Supreme Court Rules For Corporate Free Speech, Against Individual Free Speech and In Favor of Government-Sponsored Religion

Scotusblog:

In the second decision of the day, ... written by Alito and again dividing the Court 5-4, the Justices ruled that taxpayers do not have standing to sue to challenge the White House program on federal aid to faith-based organizations. The Court did not overrule Flast v. Cohen [which held to the contrary], also [sic] two Justices in the majority urged it to do so.

And:

The fourth ruling, written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., over three full dissents and one partial dissent, declared that public school officials do not violate a student's free speech rights by punishing the student for words or actions that promote a drug message. The ruling also should count as a 5-4 decision because Justice Stephen G. Breyer would have decided the case on qualified immunity grounds, and not reached the First Amendment issue.

And:

The Court issued its fifth ruling of the day, concluding that a Wisconsin abortion rights group had a First Amendment right to aid during election season campaign ads that named a candidate running for the Senate. Three of the five Justices in the majority urged the Court to overturn the part of a 2003 ruling that upheld the constitutionality of the federal law restricting such radio and TV ads close to elections. The Chief Justice's main opinion, joined fully by Justice Alito, said the case did not provide an occasion to revisit that ruling. Justice Souter recited at length from the bench for the four dissenters -- who were in the minority on four of the five rulings on Monday.

Shorter conservative Supreme Court justices [sic]:

Religion in government is good. Political contributions are good. Individual free speech is bad.

They're all 5-4. They're by Roberts or Alito (Thanks Mr. Nader!). They're all subrosa overrulings of recent precedent, so they don't have to take responsibility for being so unprincipled.

The Court will next issue decisions on Thursday, when it is expected to complete its current Term with four rulings -- counting as two the school integration cases. The others are a case on executing mentally disturbed criminals and on the standard for judging antitrust violations.

Can't wait.

(Via ACSBlog.)

Comments

[The Democrats]

Yeah, but you wouldn't believe how dry our powder is. It's like fossil-dust, this stuff.

Oh, sure, you could say that "keeping one's powder dry" is just a metaphor for picking one's battles wisely, but you're probably one of those moistness-lovers out to dampen our powder.