The U.S. Supreme Court today denied certiorari in Bloomfield, NM v. Felix, (Docket No. 17-60, cert. denied 10/16/2017) (Order List).  In the case, a 3-judge panel of the 10th Circuit found that a Ten Commandments monument on a city hall lawn violates the Establishment Clause. (See prior posting.) The full 10th Circuit, over the dissent of two judges, denied en banc review. (See prior posting.) ADF issued a press release on the Supreme Court’s denial of review.

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AP reports that a North Dakota couple is suing Catholic Charities for $6.5 million because the organization refused to allow them to adopt a 15-year old girl who was in foster care.  The refusal was based on the fact that the adopting couple, in violation of Catholic religious teachings, were living together and were not yet married.  Their planned wedding was 5 months away and they had hoped the 15-year old would be a bridesmaid.

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In Freeman v. State, (GA Sup. Ct., Oct. 2, 2017), the Georgia Supreme Court held that a congregant could not constitutionally be convicted of disorderly conduct for standing up in the back of the church, raising his middle finger in the air and staring angrily at the pastor.  Even though the pastor testified that he felt afraid for his safety at the time, the state Supreme Court held that defendant’s raised middle finger constituted constitutionally protected expression.  It said in part:Because there was no showing here that Freeman’s act of silently raising his middle finger from the back of the church during the church service constituted “fighting words” or a “true threat” that would amount to a tumultuous act, his conviction for disorderly conduct under OCGA § 16-11-39 (a) (1) cannot stand.Atlanta Journal Constitution reported on the decision.  [Thanks to TaxProf blog via Steven H. Sholk for the lead.] 

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President claimed he ‘called every family of someone who’s died’ as tensions flared with sergeant’s relatives and later gave himself 10/10 on Puerto Rico Each week Trump seems to make more news than most presidents do in a lifetime. The Guardian is keeping track of it all in this series, every SaturdayIt was unclear exactly what Donald Trump hoped to achieve when he decided to cut a key element of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – subsidies to insurance companies to help them cover those on low incomes – except perhaps a sense of pure destructive joy in damaging something his predecessor built that Republicans in Congress seemed unable to dismantle. On Saturday, he, crowed that he had ended a “Dems windfall” for insurance companies. Continue reading…

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Former White House adviser slams former president at California eventBush ‘embarrassed himself’ in speech decrying ‘bullying and prejudice’The former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has launched a scathing attack on George W Bush, portraying him as a buffoon whose presidency was as “destructive” as any in American history. Related: Khizr Khan: the patriotic American Muslim who called out Donald Trump Continue reading…

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The marchers who converged on the Pentagon 50 years ago placed flowers in soldiers’ guns but also opened up a cultural faultline that persists to this dayThey were in the belly of the beast. Marching on the Pentagon, control centre of the world’s most powerful fighting force, protesters against the Vietnam war were confronted by military police (MPs) with rifles pointed directly at their heads. Among the demonstrators was a long-haired man with a bulky sweater – and a bunch of flowers.“All of a sudden, this hero put a flower in the barrel of the rifle pointed at his head, and everyone was disarmed on both sides,” participant Bill Zimmerman recalled. “The MPs had a ‘what the fuck is this?’ expression. Then I realised what he was doing and thought it was brilliant. He worked his way down the line and I saw him put seven, eight, maybe 10 flowers in rifle barrels. The crowd surged and I couldn’t see him any more.” Continue reading…

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The almost-holder of the loftiest office imaginable was on The Graham Norton Show after her recent brush with the NHS“Hello. I am Hillary Rodham Clinton, and this is the Graham Norton Show.” The almost-holder of what was once the loftiest imaginable office was surprisingly game for a bit of British kitsch: warm, indulgent and dressed in yellow, like a president on a kindergarten walkabout. Related: Hillary Clinton praises NHS after broken toe prevents interviews Continue reading…

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Buddy With: Yuliana Topazly

Experiencing mental health issues after quitting work because she was refused flexible working, Yuliana Topazly was determined to help others…In Started in 2017

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