The Supreme Court upheld President Obama’s health-care mandate this morning, handing the White House a major victory but providing the Republicans (especially the Tea Party) with ammunition for the upcoming election. The law had been based on a provision that required all Americans to buy health insurance. That law survived as a tax. Four justices dissented, but Chief Justice John Roberts (typically considered a conservative) joined the majority opinion and said that the mandate (or tax) is constitutional.
"What the court did not do on its last day in session, I will do on my first day if elected president of the United States. And that is I will act to repeal Obamacare," Mitt Romney declared following the announcement. "Our mission is clear," he said. "If we want to get rid of Obamacare, we're going to have to replace President Obama. My mission is to make sure we do exactly that." Obamacare opponents may not have to wait that long, however. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor announced that the House will vote on repealing the law on July 11.
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White House officials announced that the federal government will not enforce the controversial “show me your papers” law upheld by the Supreme Court. Further, President Obama is rescinding agreements that allow some Arizona law-enforcement officials to enforce federal immigration laws. The Justice Department has also set up a hotline for complaints about civil-rights violations in connection to Arizona. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer accused the Obama administration of launching an “assault” on her state, saying they had “arbitrarily singled out Arizona and sent a bomb, if you will, across our bow and made Arizona a target.” On the campaign trail, Mitt Romney put himself in favor of states’ rights on the issue, saying “each state has the duty—and the right—to secure our borders and preserve the rule of law.”
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City manager Angel Perales, along with Mayor David Silva and a city councilman, now stands accused of accepting bribes in exchange for their support in the opening of a medical-pot shop in town. “The allegations in this case describe a corrosive and freewheeling attitude among certain officials in the city of Cudahy,” U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. told reporters. Court documents say that the three men accepted $15,000 from a man who wanted to open a medical-marijuana dispensary—a man who happened to be working as an informant for the FBI.
The Supreme Court tossed out Federal Communications Commission prohibitions on nudity and naughty words earlier today in a decision that avoided ruling on what some saw as First Amendment issues tied to the case. Broadcasters including Fox and ABC had been found in violation of FCC regulations dating back to 2002 and 2003. The Janet Jackson incident is one of the most famous. In the court’s opinion, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the FCC “failed to give Fox or ABC fair notice prior to the broadcasts in question that fleeting expletives and momentary nudity could be found actionably indecent.”
Earlier this week, Rodney King was found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool. King's demise has brought his importance to American civil rights back into the spotlight. Earlier today, police released the 911 call made by Cynthia Kelley. Kelley tells the 911 operator, “He’s Rodney King. The guy that got beat by the police.” When the operator asked if Kelley could go in the pool to move King’s body, she replies that she can’t swim, adding that she tried, but failed to retrieve King with objects around the pool—including a shovel.
President Obama has tapped senator and onetime presidential candidate John Kerry to help him prepare for his upcoming three debates by playing his opponent, Mitt Romney. Not only is Kerry considered one of the Democratic Party's master debaters, as Massachusetts's senior senator, he has had nearly 20 years to study Romney as a politician. "There is no one that has more experience or understanding of the presidential-debate process than John Kerry," said chief Obama strategist David Axelrod.
As the presidential race continues to move forward, we are beginning to hear more and more blame being assessed for current problems in our country. According to a recent poll, 68 percent of Americans blame former president George W. Bush for the country’s economic woes. A full 90 percent of Democrats who responded said Bush is to blame for the weak economy, and only 19 percent said Obama should carry much of the blame. As for Republicans, they were more split: 49 percent said Bush had a moderate amount or a great deal of the blame while 51 percent said Bush deserved not much of the blame or none at all. So while we hear about Obama and Romney, much of America still seems focused on Bush.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division plans to sue Florida because the state’s efforts to purge voters from its rolls violate federal law, it claims. The D.O.J. had warned last month that the state’s attempts to remove those believed to be noncitizens from the voter rolls was illegal because the process had not been approved by either the Justice Department or a federal court. Florida Gov. Rick Scott said, “We found individuals that are registered to vote that don’t have a right to vote, noncitizens and they voted. I have a job to do to defend the right of legitimate voters.”
Now that Mitt Romney is the GOP nominee, the time has come to begin debating who his Vice President nominee will be. A straw poll of right-leaning voters conducted by the Conservative Political Action Conference asking whose name they would like to see beside Mitt Romney’s come election day found 30 percent identifying Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio. In second was New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who netted only 14 percent of votes. Rubio is a fan favorite among conservatives, who see him as a fresh face for the party and a potential way to bring Latino voters into the Republican fold. Rep. Paul Ryan scored 9 percent, and Sen. Rand Paul gathered 8 percent.
Governor Scott Walker was declared the winner in the Wisconsin recall election Tuesday night, beating out Democratic challenger Tom Barrett, whom he had defeated in the 2010 race. Walker is seen as surviving a union-backed recall race. Walker’s victory is an undeniable setback for organized labor, which spearheaded the campaign by helping to gather some of the more than 1 million signatures on recall petitions.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has backed a proposal by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to reduce the number of arrests for marijuana possession, which have increased under the Bloomberg administration’s stop-and-frisk policy. Implemented to crack down on more serious crimes, the policy has been criticized for resulting in unfair charges and racial profiling. Under the new law, those caught with marijuana in their poicket will only be fined $100 rather than be charged with a misdemeanor. To a large degree, this equates with decriminalizing possession of certain amounts of marijuana.
Widely respected as one of the country’s premier public-university systems, California’s schools are under siege. At the root of the trouble is California’s continuing state budget woes, which may force the state to shutter programs or even entire schools if new tax increases aren’t improved to compensate. Despite rising matriculation numbers, schools are strapped when it comes to the resources they can offer those students. The situation has been bad for many years, but is getting worse today.
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