ACS National Convention
June 13 - 15, 2013
Washington D.C.
Register Now!

Login:

October 2009

October 23, 2009
Constitutionality of Health Care Reform is Sound, Says Prof. Chemerinsky
The claims pushed by opponents of health care reform that constitutional rights would be shredded if individuals are required to obtain health insurance are beyond wobbly says constitutional law expert and professor Erwin Chemerinsky. "There is much to argue about in the debate over health care reform, but constitutionality is not among the hard questions to consider," writes Chemerinsky in a column for Politico.
Chemerinsky, dean and professor of law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, rebuts claims that Congress' health care reform proposals that include a mandate for people to buy health insurance are constitutionally suspect.

Congress, Chemerinsky maintains, has constitutional authority, such as its powers to regulate commerce and to tax and spend that allow it to require people to buy health insurance.

Chemerinsky writes:

Under an unbroken line of precedents stretching back 70 years, Congress has the power to regulate activities that, taken cumulatively, have a substantial effect on interstate commerce. People not purchasing health insurance unquestionably has this effect.

There is a substantial likelihood that everyone will need medical care at some point. A person with a communicable disease will be treated whether or not he or she is insured. A person in an automobile accident will be rushed to the hospital for treatment, whether or not he or she insured. Congress would simply be requiring everyone to be insured to cover their potential costs to the system.

Regarding Congress' constitutional power to tax and spend Chemerinksy notes:

Congress can require the purchase of health insurance and then tax those who do not do so in order to pay their costs to the system. This is similar to Social Security taxes, which everyone pays to cover the costs of the Social Security system. Since the 1930s, the Supreme Court has accorded Congress broad powers to tax and spend for the general welfare and has left it to Congress to determine this.

Chemerinsky's entire article is available here. The professor also addressed the constitutionality of health care reform in an earlier column for the Los Angeles Times.

More
Tags:
Constitutional Interpretation and Change, Separation of Powers and Federalism, Constitution, constitutional rights, Erwin Chemerinsky, health care mandate, Health Care Reform
October 23, 2009
Serious Issues . . . Not So Serious People
Guest Post
By Jim Ludes. Mr. Ludes is the Executive Director of the American Security Project, a bipartisan national security think-tank in Washington, DC, and blogs regularly on ASP's Flashpoint Blog.

"God bless America!" That's all I could think to say when I heard the story of Pennsylvania State Representative Daryl Metcalfe, a veteran of the U.S. Army who last week branded as traitors anyone with the temerity to disagree with him on policy. I sought God's blessings as a plea for divine intervention to save us from our worst-selves.

The email from Representative Metcalfe has been circling the Internet since he sent it. It is breathtaking. At once he dismisses climate change as nothing more than "leftist propaganda." Then he asserts that any veteran advocating action on climate change is "a traitor. . . . " He then goes on to remind readers that Benedict Arnold-the Revolutionary War general who sought to betray West Point to the British-was a veteran too.

I'm assuming that Mr. Metcalf is talking about the kind of treachery obvious in quotes like this:

By increasing our American energy supply and decreasing the long term demand for oil, we will be well positioned to address the challenge of climate change and continue our longstanding responsibility for stewardship over the environment.

Or maybe it's this:

The same human economic activity that has brought freedom and opportunity
to billions has also increased the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

Or maybe it's this:

. . . Common sense dictates that the United States should take measured and reasonable steps today to reduce any impact on the environment. Those steps, if consistent with our global competitiveness will also be good for our national security, our energy independence, and our economy.

I can understand why Mr. Metcalf would want to expose the purveyors of this kind of "leftist propaganda." So let's expose them right here-on this blog. The propagandists who cobbled together the above are none other than the Republican National Committee. (See page 35 to be precise.)

So let's take this head-on. Climate change or global warming is real. Mankind is contributing to it significantly. The consensus of the scientific community is overwhelming in this regard. Even Mr. Metcalfe's fellow Republicans concede the reality of climate change.

More
Tags:
Speech and expression, Environmental protection, Economic, Workplace and Environment Regulation, Climate Change, free speech, global warming, Guest Post, Jim Ludes, Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, veterans
October 22, 2009
Senate Approves Hate Crimes Bill Extension
The Senate approved legislation that extends the definition of hate crimes to include those committed against individuals because of their gender identity, sexual orientation or disability. The New York Times reports that the extension of the federal hates crimes law was included in an "essential military-spending bill," which passed the Senate on a 68-29 vote. The House approved the extension two weeks ago and President Obama has signaled his intent to sign it. Kevin Cathcart, executive director of Lambda Legal, a civil rights organization that has worked for passage of an extended hate crimes law, lauded the Senate's action. "Years after the tragic murders of Matthew Shepard, Brandon Teena, Sakia Gunn and others our government is finally standing up and saying: No more," Cathcart said. "This law will send a message that violence motivated by hate will not be tolerated in this country and is a welcome first step towards other critical protections for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community."
The Times noted that the bill will "allocate $5 million a year to the Justice Department to assist local communities in investigating hate crimes, and it would allow the agency to assist in investigations and prosecutions if local agencies requested help."

In a guest post for ACSblog earlier this year, Liz Seaton, director of projects and Managing Attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), covered the ongoing debate over the hate crimes law and urged lawmakers to extend its coverage.

Tags:
LGBT issues, Criminal Justice, GLBT, Hate Crimes
October 22, 2009
Use of Music at Military Prison Riles Artists
Musicians are joining the chorus of advocates for closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and Tom Morello formerly of Rage Against the Machine are both protesting the reported use of their music to help break down Guantanamo detainees.

"Guantanamo is known around the world as one of the places where human beings have been tortured - from water boarding, to stripping, hooding and forcing detainees into humiliating sexual acts - playing music for 72 hours in a row at volumes just below that to shatter the eardrums," Morello said in a statement released by the National Campaign to Close Guantanamo (who just released their first adverstisement.) "The fact that music I helped create was used in crimes against humanity sickens me."

In addition to a public relations campaign refocusing attention on the yet-to-be closed detention facility, the group has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for "all secret government records pertaining to how music was utilized as an interrogation device" against Guantanamo detainees.
More
Tags:
Access to Justice, Executive power, Prison policy/incarceration, Rights of detainees, Criminal Justice, Separation of Powers and Federalism, Guantanamo, National Campaign to Close Guantanamo, Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against the Machine, Tom Morello, Torture, Trent Reznor
October 22, 2009
OLC Nomination Still Caught in Senate Delay
The Senate confirmation process for President Obama's nominations continues to drag, as noted in a letter to The Washington Post by Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR). In his letter, Henderson lauded a recent column by Ruth Marcus lambasting the Senate for moving slowly on several of the administration's nominations, but noted that the columnist failed to mention the long-stalled nomination of Indiana University law school professor and former ACS Board member Dawn Johnsen to head the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC).
Henderson writes:

Ms. Johnsen is eminently qualified to lead this office, which plays a key role in protecting our constitutional rights. She is a distinguished law professor who in the 1990s served five years in the Office of Legal Counsel, including a stint as acting director. After it became known that the office, during the Bush administration, approved illegal wiretapping of U.S. citizens and the torture of detainees, Ms. Jonhnsen spearheaded an effort by legal experts to develop guidelines to ensure that the office fulfills its proper role. She is supported by an impressive and bipartisan group of former administration officials and has the votes to be easily confirmed, if only Republicans would let the vote take place.

This is obstruction, pure and simple. And, as Ms. Marcus said, it's no way to run government.

There was some movement in the Senate yesterday on President Obama's nominations, with Nashville attorney Jane Branstetter Stranch, a nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, facing few challenging questions (and even fewer senators) at a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Nonetheless, the slow pace of President Obama's judicial nominations and Senate confirmations continues to be a source of attention in the media and criticism from both the left and the right. To date, only three of the president's judicial nominees have been confirmed, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

More
Tags:
Executive power, Judicial Nominations, Separation of Powers and Federalism, Dawn Johnsen, Office of Legal Counsel, OLC, Wade Henderson