In a resounding victory for the Constitution, the Supreme Court today reaffirmed that the guarantee of fundamental fairness in our Nation’s courts applies to non-citizens and citizens alike. In Padilla v. Kentucky, the Court ruled that a lawyer has a constitutional obligation to tell an alien charged with a crime that a guilty plea could result in deportation. The result in the Court was 7-2, with Justice Stevens writing for the majority and joined by Justices Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer and Sotomayor.
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March, 2010
March 31, 2010
March 29, 2010
The Immigration Policy Center (the research and policy arm of the American Immigration Council) is pushing back today on George Will's unfortunate "birthright citizenship"
March 29, 2010
Over the weekend, President Obama announced his intention to fill 15 positions in his Administration using the recess appointment power given to him by Article II of the Constitution, which gives the President the power, while the Senate is in recess, to fill vacant positions in the Executive and Judicial branches that are otherwise subject to Senate confirmation.
March 19, 2010
by David H. Gans, Director of the Human Rights, Civil Rights & Citizenship Program, Constitutional Accountability Center
March 17, 2010
Yesterday’s Washington Post detailed the mounting efforts of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to influence this year’s mid-term congressional elections. The Post explains:
March 15, 2010
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v.
March 11, 2010
It has been a month-and a-half since the Supreme Court's monumentally wrong 5-4 ruling in Citizens United, and there is no sign that the firestorm the ruling set off in Washington and around the country is going to die any time soon.
March 10, 2010
Today, following a spirited Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, in which Senators on both sides of the aisle debated the Roberts’ Court recent decision in Citizens United v.
March 5, 2010
by David H. Gans, Director of the Human Rights, Civil Rights & Citizenship Program, Constitutional Accountability Center (CAC). This article is cross-posted at ACSBlog.
March 2, 2010
This front-page story in yesterday's Washington Post featured a quotation from Justice Antonin Scalia, taken from a 2006 Yale Law School presentation, in which the Justice calls the 14th Amendment's Privileges or Immunities Clause "flotsam." Flotsam is defined by Webster's Dictionary as "floating debris": trash, in other words. Talk about trashing the Constitution.