Topics in the News: Supreme Court
Steve Bullock on Drugs
: Jul 2, 2019
Strongly supports medical marijuana
- Signed a bill to regulate Montana's medical cannabis industry. (2017)
- Opposed a Montana Supreme Court ruling that upheld strict regulations of the state's medical marijuana industry,
saying, "I am concerned about the ability of thousands of patients with serious medical conditions to access a treatment that has been approved by their doctors." (2016)
Click for Steve Bullock on other issues.
Source: Cannabis Voter Project report on 2020 candidates
Bernie Sanders on Government Reform
: Jun 29, 2019
Rotate judges on Supreme Court, like term limits
Sanders's "rotating judges" idea actually makes some sense. At the Democratic debate, the moderators never raised how to handle the Supreme Court's emboldened conservative majority.They came closest to tackling the issue in an exchange about Roe v.
Wade and what the candidates would do to protect abortion rights if it were overturned. Sanders replied by saying he opposed adding additional justices to the bench, a solution several other candidates have proposed. "I do not believe in packing the
court," Sanders said. But "I do believe that constitutionally we have the ability to rotate judges to other courts."
At a forum in April, Sanders offered up a similar proposal. "What may make sense is, if not term limits, then rotating judges to the
appeals court as well. Letting them get out of the Supreme Court and bringing in new blood." The proposal is constitutionally dubious and might require an amendment, but it's not without merit if it gets rid of corrosive confirmation battles.
Click for Bernie Sanders on other issues.
Source: The New Republic magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Pete Buttigieg on Principles & Values
: Jun 27, 2019
Politics is not theoretical; our generation must deliver
Nothing about politics is theoretical for me. I've experienced being in a marriage that exists by the grace of a single vote on the Supreme Court. I'm running because the decisions we make in the next three or four years are going to decide how the next
30 or 40 go. When I get to the age of the current president in the year 2055, I want to be able to look back and say my generation delivered climate solutions, racial equality, and an end to endless war
Click for Pete Buttigieg on other issues.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (second night in Miami)
Steve Bullock on Government Reform
: Jun 18, 2019
Elevate the issue of campaign finance
Mr. Bullock has vowed to elevate the issue of campaign finance and make Democrats competitive in the country's interior. He railed against "dark money" in politics. Q: Are you open to expanding the size of the Supreme Court?
A: "I'm open to trying to say, how can we actually make sure that that court isn't reflective of politics?"
Click for Steve Bullock on other issues.
Source: 2019 "Meet the Candidates" (NY Times.com)
Beto O`Rourke on Government Reform
: Jun 5, 2019
Term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court
A key part of O'Rourke's voting rights plan would be to set term limits for politicians, to give young people incentive to vote for new candidates. He proposes limiting membership of the US House of Representatives and Senate to 12 years, and requiring
Supreme Court justices--currently appointed for life--to step down after 18 years. Those moves would require a constitutional amendment, which requires a 2/3 majority vote in both the House and Senate, and ratification by 3/4 of state legislatures.
Click for Beto O`Rourke on other issues.
Source: Reuters news service on 2020 Democratic primary
Pete Buttigieg on Government Reform
: Jun 3, 2019
Change the way Supreme Court nominees are picked
"The reform of not just expanding the number of members but doing it in a way where some of them are selected on a consensus, nonpartisan basis, it's a very promising way to do it," Buttigieg said. "There may be others.
But the point is, we've got to get out of where we are now, where any time there is an opening, there is an apocalyptic, ideological firefight. It harms the court, it harms the country and it leads to outcomes like we have right now."
Click for Pete Buttigieg on other issues.
Source: NBC Meet the Press 2019 interviews of presidential hopefuls
Kirsten Gillibrand on Abortion
: Jun 2, 2019
Abortion is the human right to bodily autonomy
Asked by an audience member whether she believed third-trimester abortions should be legal, Ms. Gillibrand spoke instead about abortion rights in general, reiterating a promise to appoint only Supreme Court justices who would uphold Roe v. Wade.
Ms. Gillibrand, long a prominent advocate for issues affecting women, has placed herself at the forefront of the debate, hoping that some primary voters may factor the new measures into their decisions. "Why should male legislators across this country
decide when you are having children, how many and under what circumstances?" she asked Sunday, her voice rising. "I don't understand it. It's a human right. It's about having bodily autonomy. It's about being able to control your physical self."
She did not specifically address third-trimester abortions (which account for less than 1.5% of abortions), even when the audience member asked a second time.
Click for Kirsten Gillibrand on other issues.
Source: New York Times on 2019-2020 Fox News Town Halls
Steve Bullock on Abortion
: May 19, 2019
Women should decide, not government
Q: When do you think life begins? A: I think that the Supreme Court settled this 45 years ago. And it's not my decision to be making what the decision that a woman needs to make, in consultation with her doctor and her family and her faith, if she so
chooses. I would say that life begins at viability. But it's not up to people like me to be making these decisions. It's what does an individual woman need to do with her body and with her health care? Those aren't decisions that I should be making.
Click for Steve Bullock on other issues.
Source: CNN SOTU 2019 interview of presidential hopefuls
Bernie Sanders on Abortion
: May 19, 2019
No anti-choice appointments to Supreme Court
The idea that women in this country should not be able to control their own bodies is beyond belief. They have that constitutional right. So if you're asking me, would I ever appoint a Supreme Court justice who does not believe in defending
Roe versus Wade, who does not believe that a woman has the right to control her own body, I will never do that.
Click for Bernie Sanders on other issues.
Source: Meet the Press 2019 interview of 2020 presidential hopefuls
Steve Bullock on Government Reform
: May 15, 2019
Overturn Citizens United; ban SuperPACs
Bullock's campaign is centered on eliminating the influence of money in politics. He supports overturning Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision that lifted restrictions on corporate political spending. Bullock is also in favor of banning on Super
Political Action Committees, or Super PACs, and wants companies to disclose their political donations. In 2015, he signed a bill in Montana with the support of Republican state lawmakers requiring "dark money" groups to report their election spending.
Click for Steve Bullock on other issues.
Source: PBS News Hour 2020, "Where the candidate stands on 9 issues"
Pete Buttigieg on Government Reform
: May 6, 2019
Citizens United was a disaster for our democracy
Buttigieg says the Citizens United Supreme Court case that opened the doors for corporations, nonprofits and unions to contribute to campaigns should be overturned.He says dollars have begun to out weigh people. He personally has returned money from
Washington lobbyists and has sworn off taking money from the fossil fuel industry or certain political action committees. "Citizens United was a disaster for our democracy," he told CSPAN2.
Click for Pete Buttigieg on other issues.
Source: Indianapolis Star on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Donald Trump on Principles & Values
: Apr 24, 2019
If Congress tries to impeach, I'll go to the Supreme Court
President Donald Trump said he would turn to the Supreme Court if the House of Representatives moves to impeach him, though it is unclear what role the nation's highest court could play if the president were to seek its help in such a situation. Trump
claimed in a tweet that special counsel Robert Mueller's report was written by a team biased against him with "unlimited money" for an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Still, he said, the report "didn't lay a glove on me."
"I DID NOTHING WRONG," Trump said. "If the partisan Dems ever tried to Impeach, I would first head to the U.S. Supreme Court."
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in 1993 that authority for impeachment trials resides in Congress and "nowhere else."
The power of impeachment belongs to Congress and proceedings must be launched in the House, according to the U.S. Constitution. If representatives vote to impeach, the case is tried in the Senate.
Click for Donald Trump on other issues.
Source: Politico.com on "Supreme Court if impeached, says Trump"
Pete Buttigieg on Government Reform
: Mar 19, 2019
Need to depoliticize Supreme Court
We need some kind of structural reform that makes the court less political. We can't go on where every time there's a vacancy, there's this apocalyptic ideological battle. One idea that I think is interesting is, you have 15 members, but only ten
of them are appointed in the political fashion. Five of them can only be seated by unanimous agreement of the other ten. There are other ideas that have been floated too about term limits or about rotating justices up from the appellate bench.
Click for Pete Buttigieg on other issues.
Source: Fox News Sunday 2019 interviews for 2020 Democratic primary
Beto O`Rourke on Government Reform
: Mar 15, 2019
Increase Supreme Court to 15 independent Justices
A voter asked about adding more justices to the Supreme Court to tilt its ideological balance. "There's nothing in the Constitution that defines how many people should sit on that court," O'Rourke said. "What if there were five justices selected by
Democrats, five Justices selected by Republicans, and those 10 then picked five more justices independent of those who chose the first 10? I think that's an idea that we should explore."
That kind of public deliberation is exactly what many supporters like about his approach to policy. They say O'Rourke, instead of being confined by ideology, is open-minded and flexible, wanting
to hear the evidence before making up his mind. "There's no sense in campaigning if you already know every single answer," O'Rourke said.
Click for Beto O`Rourke on other issues.
Source: Alex Seitz-Wald, NBC News, on 2020 Democratic primary
Howard Schultz on Government Reform
: Mar 13, 2019
Reduce partisanship with 2/3 vote for Court nominations
I would not nominate a Supreme Court justice unless he or she could be confirmed by two-thirds--two-thirds--of the United States Senate. The Courts have become yet another battlefield in the ongoing war between Democratic and Republican leaders.
That's not how our democracy should work. These battles have undermined our faith in the rule of law and the impartiality of the entire judicial system. All of this has to change.
We need to restore faith and confidence of in our courts so that we can get back to believing that we're all equal--all of us--under the laws of this country. Taking politics out of the Supreme Court nomination process is a critical first step.
In fact, I challenge every single candidate running for president, from both parties, to make the same commitment, right now, that I'm making. Regarding two-thirds, and to honor that.
Click for Howard Schultz on other issues.
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowardSchultz.com
Pete Buttigieg on Government Reform
: Mar 10, 2019
Make Supreme Court appointments less partisan
What we need to do is stop every vacancy from becoming this apocalyptic ideological battle. The proposal I've mentioned does expand the court to 15 but changes the structure. Only 10 of them are politically appointed by Democratic or
Republican presidents. The other five can only be seated by unanimous consent of the remaining 10. Whichever particular mechanism is best, the point is we need to begin the debate on what it will take to make sure our Supreme Court is less political.
Click for Pete Buttigieg on other issues.
Source: CNN Town Hall: back-to-back 2020 presidential hopefuls
Bernie Sanders on Government Reform
: Feb 19, 2019
Require disclosure of campaign expenditures over $10,000
In 2016, Sanders refused corporate donations and relied on small donors to fund his White House campaign. He has proposed a constitutional amendment that would effectively reverse the Supreme Court's Citizen United ruling and ban corporations
and nonprofits from unlimited campaign expenditures. The independent senator would also require any organization to disclose election-related campaign expenditures of $10,000 or more.
Click for Bernie Sanders on other issues.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Donald Trump on Homeland Security
: Feb 19, 2019
Ban on transgender people serving openly in the US military
Trump, after being elected, also said he was "fine" with same-sex marriage. But since he took office, his administration has scaled back some workplace protections for gay people and has argued in court that a federal anti-discrimination law
doesn't protect gay employees. He has also announced a ban on transgender people serving openly in the U.S. military, which the Supreme Court last month said could be implemented even as lower-court challenges play out.
Click for Donald Trump on other issues.
Source: Josh Lederman, NBC News, on 2019 Trump administration
Pete Buttigieg on Corporations
: Feb 12, 2019
Companies are not persons; should not have religious rights
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act said that "a governmental entity may not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion." But "person" was defined to include companies, building on the legal theory of the 2014 Supreme Court Hobby Lobby case,
which interpreted federal law as giving corporations the same religious rights as people. Effectively this meant that any place of business, from a restaurant to an auto shop, could refuse an LGBT individual or couple, provided its owner cited
religion as the motivation for discriminating. It could even be interpreted to protect a physician denying care to a gay patient. And it would wipe out South Bend's own local ordinance, passed in 2012, which prohibited workplace discrimination against
LGBT residents. Despite the name, its purpose was not to "restore" religious freedom--after all, religious freedom is already guaranteed in the Constitution. The bill's actual purpose, its sponsors would later reveal, was to legalize discrimination.
Click for Pete Buttigieg on other issues.
Source: Shortest Way Home, by Pete Buttigieg, p.209-10
Pete Buttigieg on Jobs
: Feb 12, 2019
2009 auto bailout was worthwhile; it saved jobs and pensions
[Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock argued before the Supreme Court to stop the Chrysler bailout, but lost, in June 2009]. In his own mind, Mourdock had stood on principle by defying Washington and the auto workers who had pushed so hard to save their
jobs. But I wonder, sometimes, whether Mourdock talked to any of the families whose livelihoods could have been wrecked by his legal adventure. Did he think about the stakes for them, or was it just numbers on a page to him?
To Mourdock, it seems, the most important issue at stake in the auto rescue was that investors on the bond market would have to take a haircut. To the rest of us, the most important issue was that families lives could be ruined by the same kind
of economic disaster that had nearly killed my hometown half a century earlier.
To me, the whole episode was about what happens when a public official becomes obsessed with ideology.
Click for Pete Buttigieg on other issues.
Source: Shortest Way Home, by Pete Buttigieg, p. 87-8
Cory Booker on Homeland Security
: Feb 1, 2019
Transgender troops should be allowed to serve
- In the Senate, Booker pushed for marriage equality and cheered the 2015 Supreme Court decision making same-sex marriage legal nationwide.
- As mayor of Newark, he refused to officiate any weddings until same-sex marriage was legal;
in his final weeks as mayor, he married seven LGBT couples once the state legalized it.
- One of the first bills Booker co-sponsored in the Senate was the
Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which prohibited workplace discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity.
- Booker has said his support for the LGBT community has evolved over time.
- In a column he wrote for
Stanford University's newspaper in 1992, Booker said that he once "hated gays."
- Booker has also said the president's plan to ban transgender people from serving in the military "undermines our national security."
Click for Cory Booker on other issues.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Bill de Blasio on Abortion
: Jan 22, 2019
Crucial to protect women's right to choose in 2019
New York lawmakers have passed one of the nation's strongest protections for abortion rights, saying the women of New York need legal safeguards if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. The Democrat-led Senate and Assembly passed the bill on the
46th anniversary of the Roe decision. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo was expected to quickly sign it into law.The bill was first introduced back in 2007 and removes abortion from the state criminal code and ensures women the right to an abortion in
New York should that federal right ever be changed by the Supreme Court. For years, the law would pass the Assembly but fail in the Republican-controlled Senate. That all changed last fall when voters put Democrats firmly in charge in Albany.
"I support this act. It's crucial that we protect a woman's right to choose, particularly at this moment in history, when women's rights are under attack," NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
Click for Bill de Blasio on other issues.
Source: Associated Press on ABC7NY on 2020 Democratic primary
Bill de Blasio on Gun Control
: Jan 22, 2019
Gun laws are necessary to protect the city and ourselves
Mayor Bill de Blasio, responding to a reporter's question about the Supreme Court's decision to hear the case, said at a news conference on Tuesday that the city would vigorously defend its law [limiting residents from transporting their guns outside
the home]. "We, every single day, are working to make this the safest big city in America," he said. "We need the laws that we have that protect against guns being on our streets and we will fight to protect ourselves, that's the bottom line."
Click for Bill de Blasio on other issues.
Source: N. Y. Times, "NYC Gun Law," on 2020 Democratic primary
Kirsten Gillibrand on Abortion
: Jan 16, 2019
Fewer limits on abortion; no 20-week ban
- Social issues: Expand abortion access.
- Gillibrand supports abortion rights, including placing fewer limits on, and expanding access to, abortion.
- She vocally opposed the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, arguing that he
could help overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.
- She also voted against a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Click for Kirsten Gillibrand on other issues.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Kirsten Gillibrand on Government Reform
: Jan 16, 2019
Overturn Citizens United; refuse corporate PAC donations
- Campaign finance: Overturn Citizens United. Refuse corporate PAC donations.
- Gillibrand would reverse the Citizens United Supreme Court decision that allowed for nearly unlimited campaign contributions from corporate and non-profit
organizations.
- She supports a constitutional amendment to change the law.
- The New York senator is also among several prominent Democrats who have pledged to not accept donations from corporate Political Action Committees, or PACs.
Click for Kirsten Gillibrand on other issues.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Bernie Sanders on Government Reform
: Nov 27, 2018
Mainstream media focuses on gossip, lies, & personality
As a result of the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, billionaires are now able to spend hundreds of millions of dollars anonymously in ugly TV ads demonizing candidates who dare stand up to them. The internet and social media now
allow for the worldwide transmission of total lies, and the capability of targeting those lies to susceptible populations.
Further, recent studies show what the average American has long known. More and more mainstream media political coverage is
devoted to gossip and issues of personality, and less and less to the major problems facing our country and the world. During the last presidential campaign, for example, there was almost no discussion devoted to climate change, the greatest
environmental crisis facing our planet. There was hardly a mention that in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, 40 million Americans live in poverty, or that we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of nearly any major country.
Click for Bernie Sanders on other issues.
Source: Where We Go From Here, by Bernie Sanders, p.6
Steve Bullock on Government Reform
: Sep 29, 2018
Unlimited corporate spending has impacted our elections
Bullock launches into his dark money pitch straightaway. He talks about the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling and how unlimited corporate spending has impacted our elections. "Think about 2004. Five million dollars of dark money, undisclosed money,
was spent in our federal elections. Fast-forward eight years, and it was $300 million. A 6,000% increase in just eight years in dark money pouring into our election."And that's why he tries to establish the stakes of that political spending as a
central concern to the future of democracy: "If we wanna address all the other big issues in our electoral system, in our political system, if we really want to address income inequality, if we want to address health care," he continues, "you're not
gonna be able to do it unless you also address the way money is affecting our system." This, above all else, is the Bullock pitch: You wanna do all this progressive work? None of it can happen until we excise the very root of the blockage.
Click for Steve Bullock on other issues.
Source: Buzzfeed.com on 2020 Democratic primary
Steve Bullock on Government Reform
: Sep 29, 2018
Signed the Montana Disclose Act into law
That's when Bullock first started going after his political white whale: dark money in politics, which, in a series of twists and turns, led him all the way to the Supreme Court. Bullock's crusade didn't ultimately affect
Citizens United, but it nonetheless positioned him for his 2012 run for governor. Once in office, working with a bipartisan group of lawmakers, he'd eventually sign the
Montana Disclose Act into law, which requires any groups funding election-related communication to disclose their donors. Earlier this summer, he signed an executive order requiring all recipients of government contracts to disclose
political spending; he features prominently in a dark money documentary, made by his high school classmate, currently making the indie circuit rounds.
Click for Steve Bullock on other issues.
Source: Buzzfeed.com on 2020 Democratic primary
Donald Trump on Education
: Aug 30, 2018
Skeptical of use of affirmative action in college admissions
[In a case against Harvard University's affirmative action policy, a Justice Department] brief urged that courts should [reduce] consideration of race in admissions. Harvard has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and said the lawsuit is part of an ideological
campaign to overturn Supreme Court rulings that allow affirmative action.The action demonstrated anew the administration's deep skepticism of affirmative action in education. Under President Barack Obama, the Justice Department had made legal
arguments in support of how colleges use race in admissions.
The Justice Department concluded: that Harvard has failed to explain exactly how it weighs race against other factors in an application; that Harvard uses a "personal rating" that may be
biased against Asian Americans; and that "substantial evidence" indicates admissions officers monitor and manipulate the racial makeup of incoming classes, despite court rulings that have found "racial balancing" unconstitutional.
Click for Donald Trump on other issues.
Source: Chicago Tribune on 2018 Trump Administration
Donald Trump on Gun Control
: Mar 28, 2018
Remove weapons from dangerous individuals, not all Americans
President Donald Trump dismissed retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens' call to repeal the Second Amendment. Stevens, 97, moved by the March for Our Lives last weekend that drew hundreds of thousands of protesters across the country calling
for action to end gun violence, penned an op-ed published in The New York Times.Trump tweeted, "THE SECOND AMENDMENT WILL NEVER BE REPEALED! As much as Democrats would like to see this happen, and despite the words yesterday of former
Supreme Court Justice Stevens, NO WAY. We need more Republicans in 2018 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court!"
When asked if Trump had a reaction to Stevens' call for repeal, Trump's press secretary
said, "We think that the focus has to remain on removing weapons from dangerous individuals, not on blocking all Americans from their constitutional rights."
Click for Donald Trump on other issues.
Source: ABC News on Twitter posting by 2018 Trump Administration
Larry Hogan on Government Reform
: Mar 26, 2018
Partisan gerrymandering disenfranchises voters
When Maryland Democrats redrew the state's congressional maps [after the 2010 census], they shuffled 375,000 in or out of the state's 6th congressional district. Maryland's sixth will be under the national spotlight when the US Supreme Court hears oral
arguments in Benisek v. Lamone, the latest case that aspires to make partisan gerrymandering unconstitutional. Maryland's Republican governor, Larry Hogan, joined current Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, both
Republicans, in an amicus brief that essentially pleads with the Supreme Court to take actions because the politicians are unable to stop themselves from drawing crooked lines.
The plaintiffs in Benisek are making a First Amendment argument, asking the
justices to find that using past voting data to sort people into districts their side is unlikely to win penalizes them for participation in the political process.
[The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on June 18 to leave the district lines untouched].
Click for Larry Hogan on other issues.
Source: Salon e-zine on 2018 SCOTUS case Benisek v. Lamone
John Kasich on Government Reform
: Mar 26, 2018
Supreme Court should disallow partisan gerrymandering
When Maryland Democrats redrew the state's congressional maps [after the 2010 census], they shuffled 375,000 in or out of the state's 6th congressional district. Maryland's sixth will be under the national spotlight when the US Supreme Court hears oral
arguments in Benisek v. Lamone, the latest case that aspires to make partisan gerrymandering unconstitutional. Maryland's Republican governor, Larry Hogan, joined current Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, both
Republicans, in an amicus brief that essentially pleads with the Supreme Court to take actions because politicians are unable to stop themselves from drawing crooked lines.
The plaintiffs in Benisek are making a First Amendment argument, asking the
justices to find that using past voting data to sort people into districts their side is unlikely to win penalizes them for participation in the political process.
[The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on June 18 to leave the district lines untouched].
Click for John Kasich on other issues.
Source: Salon e-zine on 2018 SCOTUS case Benisek v. Lamone
John Kasich on Government Reform
: Mar 26, 2018
Supreme Court should disallow partisan gerrymandering
When Maryland Democrats redrew the state's congressional maps [after the 2010 census], they shuffled 375,000 in or out of the state's 6th congressional district. Maryland's sixth will be under the national spotlight when the US Supreme Court hears oral
arguments in Benisek v. Lamone, the latest case that aspires to make partisan gerrymandering unconstitutional. Maryland's Republican governor, Larry Hogan, joined current Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, both
Republicans, in an amicus brief that essentially pleads with the Supreme Court to take actions because the politicians are unable to stop themselves from drawing crooked lines.
The plaintiffs in Benisek are making a First Amendment argument, asking the
justices to find that using past voting data to sort people into districts their side is unlikely to win penalizes them for participation in the political process.
[The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on June 18 to leave the district lines untouched].
Click for John Kasich on other issues.
Source: Salon e-zine on 2018 SCOTUS case Benisek v. Lamone
Larry Hogan on Government Reform
: Mar 26, 2018
Partisan gerrymandering disenfranchises voters
When Maryland Democrats redrew the state's congressional maps [after the 2010 census], they shuffled 375,000 in or out of the state's sixth congressional district. "Maryland's sixth, it's the forgotten gerrymander," Maryland's Republican governor, Larry
Hogan, tells me with a rueful laugh. Maryland's sixth will be under the national spotlight when the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Benisek v. Lamone, the latest case that aspires to make partisan gerrymandering unconstitutional.
The plaintiffs in Benisek are making a First Amendment argument, asking the justices to find that using past voting data to sort people into districts their side is unlikely to win penalizes them for participation in the political process. Hogan says,
"What if the goal was drawing districts so people get free & fair elections and a competitive two-party system? Not to say how many people can we disenfranchise."
[The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on June 18 to leave the district lines untouched].
Click for Larry Hogan on other issues.
Source: Salon e-zine on 2018 SCOTUS case Benisek v. Lamone
John Kasich on Crime
: Mar 7, 2018
Rehab, not prison, for low-level offenders
The local judges now are not sending everybody to prison when they're a low offender. And I want to thank the judge, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, because we work with judges to bring rational thinking into this and to keep them in the
local community where they can be rehabbed, get their life back, and the public can be safe. We have now the lowest entry into our state prisons in 27 years. It's starting to work.
Click for John Kasich on other issues.
Source: 2018 Ohio State of the State address
Tom Steyer on Families & Children
: Feb 26, 2018
Republicans have traded their family values for power
For all their talk of "family values," establishment Republicans have shown they only truly value one thing: power. And they will do anything to maintain their grip on it. Why else would Mitch McConnell refuse to hold a hearing for Supreme Court
nominee Merrick Garland? Why else would state legislators sell their soul and pass laws designed to stop African American voter participation? The GOP has abandoned its moral compass, and it's up to us to do what's right. We have to raise our voices.
Click for Tom Steyer on other issues.
Source: Facebook posting by Tom Steyer, 2020 presidential hopeful
Donald Trump on Foreign Policy
: Jan 5, 2018
OpEd: Next drama always changed conversation: except Russia
In six months as president, failing to master almost any aspect of the bureaucratic process, [Trump] had, beyond placing his nominee on the Supreme Court, accomplished practically speaking, nothing. And yet, OMG!!! There almost was no other story in
America -- and in much of the world. That was the radical and transformational nature of the Trump presidency: it held everybody's attention.Whatever problems [Trump] might have caused in the past had reliably been supplanted by new events, giving
Nothing seemed to move on from those two events [referring to James Comey, the director of the FBI fired for allowing the Russia investigation; and Robert Mueller, Special Counsel investigating Russian collusion in the 2016 election].
Click for Donald Trump on other issues.
Source: Fire & Fury, by Michael Wolff, pp.232&251
Kamala Harris on Health Care
: Aug 10, 2017
Require pharmaceutical companies to allow generics
She filed a friend-of-the-court brief signed by thirty-one other state attorneys general in 2011 in a
Supreme Court case looking to end the practice of drug companies paying competitors to keep generic versions of their drugs off the market.
Click for Kamala Harris on other issues.
Source: Jacobin Magazine on 2018 California Senate race
Donald Trump on Foreign Policy
: Feb 28, 2017
Unbreakable alliance with the state of Israel
I have also imposed new sanctions on entities and individuals who support Iran's ballistic missile program, and reaffirmed our unbreakable alliance with the State of Israel.Finally, I have kept my promise to appoint a Justice to the
United States Supreme Court--from my list of 20 judges--who will defend our Constitution. I am honored to have Maureen Scalia with us in the gallery tonight.
Her late, great husband, Antonin Scalia, will forever be a symbol of American justice. To fill his seat, we have chosen Judge Neil Gorsuch, a man of incredible skill, and deep devotion to the law.
He was confirmed unanimously to the Court of Appeals, and I am asking the Senate to swiftly approve his nomination.
Click for Donald Trump on other issues.
Source: 2017 State of the Union address to Congress
John Kasich on Abortion
: Dec 13, 2016
Require abortion clinics to have nearby hospital & doctor
In Oklahoma this week, the state Supreme Court threw out a law requiring abortion clinics to have doctors who have admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles of their facility. The court ruled that measure, which requires doctors with admitting
privileges to be present for abortions, violates both the U.S. and Oklahoma constitutions. Republican Gov. Mary Fallin signed it into law in 2014, but courts had blocked it from going into effect. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year struck down a
similar provision in Texas.In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich signed a bill imposing a 20-week abortion ban based on the assertion that fetuses can feel pain then, which opponents characterize as scientifically unsound. Kasich vetoed stricter provisions in a
so-called heartbeat bill that would have prohibited most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can be as early as six weeks into pregnancy, noting that the heartbeat provision would have been struck down.
Click for John Kasich on other issues.
Source: Chicago Tribune on Ohio legislative voting records
Hillary Clinton on Government Reform
: Oct 19, 2016
We need Supreme Court to stand up to the powerful
I feel strongly that the Supreme Court needs to stand on the side of the American people, not on the side of the powerful corporations and the wealthy. For me, that means that we need a Supreme Court that will stand up on behalf of women's rights, on
behalf of the rights of the LGBT community, that will stand up and say no to Citizens United, a decision that has undermined the election system in our country because of the way it permits dark, unaccountable money to come into our electoral system.
It is important that we not reverse marriage equality, that we not reverse Roe v. Wade, that we stand up against Citizens United, we stand up for the rights of people in the workplace, that we stand up and basically say: The Supreme Court should
represent all of us. That's how I see the court, and the kind of people that I would be looking to nominate to the court would be in the great tradition of standing up to the powerful, standing up on behalf of our rights as Americans.
Click for Hillary Clinton on other issues.
Source: Third 2016 Presidential Debate in Las Vegas
Donald Trump on Gun Control
: Oct 19, 2016
We need Supreme Court to stand up for the 2nd Amendment
We need a Supreme Court that in my opinion is going to uphold the Second Amendment, and all amendments, but the Second Amendment, which is under absolute siege. I believe if my opponent should win this race, which I truly don't think will happen, we
will have a Second Amendment which will be a very, very small replica of what it is right now. But I feel that it's absolutely important that we uphold, because of the fact that it is under such trauma. The justices that I'm going to appoint will be
pro-life. They will have a conservative bent. They will be protecting the Second Amendment. They are great scholars in all cases, and they're people of tremendous respect. They will interpret the Constitution the way the founders wanted it interpreted.
And I believe that's very, very important.I don't think we should have justices appointed that decide what they want to hear. It's all about the Constitution the way it was meant to be. And those are the people that I will appoint.
Click for Donald Trump on other issues.
Source: Third 2016 Presidential Debate in Las Vegas
Hillary Clinton on Abortion
: Oct 9, 2016
Appoint Supreme Court judges who will uphold Roe v Wade
Q: What would you prioritize when selecting a Supreme Court justice?A: I want to appoint justices who understand the way the world really works, who have real-life experience, who actually understand what people are up against. I would want to see
the Supreme Court reverse Citizens United and get dark, unaccountable money out of our politics. I would like the Supreme Court to understand that voting rights are still a big problem in many parts of our country, that we don't always do everything we
can to make it possible for people of color and older people and young people to be able to exercise their franchise. I want a Supreme Court that will stick with Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose, and I want a Supreme Court that will stick with
marriage equality, that doesn't always side with corporate interests, that understands because you're wealthy and you can give more money to something doesn't mean you have any more rights or should have any more rights than anybody else.
Click for Hillary Clinton on other issues.
Source: Second 2016 Presidential Debate at Washington University
Michael Bennet on Government Reform
: Oct 9, 2016
Federal review voting of discriminatory state voting changes
Q: On Campaign Finance: Do you support the DISCLOSE Act, which requires key funders of political ads to put their names on those ads?Bennet: Yes
Glenn: No visible stand.
Q: On Campaign Finance: Support Supreme Court's Citizens United decision,
which allows unlimited independent political expenditures by corporations and unions?
Bennet: No. Wants to overturn.
Glenn: No visible stand, but likely yes. Supports unlimited contributions by individuals.
Q: On Voting Rights: Support stricter voting rules such as voter ID requirements or reduced registration times, even if they prevent some people from voting?
Bennet: No. Co-sponsored Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore federal oversight of
voting laws. Co-sponsored Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore federal courts' ability to review voting changes made at the state and local level and monitor for discriminatory practices.
Glenn: Unknown
Click for Michael Bennet on other issues.
Source: CampusElect Voter Guide to 2016 Colorado Senate race
Donald Trump on Gun Control
: Oct 9, 2016
Appoint Supreme Court judges who respect 2nd amendment
Q: What would you prioritize as the most important aspect of selecting a Supreme Court justice?TRUMP: People that will respect the US Constitution. Also, the Second Amendment, which is totally under siege by people like Clinton. They'll respect the
Second Amendment and what it stands for, what it represents.
CLINTON: I respect the Second Amendment. But I believe there should be comprehensive background checks, and we should close the gun show loophole, and close the online loophole.
Click for Donald Trump on other issues.
Source: Second 2016 Presidential Debate at Washington University
Hillary Clinton on Gun Control
: Oct 9, 2016
Respect 2nd amendment but close loopholes
Q: What would you prioritize as the most important aspect of selecting a Supreme Court justice?TRUMP: People that will respect the US Constitution. Also, the Second Amendment, which is totally under siege by people like Clinton. They'll respect the
Second Amendment and what it stands for, what it represents.
CLINTON: I respect the Second Amendment. But I believe there should be comprehensive background checks, and we should close the gun show loophole, and close the online loophole.
Click for Hillary Clinton on other issues.
Source: Second 2016 Presidential Debate at Washington University
Mike Pence on Abortion
: Jul 20, 2016
Need Supreme Court justices who uphold Constitution
This election will define the Supreme Court for the next 40 years. We all had better think very carefully about what this means for our Constitution and limited government. For the sake of the rule of law, for the sake of the sanctity of life, for the
sake of our Second Amendment, and for the sake of all our other God-given liberties, we must ensure that the next president appointing justices to the Supreme Court is Donald Trump.
Click for Mike Pence on other issues.
Source: Speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention
Bill Weld on Civil Rights
: Jun 22, 2016
I led Massachusetts on gay rights, and MA led America
Q: What you have done in office that has been consistent with Libertarian ideals?WELD: In office, in my case, even though I was then a Republican and not a Libertarian, I was way out there by myself on gay and lesbian rights, starting my first
month in office, in January 1991. And for 10 years, no one followed suit. I appointed the woman who wrote the decision holding equality of marriage as constitutionally compelled, which led to the Supreme Court case holding that.
Click for Bill Weld on other issues.
Source: CNN Libertarian Town Hall: joint interview of Johnson & Weld
Amy Klobuchar on Gun Control
: Jun 12, 2016
Sensible reforms like enhanced background checks
Sen. Jeff SESSIONS [R, AL]: If the Heller court were to be reversed, that would mean that any city, county or state could completely ban the use of firearms. The Heller decision was 5-4 in the Supreme Court. Now that Scalia has passed away, the next
president will appoint the 5th vote. If Hillary Clinton is elected president, she will appoint a judge who will declare it not to be a personal right.KLOBUCHAR: I believe in the Second Amendment and I believe Hillary Clinton does as well.
But what she's been talking about here is simply something that the vast majority of the American people believe in, and that is some background checks--which the Supreme Court has left open in its gun decision--that you could have more enhanced
background checks. The idea that you shouldn't have stalkers be able to go out and get a gun, I think would [provide] vast hope in saving lives, including the fact that people on the terror watch list can still get guns. Those are some sensible reforms.
Click for Amy Klobuchar on other issues.
Source: Fox News Sunday 2016: interviews for 2016 Veepstakes
Bill Weld on Gun Control
: May 21, 2016
2nd Amendment right s are individual rights
I am a lifelong hunter and gun owner. In 1993, as Governor of Massachusetts, I went along with modest restrictions on firearms. Governing involves tough choices. Today, I would make different choices. Restricting gun rights doesn't make us safer, and
threatens our constitutional freedoms. I support the Supreme Court's decision in the District of Columbia vs. Heller -- a decision that embraced the notion that Second Amendment rights are individual rights, not to be abridged by the government.
Click for Bill Weld on other issues.
Source: Reason magazine OpEd by 2016 vice-presidential hopeful
Bernie Sanders on Government Reform
: Mar 9, 2016
It's oligarchy when billionaires buy elections
I'm running for president because given the crises facing our country, it is just too late for establishment politics and establishment economics. Together we're going to have to overturn this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision.
Billionaires and Wall Street should not be buying elections. We've got to end this rigged economy where people are working longer hours for low wages, almost all new income and wealth going to the top 1 percent, and of course, we need comprehensive
immigration reform and a path toward citizenship.
We know that we have got to combat climate change, transform our energy system, and leave this planet in a way that is healthy and habitable for our kids and our grandchildren.
Is it acceptable that
Wall Street and billionaires are spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to buy elections? Is that democracy or this that oligarchy? Which is why I believe we've got to overturn Citizens United and move to public funding of elections.
Click for Bernie Sanders on other issues.
Source: 2016 PBS Democratic primary debate in Miami
John Kasich on Government Reform
: Feb 25, 2016
My judicial appointments are solid conservatives
I've appointed over a hundred judges as governor. I even appointed a judge to the Ohio Supreme Court. And you know what they are? They're conservatives.
Go check it out. They are conservatives. They don't make the law. They interpret the law. That's all they do. And they stick by the Constitution. So I will do that.
Click for John Kasich on other issues.
Source: 2016 CNN-Telemundo Republican debate on eve of Texas primary
Donald Trump on Health Care
: Feb 25, 2016
Chief Justice Roberts: a disaster who gave us ObamaCare
Justice Roberts gave us ObamaCare. Might as well be called Roberts-care. Two times of the Supreme Court, Justice Roberts approved something that he should have never raised his hand to approve. And we ended up with ObamaCare.
That judge has been a disaster in terms of everything we stand for because there is no way -- no way that he should have approved ObamaCare.
Click for Donald Trump on other issues.
Source: 2016 CNN-Telemundo Republican debate on eve of Texas primary
Donald Trump on Government Reform
: Feb 18, 2016
I wouldn't nominate my sister to Supreme Court
Senator Ted CRUZ: Last year, when talking about Supreme Court nominees, Donald said his sister--a judge who was put on the Court of Appeals by Bill Clinton--he said his sister would make a phenomenal Supreme Court Justice. His sister is a radical
pro-abortion judge. She struck down New Jersey's ban on partial-birth abortion as irrational. That's an extreme position.Q: Have you suggested your sister as a Supreme Court justice?
TRUMP: I have not.
Q: You said she would be great...
TRUMP:
She's very smart.
Q: But you'd have to rule that out because she was your sister?
TRUMP: My sister is a brilliant woman. She was appointed by Ronald Reagan. He said appointed by Bill Clinton. She was elevated by Clinton to the Court of Appeals, a
very high position, right under the Supreme Court. The reason she was elevated, she was an outstanding intellect and an outstanding judge. I don't even know what her views are on abortion. She is certainly not a radical anything; that's not her thing
Click for Donald Trump on other issues.
Source: 2016 CNN GOP Town Hall in South Carolina
Hillary Clinton on Government Reform
: Feb 18, 2016
Senate duty to vote on Supreme Court nominees
Q: President Obama now says he regrets voting to filibuster Justice Alito's nomination. You joined 24 other Democrats when you were in the Senate to filibuster Alito's nomination. Do you also regret that?CLINTON: I did oppose Justice Alito and Chief
Justice Roberts, because after listening to them, I did not believe that their judicial philosophy and approach was one that would be the best for the country. But we had a process; the nomination was made, and we went through the process.
What the Republicans today are saying is "We don't want the president to send us a nominee." That is very different.
Q: But with the filibuster, if you had been successful, then Judge Alito would not have gotten a vote on the floor of the Senate.
CLINTON: That's the way the Senate operates. You get to have a vote. You get to use the rules. The president is trying to talk some sense into the Senate Republicans to actually do their constitutional duty.
Click for Hillary Clinton on other issues.
Source: MSNBC/Telemundo Democratic Town Hall in Las Vegas
Donald Trump on Government Reform
: Feb 13, 2016
Delay, delay, delay on Supreme Court appointment
Q: The death of Justice Antonin Scalia leaves a vacancy on the Supreme Court. You've said that the President shouldn't nominate anyone in the rest of his term to replace Justice Scalia. If you were President, and had a chance with 11 months left to go in
your term, wouldn't it be an abdication not to name a conservative justice with the rest of your term?TRUMP: If I were President now I would certainly want to try and nominate a justice.
Frankly, I'm absolutely sure that President Obama will try and do it. I hope that our Senate is going to be able to do something about it.
Q: So, just to be clear on this, you're OK with the President nominating somebody?
TRUMP: think he's going
to do it whether or I'm OK with it or not. I think it's up to [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell, and everybody else to stop it. It's called delay, delay, delay.
Click for Donald Trump on other issues.
Source: 2016 CBS Republican primary debate in South Carolina
Hillary Clinton on Crime
: Feb 4, 2016
Death penalty appropriate for Oklahoma City bombing
Q: You said that capital punishment has a place in a very few federal cases, but you also said you would breathe a sigh of relief if the Supreme Court abolished the death penalty nationwide.CLINTON: What I hope the Supreme Court will do is make it
absolutely clear that any state that continues capital punishment must meet the highest standards of evidentiary proof of effective assistance of counsel. I have much more confidence in the federal system, and I do reserve it for particularly heinous
crimes in the federal system, like terrorism. I thought it was appropriate after a very thorough trial that Timothy McVeigh received the death penalty for blowing up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, including 19 children in a
daycare center.
SANDERS: When somebody commits any of these terrible crimes [like in Oklahoma City], you lock them up, and you toss away the key. They're never going to get out. But, I just don't want to see government be part of killing.
Click for Hillary Clinton on other issues.
Source: MSNBC Democratic primary debate in New Hampshire
Bernie Sanders on Government Reform
: Feb 4, 2016
Litmus test for Supreme Court on Citizens United
You are not going to accomplish what has to be done for working families and the middle class unless there is campaign finance reform. So long as big money interests control the United States Congress, it is gonna be very hard to do what has to be done
for working families. So let me be very clear. No nominee of mine, if I'm elected president, to the United States Supreme Court will get that nomination unless he or she is loud and clear, and says they will vote to overturn Citizens United.
Click for Bernie Sanders on other issues.
Source: MSNBC Democratic primary debate in New Hampshire
Barack Obama on Jobs
: Oct 27, 2015
Signed Ledbetter Fair Pay Law in first month of presidency
The story of Lilly Ledbetter wasn't over [even after her Supreme Court case]. A bill to undo the Congressional majority's damage to antidiscrimination law died in a Republican Senate in 2008, and Bush had already said he would veto it. The election of
Barack Obama changed that. Ten days into his presidency, Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law. RBG put a framed copy of the law on her wall. Her ideal of a dialogue between the branches of government had been made reality.
Click for Barack Obama on other issues.
Source: Notorious RBG, by Irin Carmon & Shana Knizhnik, p. 140
Bernie Sanders on Government Reform
: Oct 13, 2015
Citizens United means billionaires donate for THEIR interest
As a result of this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, our campaign finance system is corrupt and is undermining American democracy. Millionaires and billionaires are pouring unbelievable sums of money into the political process in order
to fund super PACs and to elect candidates who represent their interests, not the interests of working people.
Click for Bernie Sanders on other issues.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Bernie Sanders on Government Reform
: Sep 5, 2015
Public funding of elections to promote even playing field
The US, in theory, is a democratic republic, where the voices of the many are represented by those whom we elect to political office. But our government no longer represents most of us. Bernie says, "We need people who are ready to take on the handful
of billionaires holding the power, to tell them, 'Enough is enough. This country belongs to us. This government belongs to us.' " Here's how we do it:- Bernie wants to overturn Citizens United, a "disastrous Supreme Court decision" which allows
unlimited sums of money to be funneled into electoral politics.
- DISCLOSE Act: protect the integrity and transparency of federal elections by establishing disclosure requirements for all contributions.
- Public Funding of Elections: Bernie wants to
move towards public funding of elections to promote a more even playing field where all Americans can participate.
- Democracy Day: Bernie wants to celebrate democracy by creating a holiday to encourage voter turnout for elections.
Click for Bernie Sanders on other issues.
Source: 2016 grassroots campaign website FeelTheBern.org, "Issues"
Donald Trump on Civil Rights
: Aug 19, 2015
After Supreme Court vote, gay marriage is a reality
Q: You say you would have liked the states, rather than the Supreme Court, to decide on gay marriage.A: Some people have hopes of passing [Constitutional] amendments, but it's not going to happen. Congress can't pass simple things, let alone that.
So anybody that's making that an issue is doing it for political reasons. The Supreme Court ruled on it [and hence only a Constitutional amendment can overrule that].
Click for Donald Trump on other issues.
Source: Hollywood Reporter 2015 coverage: 2016 presidential hopefuls
John Kasich on Government Reform
: Aug 12, 2015
A handful of billionaires should not decide who is president
John Kasich was asked how he planned to curb the influence of money in politics in the wake of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. "Every time we change the laws, we have laws that we think are worse than laws that we had," Kasich said. "I
don't know what I believe the answer is, but I will tell you if I win I will think the system works pretty well. And if I don't win, I'm going to blame it on the system," he joked.[After that] the closest he came to broaching the subject of campaign
finance reform was when he declared that "sometimes I think these laws can work, but unfortunately I think they work mostly on the margin." Got it? Neither do we.
Kasich took a different tack last month when he said that "a handful of billionaires
should not decide who is president." But, even then, he was unsure of a solution to the problem.
Kasich has an unlimited-money super PAC. Earlier this year, it announced raising more than $11 million from 166 reportable contributions.
Click for John Kasich on other issues.
Source: Huffington Post on 2018 Ohio Gubernatorial race
John Kasich on Civil Rights
: Aug 6, 2015
I attended a gay wedding; accept the Supreme Court ruling
Q: If you had a son or daughter who was gay or lesbian, how would you explain to them your opposition to same-sex marriage?KASICH: I'm an old-fashioned person here, and I happen to believe in traditional marriage.
Q: How would you explain it to a
child?
KASICH: The court has ruled, and I said we'll accept it. And guess what, I just went to a wedding of a friend of mine who happens to be gay. Because somebody doesn't think the way I do, doesn't mean that I can't care about them or can't love
them. So if one of my daughters happened to be that, of course I would love them and I would accept them. Because that's what we're taught when we have strong faith.We need to give everybody a chance, treat everybody with respect, and let them share
in this great American dream. So, look, I'm going to love my daughters, I'm going to love them no matter what they do. Because, you know what, God gives me unconditional love. I'm going to give it to my family and my friends and the people around me.
Click for John Kasich on other issues.
Source: Fox News/Facebook Top Ten First Tier debate transcript
John Kasich on Civil Rights
: Jun 29, 2015
I support traditional marriage, but it's time to move on
In the wake of the Supreme Court's landmark ruling on same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges, most Republican presidential hopefuls came out swinging. But not Ohio governor John Kasich."I do believe in traditional marriage, but the court has ruled
and it's time to move on," the Ohio governor said. Kasich was one of the original defendants in Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that began in Ohio in July 2013 when James Obergefell and his partner, John Arthur James, filed a lawsuit against the state
because of its refusal to recognize same-sex marriage on death certificates. But he's taking a much more cautious approach than many of his GOP presidential rivals in the wake of the court's ruling. "I think everybody needs to take a deep breath to see
how this evolves," Kasich said. "But I know this. Religious institutions, religious entities--you know, like the Catholic church--they need to be honored as well. I think there's an ability to strike a balance."
Click for John Kasich on other issues.
Source: National Review 2015 coverage of 2016 presidential hopefuls
Steve Bullock on Civil Rights
: Jun 26, 2015
Protect the right to marry any person you love
Governor Steve Bullock today released the following statement on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision affirming the freedom to marry for same sex couples:"This ruling protects the right of all Montanans to marry the person they love,
and moves our state and nation closer to the promise of freedom, dignity, and equality that they were founded upon. All people, regardless of their sexual orientation, should have the opportunity to make a good life for themselves and their families."
Click for Steve Bullock on other issues.
Source: 2015 Montana Governor's office press release governor.mt.gov
Donald Trump on Civil Rights
: Jun 16, 2015
Same-sex marriage is a state issue
What does Donald Trump believe? Social Issues: Marriage is between a man and a woman and should be defined state by state.In a Bloomberg interview in January, the businessman asserted that he personally believes marriage is between a man and a woman.
While he sees it as a state issue, Trump indicated that the Supreme Court could issue a ruling to determine the law.
Click for Donald Trump on other issues.
Source: PBS News Hour "2016 Candidate Stands" series
Bernie Sanders on Government Reform
: Apr 30, 2015
Constitutional amendment to reverse Citizen United ruling
On Campaign finance: Limit corporate and interest-group spending in campaigns.Sanders proposes a Constitutional amendment that would effectively reverse the Supreme Court's Citizen United ruling and ban corporations
and nonprofits from unlimited campaign expenditures. The independent senator would also require disclosure of any organizations spending $10,000 or more on an election-related campaign.
Click for Bernie Sanders on other issues.
Source: PBS News Hour "2016 Candidate Stands" series
Bernie Sanders on Government Reform
: Sep 14, 2014
Citizens United opens up the road to oligarchy
Q: Let me ask you on the billionaire front--SANDERS: The Koch brothers and the other billionaires are going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars. That is not a way you bring about change. We've got to mobilize the American people.
Q:
If a billionaire agrees with you on issues are you okay with them participating in the process?
SANDERS: I think Citizens United will go down in history as one of the worst Supreme Court decisions ever.
I think it is opening up the road to oligarchy, where the billionaires, like the Koch brothers--
Q: Left or right?
SANDERS: Left or right, but it's mostly right. It will always be. The Koch brothers are going to spend $400 million.
Do you know what their agenda is? They want to end Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. More tax breaks for the rich and large corporations. Nobody in America wants that except the billionaire class. This is a real danger to American democracy.
Click for Bernie Sanders on other issues.
Source: Meet the Press 2014 interviews of 2016 presidential hopefuls
Hillary Clinton on Government Reform
: Jul 21, 2014
Consider Constitutional Amendment against Citizen's United
While eying a potential presidential run that would surely be boosted by deep-pocketed super PACs, Hillary Clinton said that she's open to supporting a constitutional amendment to overturn the
Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which opened the door to the outside groups and the flood of money that poured into the political process with them:
"I would consider supporting an amendment among these lines that would prevent the abuse of our political system by excessive amounts of money if there is no other way to deal with the Citizen's United decision,"
she said in response to a question on the measure.
Click for Hillary Clinton on other issues.
Source: Alex Seitz-Wald on MSNBC, "Citizens United" on 2012 election
Cory Booker on Abortion
: Jul 1, 2014
Fix Hobby Lobby: it's not about religious freedom
Cory Booker urged Congress today to pass a law to fight the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial ruling allowing some religious-leaning companies to refuse paying for insurance coverage for contraception under ObamaCare.
Booker vowed to work with fellow Democrats in Congress to draft legislation that would "fix" the ruling.The nation's highest court voted 5-4 on Monday that companies with religious objections can dodge the requirement to pay for insurance coverage
for contraception under Obama's Affordable Care Act, saying it violates a federal law protecting religious freedom. The ruling favored art-and-crafts chain Hobby Lobby, among about 50 companies to sue over the ObamaCare requirement.
Booker is running for re-election this year against Republican challenger Jeff Bell, who--like other GOP leaders--praised Monday's ruling.
Click for Cory Booker on other issues.
Source: Newark Star-Ledger on 2014 New Jersey Senate race
Hillary Clinton on Abortion
: Jun 30, 2014
Hobby Lobby decision is slippery slope against women
Clinton was asked about the Supreme Court's hours-old Hobby Lobby decision, and she delivered a fiery and impassioned reply: "I disagree with the reasoning as well as the conclusion," Clinton said. "I find it deeply disturbing. Part of the reason I was
so adamant about including women and girls [in State Department efforts] is that they're often the canaries in the mine," Clinton explained. "It is a disturbing trend that you see in a lot of societies that are unstable and prone to extremism. Women's
bodies are used as the defining and unifying issue to bring together people--men--to get them to behave in ways that are disadvantageous to women but prop up rulers."Now, she said, something similar was happening in the US, where religion was worming
its way into government. "Many more companies will claim religious beliefs. Some will be sincere, others maybe not. We're going to see this one insurable service cut out for many women," she said. "This is a really bad, slippery slope."
Click for Hillary Clinton on other issues.
Source: The Atlantic, "Deeply Disturbing", by David Graham
Hillary Clinton on Civil Rights
: Jun 12, 2014
We have all evolved on gay marriage since 1990s
NPR's Terry Gross asked Clinton whether she was glad to see the Supreme Court strike down the Defense of Marriage Act--a law signed by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, that barred the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.
"We are living at a time when this extraordinary change is occurring and I'm proud of our country," Clinton replied, but "that was not the case" during her president's stint in the White House. "I think that we have all evolved, and it's been
one of the fastest, most sweeping transformations that I'm aware of," she said.
But after Gross pointed out that many people did support gay marriage during the 1990s, Clinton grew irritated.
"To be fair, Terry, not that many," she said. "Somebody is
always out front and thank goodness they are. But that doesn't mean that those who join later--in being publically supportive or even privately accepting that there needs to be change--are any less committed."
Click for Hillary Clinton on other issues.
Source: Jake Miller, CBS News, "Don't Twist My Position"
Elizabeth Warren on Corporations
: Apr 22, 2014
FactCheck: negotiated insurance deal for asbestos victims
[In addressing people who had developed lung cancer from working with asbestos,] the solution was to create a trust and to fund it with all the money from the businesses and their insurance companies who would be held responsible. The trust system had
been effective for many years, but it was challenged. We won that case in the Supreme Court. After I left the case, a lower court held that the insurance company didn't need to pay as much money as it had offered, and the case was again appealed.
Factcheck.org stated: "Warren's version of the case has been publicly backed by several attorneys representing the asbestos victims, as well as leaders of an asbestos workers' union. `[Brown is flat out misrepresenting the facts,' Francis C. Boudrow,
business manager for the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers Union, Local No. 6 told the "Boston Globe." `It's offensive to all these people who've lost lives' to asbestos-related illness, he said."
Click for Elizabeth Warren on other issues.
Source: FactCheck in A Fighting Chance, by Elizabeth Warren, p.334
Kamala Harris on Health Care
: Nov 26, 2013
Companies should provide contraception under ObamaCare
Kamala Harris is attacking company owners whose religious beliefs may be at odds with stipulations found in ObamaCare. Harris' office filed a brief asking the Supreme Court to review whether businesses can be exempt from providing contraception coverage.
Specifically, she's attacking businesses where owners may disagree with specific contraception types for religious reasons:"Under the ACA, all Americans have the right to access affordable, quality healthcare, including contraception.
For-profit companies should not be able to deny women access to healthcare based on the religious beliefs of the company's owners. The 10th circuit ruling should be reversed by the US Supreme Court."
The list of ObamaCare exemptions includes one on
religion: anyone who is "conscientiously opposed to accepting any insurance benefits," which some say includes Muslim groups. This portion of the law was apparently written specifically for the Amish, but it may play a role in the fight over ObamaCare.
Click for Kamala Harris on other issues.
Source: Inquisitr.com coverage of 2015 California Senate race
Cory Booker on Government Reform
: Nov 3, 2013
Threat to voting rights in America remains very real
As we've seen in the Texas redistricting plan that federal courts last year described as intentionally discriminatory, the threat to voting rights in America remains very real. The Voting Rights Act has been instrumental in the fight against
violations of one of our most precious constitutional rights, and Congress must now act decisively in the wake of the Supreme Court's damaging decision and put in place updated, robust protections that once again give teeth to this vital law.
Click for Cory Booker on other issues.
Source: 2013-2014 New Jersey Senate campaign web CoryBooker.com
Hillary Clinton on Government Reform
: Aug 12, 2013
Fight obstacles to voting disguised as election fraud claims
If the Voting Rights Act is not fixed [despite the Supreme Court's June 2013 ruling], Clinton warned, "citizens will be disenfranchised, victimized by the law instead of served by it, and that progress--that historical progress toward a more perfect
union--will go backward instead of forward."Clinton assailed what she considers an "unseemly rush" to make it harder for African Americans, Hispanics and other minorities to vote. She noted that this year, more than 80 bills restricting voting rights
have been introduced in 31 states. "We've seen a sweeping effort across our country to construct new obstacles to voting, often undercover and addressing a phantom epidemic of election fraud," she said.
Clinton singled out 4 states in particular: FL,
SC, TX, as well as NC, home to what she called the "greatest hits of voter suppression." Clinton said, "There are many problems in life that we can't fix, but preserving fairness and equality in our voting system is one that we can and that we should."
Click for Hillary Clinton on other issues.
Source: Philip Rucker in Washington Post, "Demons of Discrimination"
Barack Obama on Welfare & Poverty
: Feb 12, 2013
Community organizing brings about redistributive change
In a 2001 public radio interview, then-Illinois state senator Barack Obama said that the Constitution was too restrictive and didn't allow for the redistribution of wealth that he felt was needed in America."The Supreme Court never ventured into
the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society.
One of the tragedies of the civil rights movement was because the civil rights movement became so court-focused I think there was a
tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change."
During his presidency, we've seen Mr.
Obama's many attempts to skirt the law and get around the Constitution to implement his redistribution agenda. His crowning achievement was one of the most immense pieces of redistributionist legislation in America history--the federal health care law.
Click for Barack Obama on other issues.
Source: Last Line of Defense, by Ken Cuccinelli, p. 37-38
Eric Swalwell on Government Reform
: Nov 6, 2012
Super PACS buy influence & game our political system
Citizens United: I oppose the recent US Supreme Court decision granting corporations the same first amendment rights to free speech as individuals.
This ruling has opened a floodgate of unlimited corporate campaign contributions to Super PACS who buy influence and have an unfair financial advantage in gaming our political system and winning campaigns.
Click for Eric Swalwell on other issues.
Source: 2012 House campaign website, swalwellforcongress.com
Joe Biden on Abortion
: Oct 11, 2012
Romney will appoint pro-life Justice; Obama will not
Q: If the Romney-Ryan ticket is elected, should those who believe that abortion should remain legal be worried?RYAN: We don't think that unelected judges should make this decision; that people, through their elected representatives and reaching a
consensus in society through the democratic process, should make this determination.
BIDEN: The next president will get one or two Supreme Court nominees. That's how close Roe v. Wade is. Just ask yourself: With Robert Bork being the chief adviser on
the court for Mr. Romney, who do you think he's likely to appoint? Do you think he's likely to appoint someone far right, that would outlaw abortion? I suspect that would happen. I guarantee you that will not happen [with Obama].
We picked people who are open-minded. They've been good justices.
RYAN: Was there a litmus test on them?
BIDEN: There was no litmus test. We picked people who had an open mind, did not come with an agenda.
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Source: 2012 Vice Presidential debate
Elizabeth Warren on Civil Rights
: Oct 11, 2012
We need a reliable vote for equal pay for equal work
As in their previous two debates, Warren cast Brown as an unreliable vote on women's issues, though she did so more crisply than before. In a direct appeal to women, she said that when Brown had the chance to vote for equal pay for equal work, he voted
no; when he had the chance to vote for employers and insurers to pay for coverage for contraception, he voted no; when he had the chance to vote for a Supreme Court justice who supported abortion rights, he voted no. "The women of
Massachusetts need a senator they can count on--not some of the time but all of the time," she said. Whether abortion remains legal, she said, "may hang in the balance." Brown shot back that "I didn't vote for your boss," a reference to
Justice Elena Kagan, who was dean of the Harvard Law School. He said Kagan didn't have the requisite judicial experience.
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Source: N.Y. Times on 2012 Mass. Senate debates
Elizabeth Warren on Abortion
: Sep 21, 2012
No Supreme Court nominees who oppose legal abortion
Warren tried to portray Brown as unreliable on women's issues. Warren said she would not vote to support a U.S. Supreme Court nominee who opposes legal abortion. She criticized Brown for opposing the nomination of Elena Kagan to the court.
Brown described himself as "pro-choice" and said he opposed Kagan because she didn't have enough courtroom experience for the high court. "Sorry I didn't vote for your boss," Brown said, referring to Kagan's tenure as dean of Harvard Law School.
Warren pointed to a Brown vote in favor of a proposed amendment that would allow employers to deny insurance coverage for birth control.
Brown said he supports women's access to birth control but was trying to protect the concerns of Roman Catholics.
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Source: North Adams Transcript on 2012 Mass. Senate debate
Barack Obama on Government Reform
: Aug 30, 2012
Constitutional Amendment to overturn Citizens United
President Barack Obama says the nation should consider mobilizing behind a constitutional amendment process to overturn the Supreme Court ruling that loosened restrictions on money in politics.
Obama made the comment Wednesday in an online chat with the website Reddit. The 2010 Citizens United ruling paved the way for a flood of campaign cash from corporations, unions and wealthy interests.
The president says that even if the amendment process fell short, "it can shine a spotlight" on super PACs and, in his words, "help apply pressure for change."
Obama says that in the meantime there's a need for more disclosure of the large campaign contributions flowing into super PACs and that such contributions, quote, "fundamentally threaten to overwhelm the political process."
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Source: Boston Globe, "Amendment on Money in Politics"
Page last updated: Jul 22, 2019