This page will attempt to distill all current news and issues about the Constitution into a quick, easy-to-read format. Note that because the Court and the Congress meet in cycles, there will be periods of activity and inactivity on this page. If you are aware of any important news missing from this page, please email it to the Webmaster.
Older news items have been archived on the News Archive pages: 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999.
04/30/07 Police not responsible for injury during car chases
The Supreme Court today, in an 8-1 decision, made it clear that if someone is
injured while the police pursue them, the police cannot be held responsible. In
the case of Scott v Harris, Victor Harris was being pursued by sheriff's
deputy Timothy Scott. After six miles and ten minutes of pursuit in populated
areas, Scott decided to stop the pursuit by using a technique whereby the
police car hits the vehicle in a precise location forcing it into a spin. The
maneuver was not performed precisely enough and Harris's car overturned and
crashed. Harris was left with quadriplegia, and he sued Scott, saying his 4th Amendment rights were violated by the use of
excessive force. After the justices reviewed Scott's on-board video tape,
however, they concluded that even if Scott used deadly force, the real question
was whether the force was reasonable. They concluded it was. Only Justice
Stevens dissented.
04/20/07 Vermont Senate votes for impeachment
In a surprise move, the Vermont Senate today passed a resolution calling for
the impeachment of both President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Earlier, the Senate President Pro Tem had said that there was no time to take
up the issue, requested earlier in the year by 38 Vermont towns. The resolution
was passed 16-9 and urges the Vermont congressional delegation to introduce
articles of impeachment. The Vermont delegation has, however, been
consistently opposed to raising the subject considering the high bar for Senate
conviction and the disruption caused by the impeachment efforts during
President Clinton's administration. House members would like to introduce a
similar measure there, but Speaker Gaye Symington has also come out against
taking up an impeachment measure.
04/18/07 Supreme Court rules on abortion case
In a 5-4 decision today, the Supreme Court ruled on its first significant
abortion case since Justices Roberts and Alito took their seats. It also
allowed a nationwide ban on a specific procedure for the first time. The
procedure, known as partial-birth abortion or intact dilation and evacuation, was
banned by federal law in 2003. In his opinion for the Court, Justice Kennedy
said that the ban does not violate a woman's right to an abortion. Siding with
Kennedy were Justices Alito, Scalia, Thomas, and Chief Justice Roberts. Justice
Ginsberg, writing for the minority, called the decision the phalanx of an
assault on abortion. Pro-choice activists said they feared the ruling would
open the flood gates to restrictive state laws; pro-life activists, such as
Senator John Boehner (R-OH) hailed the decision as setting the stage for
"further progress". The case is Gonzales v Carhart.
03/27/07 Senate passes Iraq funding bill with time table
After garnering the support of a few critical Republicans, a bill was passed in
the Senate today that funds the troops in Iraq but which also has a non-binding
time table for withdrawal. The bill had already passed the House and passed
the Senate with a 50-48 vote. Vice President Dick Cheney had been recalled to
Washington in case he needed to break a tie on the vote. The bill allocates
$122 billion for continued support of the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and
suggests a goal for withdrawal of March 31, 2008. The bill also requires that
some of the combat troops be cycled back home. President Bush has vowed to
veto the bill, which has to go to conference to resolve minor differences in
the House and Senate versions before being forwarded to the President.
03/27/07 FBI Director takes blame for missteps
FBI Director Robert Mueller appeared before the Senate's Judiciary Committee
yesterday and had to answer uncomfortable questions concerning recent news
about FBI missteps. The Director took personal responsibility and pledged to
clean up the agency's act. Some Senators questioned if the agency could handle
the dual roles of law enforcement and domestic spying. It has been revealed in
recent days that the FBI provided inaccurate facts when applying for warrants
from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and that it had sent out tens
of thousands of National Security Letters that were illegal and unjustified. A
NSL requires the recipient to provide the FBI with personal data from private
databases and records.
03/26/07 Gonzales aide invokes Fifth Amendment rights
Monica Goodling, an aide to Attorney General Roberto Gonzales, has been asked
to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify to her knowledge
about the on-going U.S. Attorney scandal. In a surprise move, Goodling wrote
to the committee through her lawyer, invoking her Fifth Amendment right against
self-incrimination. Goodling's attorney wrote that he was concerned that some
members of the committee had already made up their minds on the scandal and
that Goodling herself had been blamed for the scandal by a senior Justice
Department official. Committee chair Patrick Leahy (D-VT) noted that "The
American people are left to wonder what conduct is at the base of Ms.
Goodling's concern that she may incriminate herself in connection with criminal
charges if she appears before the committee under oath."
03/22/07 Conflict between White House and Congress develops
The House and Senate have both authorized their respective committees to issue
subpoenas to get answers from White House officials about an ongoing scandal.
The White House has offered to allow the officials to appear for unrecorded and
unsworn interviews, but has said it draws the line at the issuance of
subpoenas. The possible constitutional crisis - can the Congress compel the
executive to testify, and can the executive refuse? - has dominated the news in
recent days. The controversy began when eight U.S. Attorneys were fired by the
Justice Department. While U.S. Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the
President, the controversy is why they were fired and if the reasons given to
the Congress were deliberately misleading. Some of the prosecutors were under
scrutiny because they had investigated and prosecuted Republican lawmakers, and
others because they resisted investigating and prosecuting Democratic
lawmakers. Reasons given for the firings included poor performance, but all of
the fired prosecutors had gotten good performance reviews. One prosecutor told
Congress that he had gotten phone calls from Republican lawmakers asking about
the status of investigations, something that is forbidden. Thousands of pages
of communications between the Justice Department and the White House have been
released and show that officials within both organizations discussed the
prosecutors throughout the latter quarter of 2006.
02/24/07 Virginia legislature apologizes for slavery
The Virginia Assembly today unanimously approved a measure, approved
unanimously by the Virginia Senate earlier in the week, that apologizes for the
state's role in slavery and in mistreatment of American Indians. Joint Resolution 728 calls slavery "the most
horrendous of all depredations of human rights and violations of our founding
ideals in our nation's history," and acknowledges that it "enacted laws to
restrict the rights and liberties of Native Americans, including their ability
to travel, testify in court, and inherit property."
02/20/07 Some punitive damages are unconstitutional, Supreme Court rules
Cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris was ordered to pay almost $80 million in
punitive damages to the estate of Jesse Williams by an Oregon jury in 1999. The
trial judge ruled that the award was too large and reduced it to $32 million,
but an appeals court and the Oregon Supreme Court restored the award. In a 5-4
decision today, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the trial judge - the award,
the Court found, was partially given on the basis of harm caused to persons not
a party to the suit. This, the Court said, amounted to an unconstitutional
taking without due process. The punitive damages, which amounted to almost 100
times the compensatory damages, were "grossly excessive." Justice Breyer
delivered the majority opinion. Justices Stevens, Thomas, Ginsberg, and Scalia
dissented. The case is Philip Morris v. Williams.
02/13/07 Georgia Representative Charlie Norwood dies
Representative Charlie Norwood (R-GA) died today after a long battle with
cancer. Norwood was first diagnosed with lung cancer in 1998. The House, in the
midst of a marathon debate on President George Bush's proposal to send 20,000
troops to Iraq, paused to remember Norwood today. The seat will be filled by a
special election, the data of which will be determined later.
01/04/07 First female Speaker of the House sworn in
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was sworn in as the first female Speaker of the House
today, as the Democrats assumed the majority in the House for the first time
since 1995. Pelosi, who has announced an ambitious schedule of bills for the
first 100 legislative hours of the new 100th Congress, said "women weren't just
waiting. Women were working. Never losing faith, we worked to redeem the
promise of America, that all men and women are created equal." In the Senate,
long-time Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) was elected President Pro Tem of the
Senate.
01/02/07 Ford lies in state, buried in Michigan
The body of President Gerald Ford, who died last week, came home to Michigan
for final services and burial after lying in state at the U.S. Capitol. Ford,
who served in both the House and Senate, was brought into the Capitol on the
House side and left from the Senate side. He was eulogized by Henry Kissinger,
Donald Rumsfeld, and President George W. Bush. He was buried on the grounds of
his presidential library in Grand Rapids.
