This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

February 24 is the 55th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 310 days remaining until the end of the year (311 in leap years).

On this day in 1803, the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Marshall, decides the landmark case of William Marbury versus James Madison, Secretary of State of the United States and confirms the legal principle of judicial review–the ability of the Supreme Court to limit Congressional power by declaring legislation unconstitutional–in the new nation.

Marbury v. Madison is a landmark case in United States law and in the history of law worldwide. It formed the basis for the exercise of judicial review in the United States under Article III of the Constitution. It was also the first time in the world that a court invalidated a law by declaring it “unconstitutional.”

This case resulted from a petition to the Supreme Court by William Marbury, who had been appointed by President John Adams as Justice of the Peace in the District of Columbia but whose commission was not subsequently delivered. Marbury petitioned the Supreme Court to force Secretary of State James Madison to deliver the documents, but the court, with John Marshall as Chief Justice, denied Marbury’s petition, holding that the part of the statute upon which he based his claim, the Judiciary Act of 1789, was unconstitutional.

Marbury v. Madison was the first time the Supreme Court declared something “unconstitutional,” and established the concept of judicial review in the U.S. (the idea that courts may oversee and nullify the actions of another branch of government). The landmark decision helped define the “checks and balances” of the American form of government.

The Issue

There are three ways a case can be heard in the Supreme Court: (1) filing directly in the Supreme Court; (2) filing in a lower federal court, such as a district court, and appealing all the way up to the Supreme Court; (3) filing in a state court, appealing all the way up through the state’s highest courts, and then appealing to the Supreme Court on an issue of federal law. The first is an exercise of the Court’s original jurisdiction; the second and third are exercises of the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction.

Because Marbury filed his petition for the writ of mandamus directly in the Supreme Court, the Court needed to be able to exercise original jurisdiction over the case in order to have the power to hear it.

Marbury’s argument is that in the Judiciary Act of 1789, Congress granted the Supreme Court original jurisdiction over petitions for writs of mandamus. This raises several issues that the Supreme Court had to address:

Does Article III of the Constitution create a “floor” for original jurisdiction, which Congress can add to, or does it create an exhaustive list that Congress can’t modify at all?

If Article III’s original jurisdiction is an exhaustive list, but Congress tries to modify it anyway, who wins that conflict, Congress or the Constitution?

And, more importantly, who is supposed to decide who wins?

In its answer to this last question, the Supreme Court formalizes the notion of judicial review. In short, the constitutional issue on which Marbury v. Madison was decided was whether Congress could expand the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

 303 – Diocletian, Roman Emperor, publishes his edict that begins the persecution of Christians in his portion of the Empire.

1303 – Battle of Roslin, of the First War of Scottish Independence.

1387 – King Charles III of Naples and Hungary is assassinated at Buda.

1538 – Treaty of Nagyvarad between Ferdinand I and John Zapolya.

1582 – Pope Gregory XIII announces the Gregorian calendar.

1607 – L’Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi, one of the first works recognized as an opera, receives its premiere performance.

1711 – The London premiere of Rinaldo by George Frideric Handel, the first Italian opera written for the London stage.

1803 – In Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the principle of judicial review.

1809 – London’s Drury Lane Theatre burns to the ground, leaving owner Richard Brinsley Sheridan destitute.

1822 – The 1st Swaminarayan temple in the world, Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Ahmedabad, is inaugurated.

1826 – The signing of the Treaty of Yandaboo marks the end of the First Burmese War.

1831 – The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the first removal treaty in accordance with the Indian Removal Act, is proclaimed. The Choctaws in Mississippi cede land east of the river in exchange for payment and land in the West.

1848 – King Louis-Philippe of France abdicates the throne.

1863 – Arizona is organized as a United States territory.

1868 – Andrew Johnson becomes the first President of the United States to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives. He is later acquitted in the Senate.

1875 – The SS Gothenburg hits the Great Barrier Reef and sinks off the Australian east coast, killing approximately 100, including a number of high profile civil servants and dignitaries.

1881 – China and Russia sign the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty.

1895 – Revolution breaks out in Baire, a town near Santiago de Cuba, beginning the second war for Cuban independence, that ends with the Spanish-American War in 1898.

1917 – World War I: The U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom is given the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany pledges to ensure the return of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico if Mexico declares war on the United States.

1918 – Estonian Declaration of Independence.

1920 – The Nazi Party is founded.

1942 – Battle of Los Angeles: a UFO flying over wartime Los Angeles causes a blackout order at 2:25 a.m. and attracts a barrage of anti-aircraft fire, ultimately killing 3 civilians.

1944 – Merrill’s Marauders: The Marauders begin their 1,000 mile journey through Japanese occupied Burma.

1945 – Egyptian Premier Ahmed Maher Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree.

1968 – Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted; South Vietnam recaptures Hue.

1976 – Cuba: national Constitution is proclaimed.

1980 – The United States Olympic Hockey team completes their Miracle on Ice by defeating Finland 4-2 to win the gold medal.

1981 – An earthquake registering 6.7 on the Richter scale hits Athens, killing 16 people and destroying buildings in several towns west of the city.

1983 – A special commission of the U.S. Congress releases a report that condemns the practice of Japanese internment during World War II.

1989 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini offers a USD $3 million bounty for the death of The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie.

1989 – United Airlines Flight 811, bound for New Zealand from Honolulu, Hawaii, rips open during flight, sucking 9 passengers out of the business-class section.

1996 – The last occurrence of February 24 as a leap day in the European Union and for the Roman Catholic Church.

1999 – The State of Arizona executes Karl LaGrand, a German national convicted of murder during a botched bank robbery, in spite of Germany’s legal action to attempt to save him.

2006 – Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declares Proclamation 1017 placing the country in a state of emergency in attempt to subdue a possible military coup.

2007 – Japan launches its fourth spy satellite, stepping up its ability to monitor potential threats such as North Korea.

2008 – Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba after nearly fifty years.

Holidays and observances

   * Christian Feast Day:

         o Matthias

         o Modest (Bishop of Trier)

         o Sergius of Cappadocia

         o February 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   * Dragobete (Romania)

   * Flag Day (Mexico)

   * Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Estonia from Russian Empire in 1918; the Soviet period is considered illegal annexation.

   * National Artist Day (Thailand)

   * Regifugium (Ancient Rome)

Tripoli: a city in the shadow of death



Gunfire in the suburbs – and fear, hunger and rumour in the capital Thousands race for last tickets out of a city sinking into anarchy

Robert Fisk, with the first dispatch from Libya’s war-torn capital, reports



Thursday, 24 February 2011  

Up to 15,000 men, women and children besieged Tripoli’s international airport last night, shouting and screaming for seats on the few airliners still prepared to fly to Muammar Gaddafi’s rump state, paying Libyan police bribe after bribe to reach the ticket desks in a rain-soaked mob of hungry, desperate families. Many were trampled as Libyan security men savagely beat those who pushed their way to the front.

Among them were Gaddafi’s fellow Arabs, thousands of them Egyptians, some of whom had been living at the airport for two days without food or sanitation. The place stank of faeces and urine and fear. Yet a 45-minute visit into the city for a new airline ticket to another destination is the only chance to see Gaddafi’s capital if you are a “dog” of the international press.

Assange to be extradited to Sweden



Wikileaks founder Julian Assange should be extradited to Sweden to face sexual assault allegations, a judge has ruled.

Loving Thy Dictatorial Neighbor  

China is blocking the release of a report by a UN expert panel on the revelations of a new and highly sophisticated uranium enrichment plant in North Korea, according to Security Council diplomats.

China blocks report on North Korea’s new nuclear facility, UN diplomats say



Many council members pushed for the publication of the report, arguing that all 192 UN member states should have access to its findings, according diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity.

The report which found that Pyongyang is ignoring UN sanctions and continuing its nuclear enrichment program contains recommendations on how to improve Pyongyang’s compliance with sanctions imposed after illegal nuclear and missile tests in 2006 and 2009.

Yes, I’m A Lying Doctor  

 

University strips German minister of his doctorate



THE GERMAN defence minister rejected opposition claims he was a “liar and a cheat” but has admitted writing an “obviously problematic” doctoral thesis.

But yesterday the minister’s alma mater, the University of Bayreuth, stripped him of his doctor title, five years after awarding it summa cum laude – the highest grade.

A week after the first claims were raised, the Bundestag debated yesterday the ballooning number of unreferenced sources in Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg’s 2006 thesis on US-EU constitutional history.

It Doesn’t Matter What You Think

 

Fresh gun battles erupt in Côte d’Ivoire

 

“There’s firing everywhere. I’m hearing heavy weapons booming all over the place,” said one resident of the Abidjan suburb of Abobo, where up to 15 Gbagbo loyalists were killed in an ambush on Tuesday.

The clashes between Gbagbo’s forces and backers of Alassane Ouattara, following a disputed election in November, threaten to reignite a conflict in the world’s biggest cocoa producer and dash hopes of reuniting a country split by a 2002 to 2003 war.

India overlooks abuse of domestic workers in new sexual harassment bill

India’s first bill to protect women against sexual harassment has been slammed for excluding a provision for domestic workers who make up the bulk of women workers.



By Betwa Sharma, Contributor

New Delhi

As more and more women enter the workforce, India is en route to passing its first law to protect them against rampant sexual harassment in the workplace.

If passed, the law would require companies and institutions – both public and private – to establish female-led internal committees to follow up on sexual harassment complaints.

But the bill has been slammed for excluding domestic workers, estimated to be up to 90 million strong and 70 percent women. Without including homes that employ housekeepers, cooks, and nannies, critics say the new law will be nearly useless. The ensuing legal debate is also highlighting the emergence of a civil society alarmed by the mistreatment of domestic workers as India attempts to safeguard women’s rights and beef up workplace standards.

Hope fades for NZ quake survivors; death toll climbs to 98

 

Another 200 missing; damage estimates rise to $12 billion



CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand – International rescuers intensified their search for earthquake survivors in New Zealand Thursday, despite fading hopes of finding any more people alive and fears that a damaged 26-story tower could collapse nearby at any time.

Police say the death toll from the New Zealand earthquake has risen to 98.

Superintendent Dave Cliff told reporters Thursday that police had been notified that 98 people were dead and that 226 people were missing.

Prime Minister John Key said earlier that police held grave fears that around 200 people listed as missing may not have survived Tuesday’s quake.

Regular Features-

• Late Night Karaoke by mishima
• Muse in the Morning by Robyn

Featured Essays for February 23, 2011-

• Health and Fitness News by TheMomCat
• Making Sense of Revolutions by cabaretic
• S02E04: H.R. 3 Compared to Hyde by Main Street Insider
• Which Side Are You On? by ek hornbeck
• What are you reading? Feb 23 2011 by plf515
• Obama finds DOMA UNconstitutional! by RiaD
• It’s Gotta Be Bad If Even Bob Barr Gets It by TheMomCat

DocuDharma

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Well, here I go again, oversimplifying, being idealistic, possibly ranting.  To all of these I plead guilty.  In advance.

President Obama’s made a few statements about the demonstrations in Wisconsin.  The most widely disseminated one is this one, reported in TPM:

Well I’d say that I haven’t followed exactly what’s happening with the Wisconsin budget. I’ve got some budget problems here in Washington that I’ve had to focus on. I would say, as a general proposition, that everybody’s gotta make some adjustments to new fiscal realities. And I think if we want to avoid layoffs — which I want to avoid, I don’t want to see layoffs of hard-working federal workers.

We had to impose, for example, a freeze on pay increases for federal workers for the next two years, as part of my overall budget freeze. You know, I think those kinds of adjustments are the right thing to do.

On the other other hand, some of what I’ve heard coming out of Wisconsin — where you’re just making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain, generally — seems like more of an assault on unions.



And I think it’s very important for us to understand that public employees, they’re our neighbors, they’re our friends. These are folks who are teachers, and they’re firefighters, and they’re social workers, and they’re police officers. You know, they make a lot of sacrifices, and make a big contribution, and I think it’s important not to vilify them, or to suggest that somehow all these budget problems are due to public employees.

So, I think everybody’s gotta make some adjustments, but I think it’s also important to recognize that public employees make enormous contributions to the well being of our states and our cities.

Sounds, feels, smells and looks like a politician.  It’s balanced.  It’s cautious.  It looks over his shoulder to wonder which side might ultimately win the Battle of Madison.  It sounds like he’d like to be on the winning side for 2012.  What it doesn’t sound like by any means is leadership.

Leadership would be going to Madison and linking arms and standing in solidarity with the demonstrators and union members against the reactionaries and would-be union busters.  It would be standing up to the Koch funded “movement.”  It would be explaining clearly to all who would listen that these unions are important to sustained high pay in Wisconsin and the nation, and that the antedeluvian effort to kill these unions must be defeated.  The Wisconsin football stadium might be a good place to hold the rally.

The President, however, hasn’t shown any signs that he’s ready to lead a fight for labor, his largest supporter.  It looks like he might still want to invoke politesse and refer to these union busters as “the right to work” advocates with whom he has a small disagreement.

These people don’t deserve that kind of deference.  They have ginned up a plan to destroy public unions and are inflexible about it.  They will not modify it or back off from it.  They plan to destroy public unions.  Period.  They have begun by trying drive a wedge between public workers’ unions. The teachers and highway workers and bureaucrats are ok to beat up on and they won’t be able to bargain, but those the cops and firefighters, which are more traditionally Republican, will.  

Today’s mock phone call with “David Koch” proved beyond all cavil that Scott Walker is the lead dog running a national union busting movement.  He doesn’t care at all about the state’s budget.  This is another item entirely.  This for Walker is only about destroying public unions.  Yes, it’s happening through the state legislatures, but this is a manifestation of an organized, well funded, nationwide movement to emasculate public workers’ unions.

That’s why the unions can’t afford to lose this battle.  And it’s why President Obama needs to organize an appearance in Wisconsin.  The unions have already conceded on the economic issues in this confrontation by agreeing to pay more for their health insurance and to contribute more to their pensions.  Those issues are not what’s keeping 14 Wisconsin legislators under cover in Illinois (or elsewhere).  No.  They are outside the state solely to protect collective bargaining.  It bears repeating.  What makes the confrontation persist is only one thing: the governor’s adamant refusal to drop his plan for withdrawal of collective bargaining rights for certain Wiaconsin public workers.  Plain and simple: the Governor insists on destroying these unions.

That’s why the national democratic leadership in Washington needs to go to Wisconsin.  And they need to go now.  This is a confrontation that can and should be won.  Obama and the national leadership have to stop playing Bert Lahr.  They have to show up in numbers, and they have to roar.

cross-posted from The Dream Antilles

Solid premiers.  A double dose of Nova (it means ‘won’t go’ in Spanish).

I don’t need money. People give me things because they believe in me.

• AMC– The Godfather Part II
• Bravo– Top Chef marathon (with premier)
• Disney– Meet the Robinsons
• Discovery– Mythbusters, Desert Car Kings (premier)
• ESPN– Hoopies, Thunder @ Spurs, Clippers @ Hornets
• ESPN2– College Hoopies, Temple at Duke, Baylor at Missouri
• Food– Worst (Season Finale repeat), Throwdown, Restaurant: Impossible (premiers)
• FX– Hancock
• History– Aliens!
• Oxygen– Rumor Has It x 2
• Sci Fi– Face Off x 2 (premier + Instapeat)
• Speed– Car Warriors (Series Premier)
• TBS– Are We There Yet? x 2 (premier)
• Turner Classic– All The King’s Men, You Can’t Take It With You
• TLC– Toddlers & Tiaras marathon (Season Finale premier)
• TNT– Bones marathon
• Travel– Man v. Food marathon (thank goodness, with premier)
• TV Land– Hot in Cleveland, Retired at 35 x 2 (premiers + Instapeats)
• USA– NCIS marathon
• Vs.– Sharks @ Penguins
• VH1– New Jack City

Now, shut up! Shut up, all of you! Now listen to me, you hicks. Yeah, you’re hicks too, and they fooled you a thousand times like they fooled me. But this time, I’m going to fool somebody. I’m going to stay in this race. I’m on my own and I’m out for blood.

Later-

You wanna know what my platform is? Here it is. I’m gonna soak the fat boys and spread it out thin.

• ESPN2– College Hoopies, New Mexico State @ San Jose State
• Turner Classic– The Great Ziegfeld
• USA– Fairly Legal, Royal Pains (this week’s)

Dave hosts Rainn Wilson, Hank Aaron, and The Mountain Goats.  Jon (I hardly know whether to feature him any more, he’s just as big a corporatist as Bill O’Reilly and David Gregory, perhaps you’ll give me your opinion in the comments) has War Criminal Donald Rumsfeld, Stephen Stephanie Coontz.  Conan hosts Jason Sudeikis, Brandon T. Jackson, and G. Love.

I’m the hick they were gonna use to split the hick vote. But I’m standing right here now on my hind legs! Even a dog can learn to do that. Are you standing on your hind legs? Have you learned to do that yet?

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

(midnight. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Regular Daily Features:

• The Kinks are in the spotlight at Late Night Karaoke, mishima DJs

Essays Featured Wednesday, February 23^rd:

• Youffraita‘s Wednesday Open Thoughts are Entirely Too Cool
• TheMomCat most kindly gives us a repeat performance of herHealth & Fitness News
  
  ^{originally posted Saturday at The Stars Hollow Gazette}
• Obama finds DOMA UNconstitutional!
• Firefly Memories 1.0 is where Alma takes a look back at some of the Brilliant essays of our first years posts, highlighting those which exemplify our firefly-dreaming spirit and mission.  Today:a special faerie tale

join the conversation! come firefly-dreaming with me….

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 46 Top Stories.

1 Kadhafi loses swathes of east to insurrection

AFP

1 hr 7 mins ago

AFP

2 Defiant Kadhafi orders uprising crushed

AFP

Tue Feb 22, 6:46 pm ET

3 Kadhafi blamed for ‘bloodbath,’ loses province

AFP

Wed Feb 23, 5:49 am ET

4 Saudi King returns home to reshaped Mideast

by Omar Hasan, AFP

12 mins ago

5 Bahrain protesters vow not to budge

by Ali Khalil, AFP

Wed Feb 23, 8:09 am ET

6 Clashes in Athens at anti-austerity march

by John Hadoulis, AFP

Wed Feb 23, 11:00 am ET

7 Troubled Pakistan win World Cup opener

by John Weaver, AFP

Wed Feb 23, 11:28 am ET

8 Milan abuzz as Fashion Week kicks off

by Ella Ide, AFP

Wed Feb 23, 9:22 am ET

Reuters

9 Fear stalks Tripoli, celebrations in Libya’s east

By Alexander Dziadosz, Reuters

1 hr 32 mins ago

10 Oil touches $100 a barrel as Libya standoff worsens

By Joshua Schneyer, Reuters

27 mins ago

11 Benghazi, cradle of revolt, condemns Gaddafi

By Alexander Dziadosz, Reuters

Wed Feb 23, 11:09 am ET

12 Analysis: Revolt in Libya likely to scar its oil sector

By Joshua Schneyer, Reuters

Wed Feb 23, 9:03 am ET

13 Exclusive: Tobruk celebrates, Libya’s east abandons Gaddafi

Reuters

Tue Feb 22, 9:10 pm ET

14 Nasdaq mulls NYSE bid in exchange deal dash

By Paritosh Bansal and Jonathan Spicer, Reuters

53 mins ago

15 Newsmaker: Vision question haunts Apple CEO-in-waiting

By Gabriel Madway, Reuters

Wed Feb 23, 7:59 am ET

16 Special Report: Is Stevie Cohen the Feds’ Moby Dick?

By Matthew Goldstein and Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Reuters

Wed Feb 23, 12:04 pm ET

17 Rahm Emanuel powers to victory in Chicago mayoral race

By Mary Wisniewski, Reuters

Wed Feb 23, 4:25 am ET

18 Special Report: In Africa, can Brazil be the anti-China?

By David Lewis, Reuters

Wed Feb 23, 8:40 am ET

19 Insurers may face up to $8 billion NZ quake hit

By Jonathan Gould, Reuters

Wed Feb 23, 10:09 am ET

20 Prospect of U.S. government shutdown eases

By Richard Cowan and Alister Bull, Reuters

Tue Feb 22, 6:34 pm ET

AP

21 Gadhafi hold whittled away as Libya revolt spreads

By PAUL SCHEMM and MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press

6 mins ago

22 Oil prices hit $100 per barrel

By CHRIS KAHN, AP Energy Writer

1 hr 11 mins ago

23 Gadhafi survival means weak army, co-opted tribes

By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press

2 hrs 7 mins ago

24 Report: Ex-minister says Gadhafi ordered Lockerbie

By KARL RITTER, Associated Press

1 hr 52 mins ago

25 Wikileaks: Gadhafi family a web of greed, nepotism

By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press

Wed Feb 23, 9:14 am ET

26 Americans, Turks among the thousands fleeing Libya

By SELCAN HACAOGLU and CIARAN GILES, Associated Press

2 hrs 24 mins ago

27 Gadhafi’s vow: Will fight to ‘last drop of blood’

By MAGGIE MICHAEL and SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press

Wed Feb 23, 5:43 am ET

28 US considering sanctions on Libya; Obama to speak

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press

1 hr 24 mins ago

29 Saudi Arabia opens its wallet to stave off protests

By TAREK EL-TABLAWY, AP Business Writer

2 hrs 16 mins ago

30 Gov’t drops defense of anti-gay marriage law

By PETE YOST, Associated Press

1 hr 12 mins ago

31 On prank call, Wis. governor discusses strategy

By RYAN J. FOLEY, Associated Press

1 hr 32 mins ago

32 Ind. GOP leader: No compromise with absent Dems

By DEANNA MARTIN, Associated Press

46 mins ago

33 Greek riot police, protesters clash during strike

By DEREK GATOPOULOS and NICHOLAS PAPHITIS, Associated Press

2 hrs 1 min ago

34 Pakistan’s intelligence ready to split with CIA

By KATHY GANNON and ADAM GOLDMAN, Associated Press

4 mins ago

35 NFL urging states to pass youth concussion laws

By FREDERIC J. FROMMER, Associated Press

4 mins ago

36 EPA trims costs to control toxic air pollution

By DINA CAPPIELLO, Associated Press

1 hr 2 mins ago

37 Emanuel faces big money woes as next Chicago mayor

By DON BABWIN and TAMMY WEBBER, Associated Press

Wed Feb 23, 9:55 am ET

38 NZ earthquake toll at 75 dead, 300 missing

By KRISTEN GELINEAU, Associated Press

1 hr 37 mins ago

39 No easy solution to impasse over jailed CIA man

By TOM RAUM, Associated Press

Wed Feb 23, 6:29 am ET

40 Jailed sect leader retakes legal control of church

By JENNIFER DOBNER, Associated Press

10 mins ago

41 Ga.’s trendsetter HOPE scholarship faces deep cuts

By SHANNON McCAFFREY and DORIE TURNER, Associated Press

14 mins ago

42 Court: Family can sue Mazda over seat belt death

By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press

23 mins ago

43 Latest Ariz. immigration bills have tougher path

By PAUL DAVENPORT, Associated Press

35 mins ago

44 Catholic blogger: No Communion for NY Gov. Cuomo

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

43 mins ago

45 Men get 9 years in prison for Pa. hate-crime death

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press

Wed Feb 23, 1:59 pm ET

46 Fun-to-drive Volvo grabs attention

By ANN M. JOB, For The Associated Press

Wed Feb 23, 12:33 pm ET

(1 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

from DOJ, a statement by Attorney General Holder says the Obama Administration found the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional and will no longer defend it in court.

A Great Day for LGBT!  

Department of Justice

Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEWednesday, February 23, 2011

Statement of the Attorney General on Litigation Involving the Defense of Marriage Act

WASHINGTON – The Attorney General made the following statement today about the Department’s course of action in two lawsuits, Pedersen v. OPM and Windsor v. United States, challenging Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage for federal purposes as only between a man and a woman:

In the two years since this Administration took office, the Department of Justice has defended Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act on several occasions in federal court.   Each of those cases evaluating Section 3 was considered in jurisdictions in which binding circuit court precedents hold that laws singling out people based on sexual orientation, as DOMA does, are constitutional if there is a rational basis for their enactment.   While the President opposes DOMA and believes it should be repealed, the Department has defended it in court because we were able to advance reasonable arguments under that rational basis standard.  

Section 3 of DOMA has now been challenged in the Second Circuit, however, which has no established or binding standard for how laws concerning sexual orientation should be treated.   In these cases, the Administration faces for the first time the question of whether laws regarding sexual orientation are subject to the more permissive standard of review or whether a more rigorous standard, under which laws targeting minority groups with a history of discrimination are viewed with suspicion by the courts, should apply.

After careful consideration, including a review of my recommendation, the President has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny.   The President has also concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional.   Given that conclusion, the President has instructed the Department not to defend the statute in such cases.   I fully concur with the President’s determination.

Consequently, the Department will not defend the constitutionality of Section 3 of DOMA as applied to same-sex married couples in the two cases filed in the Second Circuit.   We will, however, remain parties to the cases and continue to represent the interests of the United States throughout the litigation.   I have informed Members of Congress of this decision, so Members who wish to defend the statute may pursue that option.   The Department will also work closely with the courts to ensure that Congress has a full and fair opportunity to participate in pending litigation.  

Furthermore, pursuant to the President ‘ s instructions, and upon further notification to Congress, I will instruct Department attorneys to advise courts in other pending DOMA litigation of the President’s and my conclusions that a heightened standard should apply, that Section 3 is unconstitutional under that standard and that the Department will cease defense of Section 3.  

The Department has a longstanding practice of defending the constitutionality of duly-enacted statutes if reasonable arguments can be made in their defense.   At the same time, the Department in the past has declined to defend statutes despite the availability of professionally responsible arguments, in part because – as here – the Department does not consider every such argument to be a “reasonable” one.   Moreover, the Department has declined to defend a statute in cases, like this one, where the President has concluded that the statute is unconstitutional.  

Much of the legal landscape has changed in the 15 years since Congress passed DOMA.   The Supreme Court has ruled that laws criminalizing homosexual conduct are unconstitutional.   Congress has repealed the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.   Several lower courts have ruled DOMA itself to be unconstitutional.   Section 3 of DOMA will continue to remain in effect unless Congress repeals it or there is a final judicial finding that strikes it down, and the President has informed me that the Executive Branch will continue to enforce the law.   But while both the wisdom and the legality of Section 3 of DOMA will continue to be the subject of both extensive litigation and public debate, this Administration will no longer assert its constitutionality in court.

11-222Attorney General

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”

The Triangle Shirtwaste Factory Fire changed so much, not just fire codes but safety regulations and work conditions for women. Its significance now in light of the right wing attacks on labor is even more important. We now have all their names. The 100th Anniversary of this tragedy is March 25.

New York Times Editorial: The Fire That Changed Everything

In The Times’s grim, vivid account on March 26, 1911 – the day after the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire – these words appear: “The victims who are now lying at the Morgue waiting for some one to identify them by a tooth or the remains of a burned shoe were mostly girls from 16 to 23 years of age.” There were 146 victims in all, 129 of them women.

Nearly a century later, the names of the last unidentified victims have been discovered, thanks to the work of a historian named Michael Hirsch. They are Maria Giuseppa Lauletti, Max Florin, Concetta Prestifilippo, Josephine Cammarata, Dora Evans and Fannie Rosen, all buried together beneath a single monument in the Cemetery of the Evergreens on the border of Brooklyn and Queens. This completes the roll of the dead in one of the city’s worst and most important fires.

Wednesday is turning into Ladies’ Day. The guys are below the fold

Katrina vanden Heuvel: Elizabeth Warren’s Battle

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)-the people’s agency and cop on the beat to protect consumers-is now a reality. Its website is live, you can sign-up for updates, and check out a sleek Arrested Development-style video narrated by Ron Howard that explains the bureau’s mission.

But as Elizabeth Warren made clear in a speech at the Consumers Union 75th anniversary celebration last week, the battle to establish a strong and independent CFPB is far from over.

Amy Goodman: Uprisings: From the Middle East to the Midwest

As many as 80,000 people marched to the Wisconsin state Capitol in Madison on Saturday as part of an ongoing protest against newly elected Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s attempt to not just badger the state’s public employee unions, but to break them. The Madison uprising follows on the heels of those in the Middle East. A sign held by one university student, an Iraq War vet, read, “I went to Iraq and came home to Egypt?” Another read, “Walker: Mubarak of the Midwest.” Likewise, a photo has circulated in Madison of a young man at a rally in Cairo, with a sign reading, “Egypt supports Wisconsin workers: One world, one pain.” Meanwhile, Libyans continue to defy a violent government crackdown against masses seeking to oust longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and more than 10,000 marched Tuesday in Ohio to oppose Republican Gov. John Kasich’s attempted anti-union legislative putsch.

Just a few weeks ago, solidarity between Egyptian youth and Wisconsin police officers, or between Libyan workers and Ohio public employees, might have elicited a raised eyebrow.

Amanda Marcotte: Does the Media Finally Get That Anti-Choice Is About Far More Than Abortion?

The mainstream media has always, shall we say, struggled to understand that the anti-choice movement is anti-contraception, anti-STD prevention, and anti-sex education.  It just doesn’t fit the official narrative, which posits that anti-choicers are somehow “pro-life,” people who are deeply invested in fetal life, but who, for some mysterious reason, mostly don’t extend their concern for life into opposition to war or support for life-saving health insurance reform.  Even in explicitly pro-choice media outlets, the narrative tends to be about abortion, without little acknowledgment that attacks on contraception are part of the larger agenda of the anti-choice movement, even as news stories about abstinence-only and conscience clauses keep trickling out.

Ted Rall: Hope and Change? Not for Americans

Turmoil from Mideast to Midwest

-If irony were money we’d be rich.

“You’ve got to get out ahead of change,” President Obama lectured a week ago. “You can’t be behind the curve.” He was, of course, referring to the Middle East. During the last few weeks there has been a new popular uprising every few days: Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Bahrain, Libya.

And now, Wisconsin.

In Madison, where a new Republican governor wants to gut the rights of state workers to form unions and negotiate for higher wages, tens of thousands of protesters have filled the streets and sat in the State Capitol for days. “It’s like Cairo has moved to Madison these days,” said Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI).

Revolutionary foment is on the march around the globe, but Mr. Hopey Changey is nowhere to be found now that it’s here in the U.S. Whatever happened to “get ahead of change?” What’s good for the Hosni isn’t good for the Barry.

Dean Baker: Further fiscal folly

Before we take deficit hawks’ advice on slashing social security, they should explain how they missed the $8tn housing bubble

The people insisting on cuts to social security and Medicare have revved themselves up and are now in high gear. They see their final victory on the horizon, with the possibility of a bipartisan deal involving substantial cuts to both programmes. They argue that the large deficits facing the country make it imperative that we address the long-term budget problem – meaning, the cost of these programmes – immediately.

Before anyone prepares to surrender, it is worth remembering, once again, how we got into the current situation. Before the downturn, the budget deficits were relatively modest. Even with the cost of fighting two wars, the Bush tax cuts and a poorly designed Medicare drug benefit the deficit was just over 1% of GDP in 2007, the last year before the downturn. This was arguably bigger than desired, but a deficit of this size certainly posed no imminent danger to the economy.

Richard Dreyfuss: Will the Arab Revolt Challenge Big Oil?

The Arab revolution is circling around the region’s oil, and there’s talk of nationalizing or strengthening state control of industries in Egypt. So far, the Arab revolt has been mostly non-ideological. But at stake is the incalculable wealth of a long-suppressed region.

With Bahrain, the anchor of the U.S. military presence in the Gulf, wobbling, and with the seeds of revolt planted in Kuwait, the revolt in Libya could provoke a burst of Arab nationalism aimed at taking control of the Middle East oil resources. With Tripoli, Libya’s capital, in flames, and Benghazi and most of Libya’s eastern region, already in rebel hands, there are reports that the holdings of ENI and other oil firms operating in Libya might be nationalized by a new government.

Reports Bloomberg: “Certainly all the oil majors will be shaking if the new leaders decide to nationalize everything.”

Oil prices have jumped sharply since the Libyan revolt began, and ENI is scared silly.

Andy Worthington: Revolution in Libya: Protesters Face Gaddafi’s Murderous Backlash as US, UK Ooze Hypocrisy

“Now people are dying we’ve got nothing else to live for. What needs to happen is for the killing to stop. But that won’t happen until he [Gaddafi] is out. We just want to be able to live like human beings. Nothing will happen until protests really kick off in Tripoli, the capital. It’s like a pressure cooker. People are boiling up inside. I’m not even afraid any more. Once I wouldn’t have spoken at all by phone. Now I don’t care. Now enough is enough.”

These are the words of a young woman in Libya – a student, a blogger and a member of the youth protest movement in Libya that is part of a growing uprising against the tyrannical 41-year reign of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Speaking to the Guardian by phone from her home on the outskirts of Benghazi, the eastern city where the revolution in Libya began just six days ago, and where hundreds of protestors have been killed by Gaddafi’s security forces, she said, “I’ve seen violent movies and video games that are nothing compared to this. I can hear gunshots, helicopters circling overhead, then I hear the voices screaming. I can hear the screeching of four-by-fours in the street. No one has that type of car except his [Gaddafi’s] people. My brother went to get bread, he’s not back; we don’t know if he’ll get back. The family is up all night every night, keeping watch, no one can sleep.”