Category Archives: US Supreme Court

Nancy Pelosi: supreme court ‘dangerous to families and to freedoms’

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House speaker rails against conservative judges appointed by Trump as justices prepare to finalize draft abortion ruling

The supreme court is “dangerous to families and to freedoms in our country”, Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday, as justices prepare to finalize a draft ruling stripping almost have a century of abortion rights in the US.

The House speaker railed against conservative judges appointed by former president Donald Trump in an interview Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, in which she urged Democrats to keep their “eye on the ball” to protect other freedoms she sees under threat.

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Protesters rally outside US supreme court justices’ homes ahead of pro-choice marches

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Protests have been occurring since the leak as organizations prepare for a nationwide day of marches on Saturday

Pro-choice demonstrators continue to turn up outside the homes of supreme court justices, with the latest target being conservative Amy Coney Barrett, who signed on to a majority draft opinion that was leaked to reveal an intention to overturn the constitutional right to seek an abortion in the US.

“The right to your own body – to do what you want with your own body – is the most personal freedom you can have,” one protester said from among a group wearing long red “handmaid” capes and white bonnets earlier this week to symbolize forced childbearing, as members of the Virginia state police watched nearby.

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Gillibrand calls abortion rights ‘fight of generation’ after ‘bone-chilling’ court draft opinion

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New York Democrat urges her party to stand up to concerted efforts from Republicans seeking to abolish constitutional right

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on Sunday called the battle over abortion rights in the US the “biggest fight of a generation”.

The New York Democrat urged her party to stand up to Republicans seeking to abolish the constitutional right, and called the draft US supreme court opinion leaked last week, revealing a conservative-leaning super-majority supports overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision, “bone-chilling”.

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Biden warns LGBTQ+ children could be next target of Republican ‘Maga crowd’

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President warns of new attacks by Trump-dominated political party after supreme court ruling draft leak on abortion

Joe Biden has warned of new attacks on civil rights as the supreme court prepares to strike down the right to abortion, telling reporters at the White House that LGBTQ+ children could be the next targets of a Trump-dominated Republican party he called “this Maga crowd” and “the most extreme political organisation … in recent American history”.

“What happens,” the president asked, if “a state changes the law saying that children who are LGBTQ can’t be in classrooms with other children? Is that legit under the way the decision is written?”

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Biden condemns efforts of extremist ‘Maga crowd’ to overturn Roe v Wade abortion protections – as it happened

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The judge overseeing the federal civil rights cases of four former Minneapolis police officers in the killing of George Floyd said Wednesday that he has accepted the terms of Derek Chauvin’s plea agreement and will sentence him to 20 to 25 years in prison.

When the white former office is sentenced he will serve the term concurrently with the state criminal sentence he is currently serving (and appealing), of 22.5 years, following his conviction last spring for the May 2020 murder of Floyd, a Black father who had moved from Houston to Minneapolis to start a new chapter after being released from prison.

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‘Betrayal’: chief justice orders inquiry into leak of draft abortion ruling

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John Roberts says leak of opinion to overturn Roe v Wade ‘intended to undermine the integrity of our operations’

John Roberts, the US chief justice, has announced an investigation into a leak showing that the supreme court provisionally voted to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade case that legalised abortion nationwide.

Publication of the draft opinion by the Politico website on Monday night sparked demonstrations outside America’s highest court, condemnation from Joe Biden and fears that the judiciary has suffered profound damage to its reputation for independence.

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‘It will be chaos’: 26 states in US will ban abortion if supreme court ruling stands

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Regulation would be returned to states where lawmakers in south and midwest have enacted bans in anticipation of court’s decision

More than half of US states will outlaw abortion immediately or as soon as practicable, if a leaked draft decision from five supreme court justices remains substantially unchanged.

The result would send hundreds of thousands of people in 26 states hostile to abortion elsewhere to terminate a pregnancy – either by traveling hundreds of miles to an abortion clinic or seeking to self-manage abortion through medication from grassroots or illicit groups.

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US shaken to its core by supreme court draft that would overturn Roe v Wade

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Biden condemns abortion opinion that, if handed down, would mean ‘fundamental shift’ in law and imperil many other rights

US politics – live coverage

Joe Biden has warned that a leaked draft supreme court ruling overturning Roe v Wade, the 1973 case which guaranteed the right to abortion, would represent a huge change in America law and could imperil a wide range of other civil rights.

In a historic moment that shook the US to the core and highlighted jagged social and political divisions, the court confirmed the draft was authentic but said it did not “represent a decision by the court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case”.

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Supreme court voted to overturn Roe v Wade abortion law, leaked draft opinion reportedly shows

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In an unprecedented revelation, a document written by Justice Samuel Alito says ‘Roe was egregiously wrong from the start’

The US supreme court has provisionally voted to overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark ruling that legalised abortion nationwide in America, according to a draft opinion reported on by Politico.

In what appeared to be a stunning and unprecedented leak, Politico said on Monday evening it had obtained an initial majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito and circulated in the court on 10 February.

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‘No sign Putin is serious’ about Ukraine negotiations, says Blinken – as it happened

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The vice-president Kamala Harris has tested positive for Covid-19, her office has announced.

A statement from Harris’s press secretary Kirsten Allen said:

Today, vice-president Harris tested positive for Covid-19 on rapid and PCR tests. She has exhibited no symptoms, will isolate and continue to work from the vice-president’s residence.

She has not been a close contact to the president or First Lady due to their respective recent travel schedules. She will follow CDC guidelines and the advice of her physicians. The vice-president will return to the White House when she tests negative.

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‘We have made it’: Ketanji Brown Jackson ‘honored’ to become supreme court’s first Black female justice – live

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The White House celebration for Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation to the US supreme court is under way, with vice-president Kamala Harris making the opening remarks.

“Today is indeed a wonderful day as we gather to celebrate the confirmation of the next justice of the United States supreme court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson,” she said.

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Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmed as first Black woman on US supreme court – as it happened

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Joe Biden’s nominee is confirmed by Senate in 53-47 vote

Here’s a handy explainer, courtesy of CNN, about how the supreme court confirmation process works. Essentially, Judge Ketanji Brown’s lifetime appointment to the bench will be confirmed by a simple majority vote of the 100 US senators in the chamber this afternoon.

The US Senate is currently evenly split, between 50 Republicans, and the 48 Democrats and two independents who usually vote with them. In the event of a 50-50 tie in the Senate confirmation vote, the Democratic vice-president Kamala Harris would be called upon to break the tie and promote Jackson to the supreme court.

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‘So much joy’: Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation lauded as ray of hope

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Joe Biden speaks of ‘historic moment for our nation’ as Democrats give standing ovation after judge’s ascent to supreme court

Politicians and activists kept coming back to one word on Thursday after the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the US supreme court: joy.

After two grim years of a deadly pandemic and a democracy in peril, Jackson’s ascent as the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court was lauded as a much-needed ray of hope.

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Ketanji Brown Jackson makes history as first Black woman confirmed to US supreme court

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Jackson confirmed 53 votes to 47, and will become first Black woman to serve in court’s more than 200-year history

Ketanji Brown Jackson, a liberal appeals court judge, was confirmed to the supreme court on Thursday, overcoming a rancorous Senate approval process and earning bipartisan approval to become the first Black woman to serve as a justice on the high court in its more than 200-year history.

After weeks of private meetings and days of public testimony, marked by intense sparring over judicial philosophy and personal reflections on race in America, Jackson earned narrow – but notable – bipartisan support to become the 116th justice of the supreme court. The vote was 53 to 47, with all Democrats in favor. They were joined by three moderate Republicans, senators Mitt Romney of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, who defied deep opposition within their party to support Joe Biden’s nominee. Their support was a welcome result for the White House, which had been intent on securing a bipartisan confirmation.

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‘Judge Jackson stands on the shoulders of giants’: women of color on a day to celebrate

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Ketani Brown Jackson becomes the first Black female justice on US’s highest legal body after her confirmation passes 53-47

Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the US supreme court has passed the Senate and she will now become the first Black female justice on America’s highest legal body after being nominated by Joe Biden earlier this year.

Jackson’s nomination has been widely praised by women of color, especially after she sustained grueling confirmation hearings at the hands of some top Republicans who seemed dedicated to political points-scoring and whose criticisms often seemed like racist dog-whistling.

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Biden vows to ‘ratchet up the pain’ on Putin with new Russia sanctions – as it happened

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The US and its allies are preparing to impose new sanctions on Moscow over civilian killings in Ukraine as the west makes a fresh attempt to cripple Vladimir Putin’s economy and war effort.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the atrocities in his country as “war crimes” while Ukraine authorities said close to more than 4,400 incidents were being investigated.

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Two more Republicans back Ketanji Brown Jackson for supreme court

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Nomination advances in Senate after judiciary committee vote splits along party lines

Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney on Monday brought to three the number of Republican senators to say they would vote in favor of supporting Ketanji Brown Jackson as Joe Biden’s nominee to the US supreme court.

Murkowski of Alaska put out a statement on Monday evening saying: “After multiple in-depth conversations with Judge Jackson and deliberative review of her record and recent hearings, I will support her historic nomination to be an Associate Justice on the US supreme court.”

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Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation vote is ‘making history’, says senator – as it happened

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The Senate judiciary committee meets today, beginning a week expected to conclude with the confirmation of the first black female supreme court justice

Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina, is an unsurprising no on Ketanji Brown Jackson. The conservative senator has been vocally against Jackson - he flounced out of her confirmation hearing after wrongly accusing her of having called George W Bush and the former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld “war criminals”.

Following the devastating reports coming out of the Kyiv region, which was retaken by Ukrainian forces last week, Joe Biden is calling for a war crimes trial against Vladimir Putin, the Associated Press is reporting.

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The US supreme court’s assault on voting rights hits a new low

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Ruling throws out Wisconsin’s redrawn electoral map, which included a new district to account for Black population growth

Even for experts who closely follow the US supreme court, there was something stunning about an emergency decision from the justices on Wednesday.

In an unexpected move, the court decided to throw out new districts for the state legislature in Wisconsin that had been picked by the state supreme court. But what was even more surprising was that the court’s conservative majority seemed to go out of its way to attack the Voting Rights Act, one of the most important civil rights laws designed to prevent discrimination in US elections. “Extra headspinning,” was how Michael Li, a redistricting expert at the Brennan Center for Justice, described it. “Bizarre,” observed Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine. David Wasserman, a redistricting expert at the non-partisan Cook Political Report, tweeted that the supreme court had entered “uncharted territory”.

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Republican Susan Collins to back Ketanji Brown Jackson for supreme court – live

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The US is imposing new financial sanctions against Iran following the country’s missile attack on a target in Iraq earlier this month, the treasury department has announced.

Iran sent at least 12 ballistic missiles into Erbil, Iraq’s northern Kurdish regional capital, on 13 March. They landed close to a US consulate under construction, but did not cause any damage or injuries, the state department said.

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