Category Archives: US constitution and civil liberties

Supreme court: Biden accuses Trump and Republicans of abuse of power

Posted on by

Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, made an urgent plea on Sunday to the conscience of Senate Republicans, asking them to defy Donald Trump and refuse to ram through his nominee to the supreme court before the November election.

Related: Rushing to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, McConnell shows power trumps principle | Robert Reich

Continue reading...

How Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death could affect Senate races – and Trump v Biden

Posted on by

Susan Collins of Maine is among vulnerable Republican senators as polls indicate voters trust Biden more on justice picks

On the question of supreme court nominees, the Republican senator Susan Collins has repeatedly threaded the same political needle. It is one with a shrinking eye.

Related: Ruth Bader Ginsburg changed America long before she joined the supreme court | Moira Donegan

Continue reading...

Virginia Republican who officiated gay wedding loses nomination for Congress

Posted on by
  • Denver Riggleman beaten in convention in state’s fifth district
  • Hardliner Bob Good could face strong Democratic challenge

A Virginia Republican congressman who angered social conservatives in his district when he officiated a gay wedding has lost his party’s nomination.

Related: The Skywalker window: what Democrats must do to destroy Trump's Death Star

Continue reading...

Why Trump loves the US military – but it doesn’t love him back

Posted on by

The president’s West Point speech went smoothly but protests have focused a harsh light on his use of the military

Donald Trump attempted to solidify his bond with the US army on Saturday, delivering the graduation speech to cadets at the United States Military Academy and boasting of a “colossal” $2tn rebuilding of American martial might.

Related: Top US military general Mark Milley apologizes for Trump church photo-op

Continue reading...

Donald Trump: ‘When somebody is president of the United States, the authority is total’ – video

Posted on by

US president Donald Trump has claimed he has ‘total authority’ to supersede decisions made by state governors to ease social restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic. ‘When someone is president of the United States the authority is total', Trump said during a White House press briefing. Reporters questioned the assertion, asking: ‘You said that when someone is the president of the United States their authority is total. That is not true. Who told you that?’ Trump replied ‘We are going to write up papers on this'. Although claiming he had the authority to ‘call the shots’ for each state's lock-down regulations, Trump insisted he was ‘getting on very well with the governors’ and is ‘certain there won’t be a problem’

Continue reading...

Trump impeachment: Republican Senate ‘coverup’ prompts backlash

Posted on by

Outraged by what they see as a coverup in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, grassroots activists are planning a massive “payback project” designed to punish Republican senators at the ballot box.

Related: By denying witnesses, Republicans made clear even a smoking gun would not be enough

Continue reading...

Impeachment: Trump wants Senate trial over before State of the Union address

Posted on by

Donald Trump wants his impeachment trial to end before his state of the union address in just two weeks’ time, Lindsey Graham said on Sunday.

Related: Alan Dershowitz: Trump impeachment acquittal would make me unhappy

Continue reading...

Impeachment inquiry: Nadler may add Mueller counts against Trump

Posted on by

The Democratic chairman of the House judiciary committee, Jerry Nadler, has not ruled out including evidence from the Mueller report in articles of impeachment against Donald Trump that could be published as early as next week.

On Sunday, Nadler told CNN’s State of the Union evidence showed the president’s conduct in the Ukraine scandal was part of “a pattern”, indicating “that the president put himself above this country several times”.

Continue reading...

Trump impeachment inquiry: House judiciary committee releases report

Posted on by

The House judiciary committee released a report on the constitutional grounds for impeachment on Saturday. Shortly after that, Donald Trump once again insisted the whole thing was a “witch hunt” and “a total hoax”.

Related: White House dismisses invitation to take part in key impeachment hearing

Continue reading...

Experts on Trump’s conduct: ‘Plainly an abuse of power, plainly impeachable’

Posted on by

Republicans may argue Trump’s actions were not impeachable – but scholars say it’s a solid example of a high crime

Was what he did really so bad? And even if it was bad – was it truly impeachable?

Related: 'I guess that's revealing': David Rubenstein on Trump and the weight of history

Continue reading...

National Coming Out Day marked by worry over supreme court LGBTQ case

Posted on by

National Coming Out Day festivities across the US were tempered this year by anxiety that some LGBTQ people may have to go back into the closet so they can make a living, depending on what the supreme court decides about workplace discrimination.

Related: The US decision on LGBT workers could turn employers into the gender police | Arwa Mahdawi

Continue reading...

Boston ‘straight pride’ parade dwarfed by large counter-protest

Posted on by

A controversial “straight pride” parade in Boston on Saturday drew more than 1,000 counter-protesters and a few hundred supporters.

The rightwing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was “grand marshal” of the event, for which a group calling itself Super Happy Fun America (SHFA) acquired a permit in June.

Continue reading...

Trump says he is seriously looking at ending birthright citizenship – video

Posted on by

The US president has said his administration is looking at ending the right of citizenship for US-born children of non-citizens and people who entered the country illegally. ‘We’re looking at that very seriously, birthright citizenship, where you have a baby on our land, you walk over the border, have a baby – congratulations, the baby is now a US citizen ... It’s frankly ridiculous,’ Donald Trump told reporters

Continue reading...

Love and Resistance review: priceless pictures of LGBTQ pioneers

Posted on by

Fifty years after Stonewall, photographs Kay Tobin Lahusen and Diana Davies pin the zeitgeist to the page

Forty-nine years ago, on the first anniversary of the riots outside the Stonewall Inn, thousands of “young men and women homosexuals” from all over the north-east marched from Greenwich Village to the Sheep Meadow in Central Park. As Lacey Fosburgh put it on the front page of the New York Times, they proclaimed “the new strength and pride of the gay people”.

Related: We've been to a marvelous party: when gay Harlem met queer Britain

Continue reading...

New US charges against Julian Assange could spell decades behind bars

Posted on by
  • WikiLeaks founder charged in 18-count DoJ indictment
  • Assange ‘risked serious harm to US national security’

Julian Assange could face decades in a US prison after being charged with violating the Espionage Act by publishing classified information through WikiLeaks.

Prosecutors announced 17 additional charges against Assange for publishing hundreds of thousands of secret diplomatic cables and files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Continue reading...

Trump lashes out at Justin Amash after Republican talks of impeachment

Posted on by

As Donald Trump opened fire on Justin Amash, the Michigan representative who became the first Republican in Congress say he had engaged in “impeachable conduct”, Mitt Romney declined to join the fight.

Related: Justin Amash becomes first Republican to back Trump impeachment

Continue reading...

Better the devil they know: how Christians came to terms with Trump

Posted on by

Evangelical backing for a thrice-married celebrity is not as odd as it seems: on abortion, the supreme court and more, the president keeps delivering

After bowing his head in prayer, Donald Trump addressed faith leaders in the sunshine of the White House rose garden.

Related: Trump wants Barr to consider investigating Biden – Giuliani

Continue reading...

Alyssa Milano calls for sex strike as protest over Republican abortion laws

Posted on by
  • Actor provokes storm with call to regain ‘bodily autonomy’
  • GOP-held legislatures in quest to overturn Roe v Wade

The actor Alyssa Milano ignited a social media storm with a call for women to join her in a sex strike, to protest against strict abortion laws passed by Republican-controlled state legislatures.

Related: Abortion: judge strikes down Kentucky restriction but governor to appeal

Continue reading...

#ConstitutionalCrisis? Trump’s battle with Congress comes to a head

Posted on by

The president’s claims of executive privilege over the Mueller report have set new alarm bells ringing for the fate of democracy

Police this week arrested an alleged arsonist who started a fire outside the National Archives building in Washington, claiming that voices told him to “burn buildings down”. The archives display a four-page handwritten document to countless tourists and schoolchildren: the US constitution.

While the physical object remains fragile but secure, the political framework it represents is facing one of the severest threats in its 232-year history. The arsonist is Donald Trump and he is getting ever closer with his tiki torch.

Continue reading...