Supreme Court Watch

First order of business, before we get to the court watch:
Larry Summers is resigning as President of Harvard. If you'll remember, Larry Summers is the man who made the controversial remarks that it may be something in the difference between men and women that explains why few women rise to the top of the science and mathematics professions. He is basically being forced to resign because of this comment because he is having 'problems with the faculty'. You know what I say about this? So much for freedom of speech, freedom of education, and educational integrity. If someone can be constructively fired for such a comment, what can't one be forced to resign for? Okay, that's enough of my rant on that topic.

Okay, as far as the Court is concerned now, two very different topics.

1. The Supreme Court has just agreed to grant certiorari to a case over the federal ban of partial birth abortion. This law has been ruled unconstitutional by the 8th Circuit and a court in Nebraska. We'll see how it ends up very soon and we will see whether the change of staff of the SCOTUS will affect the state of aborion law in this country.

2. The Supreme Court just decided a new freedom of religion case today. The Court ruled, unanimously, oddly enough, that a little church in New Mexico can use an illegal drug in its tea for its worship services. Interesting case.

One further comment about current news: Bush is vowing to keep this Port deal. This is the first time I think I've ever agreed with Chuck Shumer, which scares me. I think we should think about this a little longer before we jump right into having a deal where a Dubai-based company controls our ports. I don't know what irons Bush already has in the fire, but I think perhaps he has some political reason (maybe he's got some deal with some other country) to come out so strongly against (he's threatened a veto, and we all know how seldom he vetoes anything) any efforts to delay the Port deal. Just my two cents :).