/PRNewswire/ -- Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, the nation's leading preventable cause of mental retardation, will be front and center when the Supreme Court opens its new term this week. Tomorrow, on Tuesday, September 29, the court will consider whether to take up Holmes v. Louisiana, the case of Brandy Holmes, a 29-year-old woman with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome currently on death row in Louisiana. She and a codefendant were convicted of a 2003 murder in Louisiana. Brandy's lead attorney is noted Harvard Professor Charles Ogletree.
The National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (NOFAS) submitted a friend of the court brief arguing that Brandy's prenatal alcohol induced brain damage and deficits should be seen as mitigating factors in keeping with previous court rulings.
"Brandy has a hallmark case of FAS. Her mother testified that she drank throughout her pregnancy, and in fact named her daughter after her favorite drink," states NOFAS President Tom Donaldson. "Thirty-three states and the federal government don't execute persons with mental retardation - 16 more than only ten years ago. Evolving standards of decency place Brandy's case squarely within the precedent established by the court and society with regard to intellectual disabilities and the ultimate punishment."
Donaldson argues that there needs to be a renewed emphasis on public health messages about the risk of alcohol during pregnancy, "It's time to stop playing Russian roulette when it comes to alcohol and pregnancy."
Prenatal alcohol exposure is the leading known preventable cause of intellectual disabilities and neurobehavioral disorders in the developed world affecting as many as 40,000 newborns each year in the United States alone, more cases annually than autism or other commonly known birth defects such as Downs syndrome, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, spina bifida and sudden infant death syndrome, COMBINED.
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Showing posts with label supreme court. Show all posts
Showing posts with label supreme court. Show all posts
Monday, September 28, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Obama's Court Nomination Validates America's Rush to Buy Firearms
TT Note: Interesting story on the newest nominee for the Supreme Court.
/PRNewswire/ -- President Barack Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court validates the concerns of millions of American citizens who have been rushing to gun shops for the past seven months, fearing their Second Amendment rights are in jeopardy, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.
Judge Sotomayor was part of a Second Circuit Court panel that ruled in January that the Second Amendment does not apply to the states, in Maloney v. Cuomo. That is in direct conflict with a Ninth Circuit opinion earlier this spring in Nordyke v. King that the Second Amendment is incorporated to the states, and therefore does place limits on states' ability to regulate the individual right to keep and bear arms.
"Starting literally last Nov. 4 and every day since," noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, "concerned Americans, many who had never before owned a firearm, have been crowding into gun shops. Their concerns that the Obama administration may somehow try to destroy Second Amendment rights have certainly been affirmed with the nomination of Judge Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.
"Sure, Congress has turned a cold shoulder to renewal of the ban on semiautomatic sporting rifles," he continued, "and the president did sign the guns-in-parks bill, but only because he had to in order to save his credit card legislation.
"But a Supreme Court justice is a president's legacy," Gottlieb observed. "Judge Sotomayor would become a justice for life, and her anti-Second Amendment position would continue affecting her decisions long after Obama is gone from the White House.
"A Supreme Court nominee's philosophy generally reflects the philosophy of the president that nominates them," Gottlieb concluded. "Judge Sotomayor's position on the Second Amendment is a clear signal that Mr. Obama's claim that he supports gun rights is nothing but lip service from a man who consistently argued and voted against those rights in the Illinois Senate and the U.S. Senate. American gun owners have every reason to oppose this nomination, and let their senators know why."
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/PRNewswire/ -- President Barack Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court validates the concerns of millions of American citizens who have been rushing to gun shops for the past seven months, fearing their Second Amendment rights are in jeopardy, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.
Judge Sotomayor was part of a Second Circuit Court panel that ruled in January that the Second Amendment does not apply to the states, in Maloney v. Cuomo. That is in direct conflict with a Ninth Circuit opinion earlier this spring in Nordyke v. King that the Second Amendment is incorporated to the states, and therefore does place limits on states' ability to regulate the individual right to keep and bear arms.
"Starting literally last Nov. 4 and every day since," noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, "concerned Americans, many who had never before owned a firearm, have been crowding into gun shops. Their concerns that the Obama administration may somehow try to destroy Second Amendment rights have certainly been affirmed with the nomination of Judge Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.
"Sure, Congress has turned a cold shoulder to renewal of the ban on semiautomatic sporting rifles," he continued, "and the president did sign the guns-in-parks bill, but only because he had to in order to save his credit card legislation.
"But a Supreme Court justice is a president's legacy," Gottlieb observed. "Judge Sotomayor would become a justice for life, and her anti-Second Amendment position would continue affecting her decisions long after Obama is gone from the White House.
"A Supreme Court nominee's philosophy generally reflects the philosophy of the president that nominates them," Gottlieb concluded. "Judge Sotomayor's position on the Second Amendment is a clear signal that Mr. Obama's claim that he supports gun rights is nothing but lip service from a man who consistently argued and voted against those rights in the Illinois Senate and the U.S. Senate. American gun owners have every reason to oppose this nomination, and let their senators know why."
-----
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Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page
www.politicalpotluck.com
Political News You Can Use
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