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14 Stories

September 2008
- S. Korea's Blind Masseurs Protest Threat to Livelihood
  
  CNN | Sep 19, 08 12:54 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Blind masseurs in South Korea are protesting what they see as the end of a way of life—and their livelihood, CNN reports. Police arrested 26 yesterday who gathered on a bridge and threatened to jump because the government is for the first time allowing sighted people to become licensed masseurs. Two actually did jump, but neither were injured. The massage profession had been restricted to the legally blind since 1963. More »
  
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  South Korea • blindness • constitutionality • disability • masseuse • disability rights
- Court Boots Thai PM Over Cooking Show
  
  Associated Press | Sep 9, 08 6:19 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Thailand's supreme court has ruled that the prime minister and his government must resign, declaring that his participation in a TV cooking show violated the constitution. The unanimous ruling comes as opponents of Samak Sundaravej continue to occupy Government House in Bangkok, reports the AP. While Samak may seek a new mandate, he might use the court's ruling to make a graceful exit from the political crisis that has gripped Thailand for months. More »
  
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  Thailand • cooking • constitution • Bangkok • Samak Sundaravej • constitutionality • People's Alliance for Democracy • television personality
March 2008
- Supremes to Weigh On-Air Swearing
  
  Reuters | Mar 17, 08 1:11 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The Supreme Court might take up a gavel in one hand and a bar of soap in the other next term, when it considers a case challenging the FCC’s “fleeting utterances” standards, it announced today. The FCC is appealing a lower-court ruling—which arose when Cher dropped an F-bomb during a 2002 Fox broadcast—that it has failed to “articulate a reasoned basis” for the rules. More »
  
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  television • US Supreme Court • FCC • CBS • Fox • constitutionality • Janet Jackson • indecency • profanity • wardrobe malfunction • swearing
January 2008
- Court Skeptical of Challenge to Lethal Injection
  
  Los Angeles Times | Jan 7, 08 2:49 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - As the Supreme Court opened its hearing on lethal injection today, justices expressed serious doubts that the method amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, the LA Times reports. Most of the panel, including Chief Justice John Roberts, seemed unconvinced that the three-chemical cocktail results in a painful death, or that a better option exists. A national moratorium is in place while the high court weighs the issue. More »
  
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  US Supreme Court • John Roberts • lethal injection • death row • Antonin Scalia • constitutionality • cruel and unusual punishment
December 2007
- Candidate Paul: Awkward But Authentic
  
  New Republic | Dec 26, 07 4:09 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul speaks tonelessly about such drab subjects as the constitutionality of the Federal Reserve, but people like him anyway, writes Tucker Carlson in the New Republic , perhaps because they see “authenticity.” The no-longer-bow-tied pundit returns from the campaign trail sure about one thing: "The crowds at Ron Paul rallies aren't coming to be entertained." More »
  
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  Election 2008 • Ron Paul • campaign trail • constitutionality • libertarian • Tucker Carlson
November 2007
- Supreme Court Stops Another Execution
  
  Miami Herald | Nov 15, 07 3:56 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - The Supreme Court today halted the execution of Florida man convicted of killing a child in 1991—another sign the court wants executions halted as it considers the constitutionality of lethal injection. Mark Dean Schwab was scheduled to die at 6 p.m., but he will now wait until the court decides whether lethal injections constitute cruel and unusual punishment. More »
  
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  Florida • US Supreme Court • death penalty • lethal injection • constitutionality • executions
October 2007
- Justices Stay Execution, Signaling Moratorium
  
  New York Times | Oct 31, 07 6:30 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The Supreme Court delivered an eleventh-hour stay for a prisoner slated to die by lethal injection last night, giving what the New York Times calls a "nearly indisputable indication" that a majority of justices are willing to block all executions until they rule on a death penalty case next spring. Earl Berry had eaten his last meal in a Mississippi jail, and the verdict was delivered 19 minutes before the scheduled execution. More »
  
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  US Supreme Court • death penalty • constitutionality • moratorium • Earl Berry
- A Death Penalty Moratorium?
  
  New York Times | Oct 19, 07 9:19 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Is there a stay on all US executions? The Supreme Court has recently granted 2 and refused to nix a third, as more inmates challenge lethal injection. “The states are getting the message,” says one expert, while another mentions “moratorium mojo” on his blog. But critics warn that it's not so simple: The Supreme Court's messages are mixed, and it won't rule on lethal injection's constitutionality per se in 2008. More »
  
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  US Supreme Court • lethal injection • Antonin Scalia • constitutionality • moratorium
- Texas Executions at Standstill
  
  Associated Press | Oct 3, 07 1:44 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - As the US Supreme Court reviews the constitutionality of lethal-injection methods, a Texas appeals court yesterday stayed an execution order scheduled to be carried out tonight—bringing the country's busiest death row to a standstill. The Supreme Court is looking at a case brought by death-row inmates in Kentucky who say the injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. More »
  
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  lethal injection • constitutionality • Texas capital punishment
September 2007
- Supreme Court Will Take Up Lethal Injection
  
  Associated Press | Sep 25, 07 2:40 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The Supreme Court will take up the constitutionality of lethal injections in what a public defender called one of the most critical death penalty cases “in decades.” The challenge stems from a 2004 suit by two Kentucky inmates on death row who charged that the method constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, the AP reports. More »
  
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  US Supreme Court • death penalty • Indiana • Kentucky • lethal injection • death row • constitutionality • voting rights • photo ID • anesthetic
- Habeas Corpus Bill Withers in Senate
  
  New York Times | Sep 19, 07 3:59 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A bill to allow terrorism suspects to challenge indefinite detention faltered in Washington today as only 56 Senate votes could be mustered to cut off debate on the habeas corpus measure. Sixty are needed for bills to move forward for a vote in the upper chamber; supporters said they might still renew the legislation, the New York Times reports. More »
  
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  Congress • terrorism • Senate • US Supreme Court • Patrick Leahy • habeas corpus • constitutionality
July 2007
- Court Scraps Fraud Case
  
  Wall Street Journal | Jul 16, 07 8:00 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A federal judge in Manhattan begrudgingly tossed out fraud charges against 13 KPMG execs today, ruling that the prosecutor illegally pressured the tax behemoth not to front their former employees' trial costs. The execs had been accused of orchestrating a scheme that helped wealthy clients evade billions of dollars in taxes. More »
  
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  constitutionality
June 2007
- Courts Debate Definition of 'Retarded'
  
  Los Angeles Times | Jun 11, 07 11:02 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Sentencing the mentally retarded to death is unconstitutional, and individual states set the cut-off between disabled and competent—sounds simple, but in practice, the Supreme Court's 2002 ruling has proven nearly impossible to enforce. At issue, the LA Times reports, is the gray area between low IQ and retardation, a moving target for lawyers and courts alike. More »
  
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  US Supreme Court • death penalty • death row • constitutionality • disabled • mental retardation
April 2007
- Supreme Court Rejects Appeals From Gitmo Detainees
  
  Washington Post | Apr 2, 07 12:44 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The Supreme Court declined to hear the case of detainees at Guantanamo who challenged the constitutionality of their confinement, the Washington Post reports. The rejected appeal questioned the validity of the military commissions law passed last year, and the legality of being held for more than five years with being charged. More »
  
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  Bush administration • terrorism • US Supreme Court • Guantanamo Bay • prison • constitutionality