the preliminary injunction stage when it reached the Supreme Court, with the result that the justices returned it, still alive, to the Federal District Court in London, Ky., for a potential trial. In an effort to bolster their case, the counties passed resolutions in 2007 declaring that the Foundations display was not an attempt to endorse religion. In a 2008 final judgment, Chief Judge Jennifer B. Coffman ruled against the counties. In June, the Court of Appeals affirmed that ruling over a fierce dissent by Judge James L. Ryan, who criticized the Supreme Court’s “persistent hostility to religion.” Judge Ryan’s dissenting opinion also praised Justice Scalia’s “powerful and logically compelling” dissent in the 2005 case, and added that he looked forward to the day when “the Supreme Court rediscovers the history and meaning of the words of the religion clauses of the First Amendment.”
A dissenting opinion like that is basically a memo to the four justices who dissented the last time: take this case if you think you can pick up a fifth vote. In addition to Justice Scalia, the dissenters were Justices Clarence Thomas and Anthony M. Kennedy along with Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, casting one of the last votes of his life. Looking at today’s court, substituting Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. for his predecessor, and adding Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who replaced a majority voter, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, it is quite plausible to imagine five justices willing to take the counties at their word and conclude that the displays are about civics and not religion. That’s what the counties’ lawyer, Mathew D. Staver, dean of the Liberty University School of Law is predicting. “It’s pretty clear to everyone” that the Supreme Court has moved in his direction, Mr. Staver told the Courier-Journal in Louisville last week, after the announcement that the counties would bring their case back to the Supreme Court.
The American Civil Liberties Union has evidently reached the same conclusion. It decided against filing a Supreme Court appeal in still another Ten Commandments case in still another Kentucky county, Grayson County, in which a different three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit earlier this year upheld the Foundations of American Law and Government display.
There is no doubt the court is changing, in ways that may not be immediately obvious. Cases that concern the separation of church and state are among those on which the retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens is likely to have the greatest impact. For years, Justice Stevens was the Supreme Court’s strictest separationist. For example, in the abortion context, he was the only justice willing to articulate the position that laws incorporating the view that life begins at conception are theological exercises that should be invalidated on Establishment Clause grounds. (The fact that we may soon have to endure another debate over embryonic stem cell research makes me miss Justice Stevens and his wisdom all the more.) Justice Stevens lost most of his battles in the religion cases, but even in defeat he set a marker and made a record. For example, he wrote a powerful dissent this spring from a splintered and nearly incoherent decision that let Congress get away with swapping public land for private under the foot of a five-foot-tall cross on a hilltop in the Mojave National Preserve. In his opinion in that case, Salazar v. Buono, Justice Stevens said the cross sent a “starkly” and “inescapably sectarian message” that couldn’t be evaded by deeming the cross a memorial to the fallen soldiers of World War I.
Until I began to research the latest chapter in the Kentucky Ten Commandments saga, I had no idea that Foundations of American Law and Government displays have basically gone viral, popping up all over the place in the five years since the court’s ruling in the McCreary County case. The South Carolina Legislature enacted a law to permit the Foundations display to be erected “in a visible, public location in the public buildings of this state and its political subdivisions.” Any such display “must include” a description of the Ten Commandments as the Kentucky counties described them, as “the moral background of the Declaration of Independence and the foundation of our legal tradition.”
The rapid spread of the Foundations displays apparently stems from legal advice based on an interpretation of a single sentence in Justice Souter’s opinion in the original McCreary County case. In concluding that, when assessed in their context, the Kentucky counties’ displays lacked an authentic secular purpose, Justice Souter noted that the court did not “have occasion here to hold that a sacred text can never be integrated constitutionally into a governmental display on the subject of law, or American history.”
I think it was a misreading, in 2005, to understand this sentence as a green light for gaming the system. For one thing, Justice Souter’s response to the Foundation display’s description of the Ten Commandments as the moral underpinning of the Declaration of Independence amounted to incredulity bordering on sarcasm. The description was “puzzling,” Justice Souter wrote, because “the Commandments are sanctioned as divine imperatives, while the Declaration of Independence holds that the authority of government to enforce the law derives from the ‘consent of the governed.’?” The secular purpose “has to be genuine, not a sham,” he said, adding that the counties appeared to assume that, to the contrary, “any trivial rationalization would suffice.” I find it hard to read those words and imagine that Justice Souter, a serious churchgoing Episcopalian, meant to suggest that some other Foundations display on some other courthouse wall would receive the court’s blessing.
But that was in 2005, and here we are in 2010 — same Commandments, different court.
Jane RosenbergJudge James Gibbons (in a court sketch from one of his cases on the bench), who resigned last week after porn was found on his work computer, may face criminal charges.
Gibbons raised eyebrows with romance with Legal Aid lawyer Jeanne Emhoff.
A cleavage-crazed criminal court judge - who fathered a son with a young Legal Aid lawyer - quit after officials found a massive porn stash on his work computer, sources said Thursday.
Disgraced Manhattan jurist James Gibbons, a whip-smart ex-prosecutor who once convicted rapists and killers, fired off a terse resignation letter last week after the nasty cache was uncovered.
"There was a lot of porn on his computer - all young women," an investigator told the Daily News. "Lots of crotch and cleavage shots."
The Manhattan district attorney's office is scouring the vile files to determine if criminal charges are warranted - and are checking whether any of the women are underage.
Gibbons, 47, already had raised eyebrows with his ethics-skirting romance with Legal Aid lawyer Jeanne Emhoff, 31, who he fathered a son with weeks ago.
Emhoff's Facebook page, which was pulled down Thursday, featured a photo of a man with a boy on his shoulder.
The porn revelation staggered the baby's grandparents.
"This is going to break her heart," Emhoff's stepdad said of his wife. "She thinks the world of Jim. ... This will destroy my wife."
Gibbons - who was not arrested - was caught when a computer-monitoring system in the courthouse red-flagged his courthouse terminal, a law enforcement source said.
He was on paternity leave when the images were discovered and the computer seized.
During the 14 years he worked in the Manhattan district attorney's office, Gibbons was well-known for his efficient handling of street crimes.
He also enjoyed a good reputation on the bench after his December 2001 appointment by departing Mayor Rudy Giulini/
"He was a very careful judge on the law," lawyer Adam Freedman said. "If he was using his state-issued computer for illegal activities, it would be uncharacteristic, considering how careful he is on the law."
Despite the possible conflicts of interest between Gibbons and Emhoff, a source close to the case said, their affair was unrelated to the investigation.
"There is absolutely no link between the judge's relationship with Jeanne Emhoff and any alleged criminal activity," the source said. "One has nothing to do with the other."
It was unclear when the porn was found on the disgraced judge's computer, but sources said its discovery was just routine.
"In government agencies, and in many private sector firms, employers are able to monitor employee computer usage," a source said.
Gibbons quit his position with a simple three-paragraph letter that offered no clues to his sudden nightmare.
"It has been a privilege to serve as a judge of the Criminal Court of the City of New York," he wrote. "Please accept this letter as a statement of my resignation of that office effective today."
Mom Accused Of Getting In Middle Of Teenage Fight
April Thompson
6:00 PM CDT, August 26, 2010
LINK TO VIDEO
http://www.wreg.com/videobeta/db3f701b-2591-4d91-8688-7513e43b2e82/News/Family-Fight
FAST FACTS:
(Memphis 8/26/2010) What happened outside the Old Navy Store at Poplar and Highland started between teens, but ended with adults allegedly getting in the melee.
Forty year old Sonja Anderson and her 22-year-old daughter Jernecka are charged with aggravated assault.
Eunice Pegues' 17-year-old daughter Kendricka was one of those attacked.
"One (stab) to the neck, the chest, the head," says Pegues.
It started at a Taco Bell where Sonja Anderson's 16-year-old daughter apparently got into an argument with Kendricka and another 16-year-old.
The two girls left and the police report says Sonja and her daughters drove up, jumped out and started fighting the teens in front of Old Navy.
The report says Sonja handed her daughter what may have been a box cutter, which the teen used to cut the 16-year old's face and chest.
Then it says Sonja grabbed a high heel shoe and screw driver and began sticking Kendricka in the head.
When someone tried to help, Sonja reportedly said 'if you touch either of them I am gonna grab my pistol out of the car and shoot you.'
"It angered me so bad. I am a mother. You are mother. You don't do that. You try to resolve. I mean try to kill a child!" says Pegues
Both Sonja and Jernecka Anderson were in jail.
Sonja's 16-year-old was sent to juvenile detention.
The teen victim who suffered the most severe wounds was at home from school, but didn't want to talk.
There are reports all this started over a boy.
But parents tell us that's not true.
Pastor pleads guilty in plot to kill disabled man for insurance
Pushia, 34, had confessed to paying hit man $50,000
 Kevin Pushia |
Justin Fenton and Kate Smith
The Baltimore Sun 2:31 p.m. EDT
August 27, 2010
A 34-year-old Baltimore pastor who worked with the developmentally disabled pleaded guilty Friday to his role in a conspiracy to kill a blind man for life insurance money.
Kevin Pushia faces life in prison in the death of Lemuel Wallace, who was found shot in the head in a Leakin Park bathroom in February 2009. Prosecutor Robin Wherley said Pushia confessed to taking out multiple life insurance policies in Wallace's name, then paying a hit man $50,000 to kill him.
That money had come from the treasury of a small East Baltimore church where Pushia was a pastor.
Pushia, who had worked as an operations manager for the Arc of Baltimore, confessed after police serving a search warrant found a notation in his planning calendar for Feb. 5, the day after Wallace was killed, that read, "L.W. project completed," prosecutors said.
"Mr. Pushia made some poor decisions, and got himself in a very difficult position," said defense attorney Russell Neverdon outside the courthouse, speaking of the circumstances leading to the killing. "His plea was an effort to purge himself, emotionally and spiritually."
Sentencing was not disclosed at Friday's hearing in Baltimore Circuit Court. A co-defendant, James Omar Clea, is scheduled to stand trial on Nov. 8.
Prosecutors would not comment on the plea due to the pending case.
Pushia told police that Clea, 32, helped arrange a meeting with the hit man, which both attended, but investigators have not been able to link anyone to the shooting and the murder weapon has not been recovered. Clea told police that Pushia said he had only said he wanted someone to beat Wallace up.
Pushia, wearing glasses and sporting a beard, did not speak at the hearing except to answer questions from his attorney and the judge. When asked his highest level of education, he said, "Master's degree."
Detectives investigating the case had few solid leads after handing out fliers in Wallace's neighborhood and visiting places he was known to frequent.
But on March 31, an agent for Globe Life Insurance made a routine check with police to inquire whether Pushia, listed as Wallace's brother on a $200,000 policy, was not a suspect in the death.
The call gave police a suspect. They searched Pushia's newly-built townhouse in Frankford and found the planning calendar and numerous insurance policies that Pushia had applied for in Wallace's name on the Internet, according to records.
Pushia's plea included seven counts of insurance fraud. Prosecutors said one of the policies listed a man named Jason McFarland, who has not been charged. Neverdon said McFarland was a "friend" of Pushia.
Neverdon said last year that Pushia had taken out policies on at least two other disabled people who died, though their deaths were the result of natural causes and the policies had been canceled before their deaths.
In addition to his involvement in the ministry since his teens, Pushia had worked at several other area homes for disabled people.
Pushia also cared for two foster children who were removed two weeks before Pushia's arrest, state officials confirmed last year. Pushia had become a foster parent through a private agency after his application with Baltimore City had been denied.
Politician raffles breast implants
CARACAS | Fri Aug 27, 2010 12:58pm EDT
CARACAS (Reuters) - A Venezuelan politician is offering breast implants as a prize in a raffle to raise funds for his parliamentary election campaign.
"Some people raffle TVs and we decided to offer this. It's an interesting prize and there's a lot of interest," Gustavo Rojas, an opposition candidate for a National Assembly position, told Reuters while campaigning in Caracas.
Cosmetic surgery, especially breast enlargement, is widespread in image-conscious Venezuela, whose beauty queens have won numerous international pageant titles.
Even a recession has not diminished Venezuelans' appetite for cosmetic surgery, with many people taking out loans for operations.
Rojas, of the opposition First Justice party, said he was not too worried about potential feminist criticism or the medical details of his offer.
"The raffle is a financing mechanism, nothing else. It's the doctor who will do the operation, not me," he said.
"When someone raffles a TV, some people think it's a good TV but others don't like it. It's the same. I'm not showing disrespect to anyone."
Venezuelans vote on September 26 for a new parliament.
No matter what their station in life, those born on August 27th tend to identify with the common man, the underdog and the downtrodden. They are painfully aware of the inadequacies of this world. Therefore, as regards everyday life, they are constantly asking themselves how it may be bettered. Though their upholding of ideals may be unselfish, however, most born on this day do have a personal stake in the admiration or even adulation they receive from those whom they nurture or defend.
August 27 people run the gamut from intellectuals and idea people who value principles for their own sake to more pragmatic types whose focus is on impacting in a tangible way on life around them. For both types, it is human nature and human needs, both material and spiritual, that concerns them. Also, for both types the same danger presents itself, that in confronting the shortcomings of the world, they man grow frustrated or negative.
Many August 27 people need to feel that they are indispensable to the well-being of their family or social group. Indeed, they cannot suffer the thought that things will run smoothly without them. However, the more evolved of this day gradually develop an ever greater capacity for unconditional giving, asking few rewards if any in return for their help.
Those born on the 27th of the month are ruled by the number 9(2+7=9). August 27th women may seem pushy to those who have traditional ideas regarding feminine rules and behavior.
Advice: Don’t wallow in your personal problems. If you are not helping others, begin at once. The energy you receive from these endeavors will light your way and help you find your place in the world. Don’t allow fixed ideals to limit your thinking and creativity.
Born On This Day: Mother Teresa, Georg Hegel, Lyndon B. Johnson, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Alice Coltrane and Ira Levin.
Strengths: Socially Aware, Caring and Idealistic
Weaknesses: Over involved, Depressed and stress-prone
This Day In History: Krakatau explodes. The most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history occurs on Krakatau (also called Krakatoa), a small, uninhabited volcanic island located west of Sumatra in Indonesia, on this day in 1883. Heard 3,000 miles away, the explosions threw five cubic miles of earth 50 miles into the air, created 120-foot tsunamis and killed 36,000 people
Famous Inventions: 1855 Clara Barton becomes the first female federal employee to achieve equal status when she was hired by the Patent Office as a clerk
Meditation
Everything is related.
This is for entertainment only.
South Union Street
The Montgomery Advertiser newspaper's blog on all things related to Alabama politics and state government, featuring the writings of Sebastian Kitchen and Markeshia Ricks
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Eggs and Issues: Bright's Comments about Pelosi Draw Laughter
Roberts/BloombergFormer GOP Sen. Alan Simpson is cochairman of President Obama's fiscal commission.
Former Sen. Alan Simpson needed only a few ill-chosen words to udderly infuriate a lot of Americans.
He compared Social Security to "a milk cow with 310 million t-ts."
The barnyard boo-boo by the cochairman of President Obama's fiscal commission outraged feminists, Social Security recipients and many liberal Democrats.
Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Peter DeFazio, a Democrat, called the comments "beyond comprehension" and asked the President to remove Simpson from the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.
The National Organization for Women said Simpson was unfit to lead the reform effort.
Simpson, 78, quickly apologized for his not so bons mots.
The Wyoming Republican, known for his biting sense of humor, goofed-up in an e-mail earlier this week to Ashley Carson, executive director of the Older Women's League.
He took issue with a column Carson wrote accusing him of "ageism and sexism" for weighing Social Security cuts.
"If you have some better suggestions about how to stabilize Social Security instead of just babbling into the vapors, let me know," wrote Simpson and added: "Call me when you get honest work."
In his apology, he told Carson he had put his "size 15 feet" in his mouth. adding "when I make a mistake, it's a doozy."
The White House on Wednesday night said it was satisfied with Simpson's apology and will keep him on the commission.
Those born on August 26
Those born on August 26th rarely assume the conspicuous position in a business, family or social function, generally preferring to work along with others toward a common goal. More specifically, many August 26th people have to struggle for recognition. Inside they know their own worth, but the world is not always quick to recognize it. If those born on this day remain content with a supporting role, or are patient enough to wait for their time to lead, they will be happy and industrious if not they may become frustrated and unproductive.
August 26 people generally make excellent parents, as they understand the importance of structure and organization in the lives of children. Those with little ambition are usually pretty relaxed in the demands they make on their offspring.
Many August 26 people enjoy working behind the scenes, and in exceptional cases can be the moving force behind of a well known individual or group. Not only team players, they actually take satisfaction in remaining unseen and anonymous rather than fretting for lack of attention, they may actually luxuriate in the freedom, as they see it, of doing their work without much ego interference. Such dedicated individuals are usually worth their weight in gold to a family or business.
Those born on the 26th of the month are ruled by the number 8 (2+6=8 ). Those born on this day are usually charismatic and determined to succeed; the negative qualities include complacency and the misuse use of power.
Advice: Sometimes being too accepting is not good. Learn to stand up for yourself, be more forceful in demanding rights in return for the work you do. Don’t live through others, take the lead yourself sometimes.
Strengths: Selfcontaining, accepting and cooperation
Weaknesses: passive, regressed and self sacrificing
Born on this day: Geraldine Ferraro, Branford Marsalis, and Lee De Forest
This Day in History: On this day in 1939, the first televised Major League baseball game is broadcast on station W2XBS, the station that was to become WNBC-TV. Announcer Red Barber called the game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York.
Famous inventions on this day: 1902 Arthur McCurdy obtained a patent for a daylight developing tank for roll film.
Meditation
Two shapes in a painting, happening in the same space, create a time between them-a kind of rhythmical occurrence.
This is for entertainment purposes only.