Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Martin DyckmanJuly 23, 2014

Rick Scott needs to hear from Sandra Day O’Connor. Not that he’d listen. The retired justice, who must surely regret what has happened to the U.S. Supreme Court since she left, is devoting her time now to fighting for the independence of the judiciary. She has become a prominent and oft-spoken critic of what she […]

Martin DyckmanJuly 14, 2014

Democracy in Florida is still a work in progress, even as to the basic principle that every citizen’s vote should count the same. It has been half a century since the U.S. Supreme Court put an end to rural rule by which legislators representing less than a fifth of Florida’s population held more than half […]

Daniel TilsonJuly 10, 2014

The uproar following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision targeting American women is well warranted. But another awful court decision, this one targeting American workers, got far too little attention in the process and may well have more far-reaching, damaging impact. The good news: The June 30 Harris v. Quinn ruling in question appears […]

Martin DyckmanJuly 9, 2014

Among the flock of on-line petitions I declined to sign last week was one calling for the impeachment of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Much as I and others might wish them gone and forgotten, impeachment is a terrible idea. The merits aside, it […]

Julie DelegalJuly 6, 2014

Now that our collective blood pressure is returning to normal, feminists need to revisit the Hobby Lobby decision with more objectivity. In a nutshell, ladies, we’ve been duped. For those readers who’ve been living under a rock, the U.S. Supreme Court voted last week, 5-4, to do two things: First, they invented a new right […]

Guest AuthorJuly 1, 2014

Walt Disney, whose anthropomorphic bent morphed a large, rat-like urban scavenger into beloved Bambi and made us cry, was a piker compared to today’s U.S. Supreme Court. Or at least that five-guy majority bent on turning for-profit corporations into people. Thanks to the Supremes, corporations can donate front-end loaders of cash to political causes with […]

Guest AuthorJune 29, 2014

If you think anti-abortion activists swarming around clinics are sweet, helpful Good Samaritans, you’ve sniffed a snoot-full of cockamamie pixie dust. Or you’re swooning over the perfectly coiffed spokesmen (and, why is it they are almost always men?) whose carefully modulated tones and messages reassure that protesters are simple caring folks handing out pamphlets and […]

Martin DyckmanMay 21, 2014

Scientists fear that global warming will reach a “tipping point” beyond which it could not be halted. That may already have happened, they said last week, to the West Antarctica ice sheet. If it slides into the ocean, seas could eventually rise by as much as 10 feet worldwide. There’s a third tipping point that’s […]

Martin DyckmanMay 4, 2014

Whether the murderer Clayton Lockett deserved to die is beside the point to nearly everyone who has read or heard about how he died in Oklahoma Tuesday. His execution attempt, evoking images of medieval torture, was botched so badly that it had to be interrupted shortly before a heart attack completed what needles and drugs […]

Mark FerruloApril 16, 2014

On April 1 a federal appeals court issued a ruling that squashed Gov. Rick Scott’s politically driven, error-riddled 2012 “voter purge.” This decision underscored what nearly every political observer already knew: Scott’s effort to purge the rolls was not only flawed, but also illegal. The National Voter Registration Act clearly prohibits any program that purges […]

Tag: U.S. Supreme Court

Martin Dyckman: Scott threatens the independence of Florida’s judiciary

Martin Dyckman: Fla. should adopt Iowa’s system for drawing political districts

Daniel Tilson: That other awful U.S. Supreme Court ruling

Martin Dyckman: We should limit terms of U.S. Supreme Court justices to 18 years

Julie Delegal: Health insurance is compensation for labor, not a boss’ handout

Linda Cunningham: Hobby Lobby ruling puts us on a slippery legal slope

Linda Cunningham: Protected by its buffer zone, court bans them at clinics

Martin Dyckman: We must limit campaign spending to halt ‘hostile takeover’

Martin Dyckman: Botched execution further weakens argument for death penalty

Mark Ferrulo: Recent rulings show why we need quality federal judges