More About the Supreme Court

This week opened the October Term of the US Supreme Court. With ten of the thirteen federal appellate circuit courts dominated by conservatives now, the result of the Bush administration, the Supreme Court doesn't have as much work when lower courts were more progressive. However, we can't under-estimate the power and influence of the Supreme Court.

And the president gets to make those nominations. With an aging liberal wing on the court, the next president could move the court all the way to the right, or maintain the tenuous and changing 5-4 majority. Click here to learn how the nomination process works.

Recent Supreme Court terms have heard fewer cases, under 100 a year.

Consumer protection and corporate responsibility are the dominant themes on the Court's agenda this term.

In one pharmaceutical case and another tobacco case, the Court will hear arguments on whether drug and tobacco companies are immunized from liability under state tort law for damages arising from the use of their products. The theory is that once a drug is approved by the FDA and once the cigarette warning is approved by the FTC, consumers have no remedy under product liability law for their damages. The legal term is preemption, where federal law trumps any state recourse. Of course, we already know that the FDA uses pharmaceutical company research as the basis for its drug approvals, research that is often slanted and doctored. And regarding cigarettes, especially "light" cigarettes, that the tobacco companies notoriously suppressed damaging information. What makes these cases unique is that the Bush administration is supporting the corporate positions, arguing that consumers should have no recourse once the federal agencies have acted.

The embarrassingly bad policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in the military might also be up for review if the Court accepts the appeal. The policy, which began in 1994, has resulted in 12,500 dismissals from the military of gay and lesbian servicepersons. The policy is inconsistently enforced, which makes it even more dangerous. 800 servicemembers in critical positions have been dismissed: pilots, intelligence analysts, medics and linguists. According to some estimates, there are currently 65,000 active gay and lesbians members of the military, and over 1 million veterans.

Twenty-two allied countries permit gay servicemembers to openly serve, including Israel.

According to a 2007 CNN poll, 79% of Americans support the right of gays and lesbians to serve in the military.

Click here for a fact sheet from the Servicemembers Legal Defense Fund.

Here is a link to the Alliance for Justice preview of the Supreme Court. This organization is a good source of information about the independence, what remains of it, of the judiciary. It does excellent investigations into the qualifications of judicial nominees, too.