Former John Edwards Campaign Manager David Bonior, during a conference call announcing his support for Barack Obama, says that Senator Obama wants to see the Florida and Michigan delegations seated at the Democratic National Convention. (0:47)

 

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Obama Campaign Conference Call (21:05)

 

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In a conference call with reporters, Clinton Chief Strategist Geoff Garin says that the suspension of the gas tax would not cause an increase in demand. He says that people aren’t going joyriding and would not do so. Most gas consumption, he says, is due to people driving to work and doing other necessary trips, so there would not be an increase. (0:59)

 

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Senator Feingold (D-WI), speaking at a hearing of the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights Subcommittee on “Secret Law and the Threat to Democratic and Accountable Government,” says that it is important for the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) to release its legal justifications for executive-branch programs. He says the OLC changes its justifications in response to Congressional legislation, so the Congress needs to know the OLC’s reasoning. (0:31)

 

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John Elwood, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice, testifying at a hearing of the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights Subcommittee on “Secret Law and the Threat to Democratic and Accountable Government,” says that legal justifications for implemented policies are available to Congress, since operative policy is “law.” However, he says there is a confidentiality interest in the legal opinions written by the OLC while they are advising among policy choices. (0:54)

 

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At issue was an Indiana law requiring voters to show ID when voting in person. Challengers claimed the law was unconstitutional on its face, burdening the right to vote in violation of the 14th Amendment. They also argued it didn’t fix the problems it was passed to fix. The challengers to the law lost in the district court and in the federal circuit court.

Justice Stevens announced the decision of the court. He had Justices Roberts and Kennedy signing onto his opinion. He took a practical view, agreeing with the lower court that this kind of challenge to the law must fail because the challengers couldn’t name any person who would be deterred from voting. Because of that, the Court can’t determine how heavy a burden showing ID is, and therefore the law should be upheld. This opinion does not preclude a later lawsuit, brought by actual people who were unable to vote due to the law.

Justice Scalia (with Justices Thomas and Alito) went further, finding the burden of showing ID was not unreasonable. “The burden of acquiring, possessing, and showing a free photo identification is simply not severe, because it does not even represent a significant increase over the usual burdens of voting.” (internal citations omitted).

Justice Souter (with Justice Ginsburg) found the burden significant (you have to go to the DMV, a separate trip, and he talks about how many offices there are in Indiana and how far a trip it could be, in contrast to polling places, which are generally more numerous). He found the state’s justifications (election modernization, combating voter fraud) insufficient to justify the burden.

Justice Breyer, writing alone, had a short opinion (5 pages, compared to Stevens’s 21, Scalia’s 6, and Ginsburg’s 30) focusing on the disproportionate impact of the requirement. Not only was it a burden to get an ID (as Justice Souter argues), but it burdens poor, elderly, and disabled people more.

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Warning: this video contains very offensive language.

Click “read more” for some photos of the event.

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President Bush, during a press availability with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, addresses “rumors” that the United States is willing to accept less than a full declaration of North Korea’s nuclear programs. President Bush says that North Korea must first make a declaration, and only then will the United States determine whether the declaration is adequate. (1:34)

 

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Chief Justice Roberts (who got Justices Kennedy and Alito to agree, while no other opinion was joined by more than one other Justice) says that a method of execution is only unconsitutional if there is a “substantial risk of serious harm”. Here there is a risk, but it is not substantial. The challengers did show that there are ways the injection procedure could be administered improperly, causing severe pain, but they did not establish that the risk was common. Existence of safe alternative execution methods doesn’t help, either, especially since the proposed alternatives are untested; no one could say for certain that the alternatives would be significantly better.

Justice Stevens has a long opinion discussing the death penalty and how it’s changed over time. He concludes, however, that the Supreme Court’s prior holdings establish that the death penalty is constitutional, and he therefore holds that lethal injection is constitutional.

Justice Scalia criticizes Justice Stevens’s opinion, saying none of what he says has anything to do with the text of the Constitution.

Justice Thomas, joined by Scalia, says Roberts’s opinion looking for “substantial risk of severe harm” has no basis in the text of the Constitution.

Justice Breyer doubts studies showing lethal injection causes pain and doubts availability of better alternatives.

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