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Thank you Supreme Court

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Federal Legislation to Help States with Public Defense Problems Introduced

By virtually all accounts, Michigan's public defense problem's are bigger than everyone else's.  So it's a cause for hope, at least, that Sen. Patricky Leahy has introduced the Justice for All Reauthorization Act of 2010 to provide assistance to states to carry out their responsibility to provide counsel to indigent criminal defendants in compliance with the 6th Amendment. On the "stick" side of the equation, the proposed legislation gives the Department of Justice authority to sue states that do not properly meet 6th Amendment requirements. 

Here's the bill (PDF).

These are the Tea Party Candidates

Top Ten is back

Top Ten Conservative Idiots is back. It will be run between now and the election here at democratic underground. I gotta believe the writer couldn't resist the chance to post about the tea party candidates. Each Monday there is a new list. Not to be missed. ** Caution language is PG 13 at least ** but you'd expect that if you have to follow all of the antics of crazy tea party candidates.

Senator Franken Talks about Judicial activism and T. Marshall

Thurgood Marshall is a hero of mine. Al Franken gets it right on the Republican's slams on him.

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238 presidential scholars: Bush worst president of modern era, fifth worst in US history

I and others have been saying this for a while. Now it is official.

It's one thing for a coterie of liberals at a late-night Washington soirée to say that George W. Bush was the worst president in their lifetimes.

It's another thing when the same is said by the nation's 238 leading presidential scholars, who have been polled annually for the last 28 years.

President Bush ranked worst among modern presidents -- and the fifth worst in history, according to the poll by the Siena Research Institute. Ranking first? President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who led the country from 1933 until his death in 1945.

President Roosevelt served four terms, the longest of any president in history. US presidents became limited to two terms after US states ratified the 22nd Amendment to the US constitution in 1951.

President Barack Obama, who hasn't yet served a full term, rated 15th.

Notes Think Progress:

Since 1982, the Siena Research Institute has polled presidential scholars on whom they view to be best and worst presidents in American history, based on a variety of issues from “integrity” to economic stewardship. This year’s poll of 238 scholars found that President Franklin Roosevelt was once again ranked on top, joined by Presidents Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington, and Teddy Roosevelt to complete the top five. However, President George W. Bush did not fare well since the last poll was conducted in 2002. He dropped 16 places to 39th, making him the worst president since Warren Harding died in office in 1923, and one of the bottom five of all time, according to the experts:

"Today, just one year after leaving office, the former president has found himself in the bottom five at 39th rated especially poorly in handling the economy, communication, ability to compromise, foreign policy accomplishments and intelligence. Rounding out the bottom five are four presidents that have held that dubious distinction each time the survey has been conducted: Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan, Warren G. Harding, and Franklin Pierce."

Bush was rated second from the bottom on “intelligence,” “foreign policy accomplishments,” and “handling of U.S. economy.” This despite promises from Bush supporters that “history will be very kind” to the former president, as his Attorney General John Ashcroft put it. Bush’s father’s legacy “held constant” in this year’s poll, with George H.W. Bush coming in at 22nd. President Reagan “dropped two places from 16th overall in 2002 to 18th today.” President Obama was ranked 15th.

You can read the full PDF of the survey here.

More Same Seder Bull S**t Gay is Icky

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Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens retiring

His replacement will be a very big deal. The Court is very right leaning and Stevens is the most liberal Justice left on the Court. An appointment of anyone but a solid liberal will skew the Court even farther to the right.

US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said Friday he will retire this summer, giving President Barack Obama a chance to make his second pick in two years to the key nine-member bench.

A leader of the court's liberal wing, Stevens, who celebrates his 90th birthday this month, is one of the longest serving justices ever, having been a member of the country's top court for 34 years.

Replacing him on the bench after he retires in June is now likely to set up a tough nominating battle in the Senate, where Democrat Obama's allies have a 59-seat majority but could face moves to hold up the appointment.

"I shall retire from regular active service as an associate justice... effective the next day after the court rises for the summer recess this year," Stevens wrote in a letter to Obama.

He said he had made the decision in order for his successor to be appointed before the court's next term starts in early October.

The Supreme Court weighs the thorniest moral and political dilemmas facing the nation. The nine justices are nominated by the president and face a Senate confirmation before taking up their post for life or until they choose to step down.

John Paul Stevens: progressive pillar of US Supreme Court

A Supreme Court representative delivered Stevens's letter to the White House early Friday, and White House counsel Bob Bauer spoke with Obama returning from a trip to Prague aboard Air Force One.

Obama was planning to make remarks about Stevens's retirement later Friday on his return to Washington, a White House official said.

The White House appears to have been quietly planning for a Supreme Court nomination battle for months, as speculation mounted that either Stevens, or one of the other justices, would retire.

"If somebody resigns from the Supreme Court, we of course will be ready," Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Monday.

Obama will be making his second pick to the top court after naming Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice to the bench last year. She was sworn in at a White House ceremony in August to replace David Souter.

Stevens was nominated by former president Gerald Ford and has sat on the bench since 1975, becoming over the years a progressive pillar of the court.

There is a current delicate balance on the court of four conservatives, four liberals and Justice Anthony Kennedy who tends to vote either way.

But Stevens's named successor is likely to face a tough confirmation battle in the Senate, amid an acrimonious political atmosphere between Obama's Democratic allies and his Republican opponents.

"Anything that the president proposes will be fought bitterly, that has been the nature of it. There is no way that he is going to find somebody who is agreeable to the Republicans in the Senate," said analyst Stephen Hess, from the Brookings Institution.

Among those mentioned as a possible successor is US Solicitor General Elena Kagan, who represents the US government before the Supreme Court, but has never been a judge.

She previously taught at Harvard University Law School, where both Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama studied.

Republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, in a statement, praised Stevens's devotion to the bench even if he said the judge's "liberalism has led to many decisions I oppose."

"Americans can expect Senate Republicans to make a sustained and vigorous case for judicial restraint and the fundamental importance of an even-handed reading of the law," McConnell added.

Obama may get yet another chance to influence the powerful court as another long serving liberal justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is battling cancer.

Only one of two women on the bench, Ginsburg, 77, has repeatedly said she plans to carry on working. There have only ever been three women Supreme Court justices.

Stevens had cagily refused to confirm his resignation in weekend interviews.

"I can tell you that I love the job, and deciding whether to leave is a very difficult decision," Stevens told The Washington Post. "But I want to make it in a way that's best for the court."

Tom Tomorrow and the Connection between violent rhetoric and violent actions

Tom Tomorrow and Health Care Reformageddon

Here is your choice ladies and gentlemen