Top Items:
Mark Sherman / Associated Press:
Court Backs Ban on Abortion Procedure — WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court upheld the nationwide ban on a controversial abortion procedure Wednesday, handing abortion opponents the long- awaited victory they expected from a more conservative bench. — The 5-4 ruling said the Partial …
RELATED:
Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:
Court upholds federal abortion ban — Dividing 5-4, the Supreme Court on Wednesday gave a sweeping — and only barely qualified — victory to the federal government and to other opponents of abortion, upholding the 2003 law that banned what are often called "partial-birth abortions."
Discussion:
Feministe, Daily Kos, The Volokh Conspiracy, Firedoglake, Shakesville, The Agonist, The Carpetbagger Report, Redstate, Althouse, TalkLeft, The Newshoggers, NewsBusters.org, Bradford Plumer, La Shawn Barber's Corner, Booman Tribune, Sister Toldjah, Catallarchy, snapped shot, Texas Rainmaker, Tennessee Guerilla Women and Blog of the Moderate Left
Washington Post:
Court Backs Ban on Late-Term Abortion Procedure — The Supreme Court today narrowly upheld a nationwide ban on a controversial late-term abortion procedure, voting for the first time to restrict abortion rights and handing a major victory to President Bush and his social conservative allies.
Ann / Feministing:
"Today's decision is alarming." — Justice Ginsburg penned a moving dissent from today's Supreme Court opinion upholding the Federal Abortion Ban. Some highlights: … She goes on to note that the court's previous ruling, in Stenberg v. Carhart, struck down a "partial-birth" abortion ban because it lacked a health exception.
Bill Mears / CNN:
Justices uphold ban on abortion procedure … WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a law that banned a type of late-term abortion, a ruling that could portend enormous social, legal and political implications for the divisive issue. — The sharply divided 5-4 ruling could prove historic.
Orin Kerr / The Volokh Conspiracy:
PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTION BAN UPHELD, BUT ON NARROW GROUND: The opinions are here.
PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTION BAN UPHELD, BUT ON NARROW GROUND: The opinions are here.
Discussion:
Ace of Spades HQ
Glenn Reynolds / NY Daily News:
People don't stop killers. People with guns do — On Monday, as the news of the Virginia Tech shootings was unfolding, I went into my advanced constitutional law seminar to find one of my students upset. My student, Tara Wyllie, has a permit to carry a gun in Tennessee, but she isn't allowed to have a weapon on campus.
RELATED:
New York Times:
Two-Hour Delay Is Linked to Bad Lead — The police identified Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old student, as the killer of 32 people in the shooting rampage at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, releasing new information on Tuesday about the troubled mind of a young man few people on campus knew.
Jack Shafer / Slate:
In Praise of Insensitive Reporters — WE'D HATE THEM EVEN MORE IF THEY DIDN'T OVERCOVER THE VT STORY. — Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung-Hui — Everybody is too busy right now consuming the Virginia Tech slaughter coverage to accuse the press of going overboard.
James Fallows:
Virginia Tech shooting: one American woman terrifies China — It was Tuesday night China time when the authorities in Blacksburg, Virginia, identified the gunman as a young Korean. For the previous 12 hours, the worst traits in the Chinese media had been brought out by an even-worse lapse by part of the U.S. media.
Discussion:
Political Animal
David Ignatius / Washington Post:
A New Threat In Iraq — While the Bush administration struggles to stabilize Baghdad, a major new threat is emerging in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq. If it isn't defused, this crisis could further erode U.S. goals in Iraq — drawing foreign military intervention …
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Student Wrote About Death and Spoke in Whispers, But No One Imagined What Cho Seung Hui Would Do — They met across the professor's desk. One on one. The chairman of the English department and the silent, brooding student who never took his sunglasses off.
RELATED:
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup Poll:
Democratic Race Tightens as Views of Clinton Become More Negative — Forty-five percent favorable rating one of lowest ever for Clinton — PRINCETON, NJ — A majority of Americans have an unfavorable image of New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Jules Crittenden:
Killer Reax — People with guns stop killers." — Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom: "Nanny-Statism — in its efforts to protect — succeeds only in infantilizing the culture." — Harry Reid, rare moment of clarity, warns against a rush to gun control.
Discussion:
Don Surber
Paul Blumenthal / Sunlight Foundation blogs:
Who Placed a Secret Hold on Sunlight? — Yet again an anonymous Senator has placed a secret hold on legislation that would increase transparency. This time a secret hold has been placed on a bill, S. 223, that would mandate that Senators file their campaign finance reports electronically.
Discussion:
TPMmuckraker
Margaret Talev / Real Cities:
White House seeks to review GOP e-mails — WASHINGTON - President Bush's lawyers told the Republican National Committee on Tuesday not to turn over to Congress any e-mails related to the firings last year of eight U.S. attorneys before showing them to the White House.