Loss of Freedom Archives - Page 10 of 33

Special Interest Dollars Influencing Judicial Elections

Estate of Denial: The Occupy Wall Street movement is shining a spotlight on how much influence big-money interests have with the White House and Congress. But people are not talking about how big money is also increasingly getting its way with the courts, which is too bad. It’s a scandal that needs more attention. A blistering new report details how big business and corporate lobbyists are pouring money into state judicial elections across the country and packing the courts with judges who put special interests ahead of the public interest.

A case in point: West Virginia. In 2007, the West Virginia Supreme Court, on a 3-2 vote, threw out a $50 million damage award against the owner of a coal company. Funny thing: the man who would have had to pay the $50 million had spent $3 million to help elect the justice who cast the deciding vote. The West Virginia ruling was so outrageous that in 2009 the United States Supreme Court overturned it. But that was unusual. In most cases, judges are free to decide cases involving individuals and groups that have paid big money to get them elected. (MORE: Justice on Display: Should Judges Deliberate in Public?)

Civil Asset Forfeitures Skyrocket

Estate of Denial: We’ve written before about the growing use of civil asset forfeitures – a means by which government confiscates private property. From local governments to the feds, it’s happening in numerous jurisdictions across the U.S.

In Motel Is Latest Stopover in Federal Forfeiture Battle, The Wall Street Journal discussed one Massachusetts motel owner’s struggle to keep a business owned and operated by his family since the 1950s. Per the article, “Civil rights groups, libertarians and attorneys defending against seizures say the government is overstepping its bounds in a practice that has swelled in the past decade to encompass some 400 federal statutes, covering crimes from drug trafficking to racketeering to halibut poaching.”

Medical Marijuana Users Can’t Buy Guns

Denver Post: Brian Vicente, one of the state’s most prominent medical-marijuana proponents, calls it a “travesty.”

Tony Fabian, one of the state’s foremost gun-rights activists, says it’s evidence of “hostility.”

What has forged this quirky convergence of advocacy — tokers, meet shooters — is a September letter from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives saying it is illegal for medical-marijuana patients to own firearms.

Everybody who buys a gun must fill out ATF Form 4473, which asks: “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?”

Answer yes, and you don’t get the gun. Falsely answer no, and you’ve just committed a crime.

The ATF’s letter, sent out Sept. 21, clarifies that the bureau includes medical-marijuana patients in that group of prohibited buyers because their marijuana use is inherently illegal federally.

Retired Justice Stevens Says Obamacare Supported By Medical Marijuana Decision

ABA Journal: Retired Justice John Paul Stevens is citing one of his own opinions as offering legal support for President Obama’s health care law.

Stevens referred to the opinion, Gonzales v. Raich, in an interview with Bloomberg News. The 6-3 decision held the federal government had commerce clause authority to ban medical marijuana, even when the drug doesn’t cross state lines.

“To the extent that the commerce clause is an issue in the case, it just seems to me very similar” to the medical marijuana dispute, Stevens told Bloomberg. Justice Antonin Scalia and Anthony M. Kennedy sided with Stevens in the case, though Scalia wrote separately.

Phoenix Leaders Propose ‘Sin Tax’

AZCentral: Tattoo parlors, strip clubs, escort services and “head shops” that sell items used to smoke marijuana could be the next places Phoenix turns to for revenue if the city rescinds its controversial food tax.

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and Councilman Tom Simplot asked management to consider what the city can do to raise money by “sin taxes” and other fees if the city considers removing the 2 percent food tax.

Gordon also wants the city to consider taxing false calls to police and fire dispatchers, as well as electronic billboards.

The suggestions came Tuesday as the Phoenix City Council discussed whether the city should move forward with repealing the food tax before its scheduled sunset in 2015.

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