Our Rights, Our Future

Preparing for the Transition

By next Tuesday night we will likely have a newly elected President and after almost twenty months of campaigning, he will have only two short months to prepare for the transition into his new role as President. 

Each candidate has demonstrated a different approach to creating a transition plan. Senator Obama has already created a dozen teams, each comprised of six to eight individuals, organized specifically to prepare for this transition period. Each team represents a particular federal agency and is responsible for producing a policy agenda and to create a list of recommended appointees. Each member is required to sign an ethics code governing the process, prohibiting staff from working on subjects that could be deemed a financial or personal conflict of interest. (http://strategy08.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/shocking-report-on-transition-teams-obama-vs-mccain/)

In contrast, Senator McCain has done little, if anything, to prepare for this transition period. He has called Senator Obama’s efforts “presumptuous” and stated that instead of planning for the transition, he chooses to focus on winning the election. This desire to not multi-task may not be the best approach.

Supreme Court Accidentally Protects Voters While Stripping Americans Of Their Rights

Cross-posted from the Huffington Post.

Last week's Supreme Court decision in Brunner v. Ohio Republican Party is a disastrous ruling masquerading as a populist victory. Sure, the Court stopped the Ohio Republican Party from booting almost 200,000 eligible voters off the voting rolls, but in reaching their decision, the Court pointed to two decisions that echo a single theme: Americans are not welcome in court.

Supreme Court To Decide How Much and How Often Government Can Violate Your Civil Rights

Cross-posted from the Huffington Post.

Qualified immunity is one of those absurd abstract legal concepts that you never care about until the police shoot you in the back while you're leaving the mall. (True story, but we'll get to that later.) The Supreme Court next week will hear a case that may lead to a drastic and dangerous modification of a judge-made government shield that allows police officers to do essentially anything unless courts have expressly told them that they couldn't. Remember that old preschool defense for stealing your playmate's carton of chocolate milk, that you didn't know any better because nobody told you not to? It's exactly like that, except the police aren't told to stand in the corner and think about what they did. They get medals and awards, while Americans with bullets in their back get hospital bills.

Now let's travel to Utah to see how this practically plays out...