Conservative Culture

The U.S. Supreme Court issued five opinions yesterday. In each, Alito and Roberts provided votes for the conservative position.

In Kansas v. Marsh, Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, and Alito joined in Clarence Thomas’s opion that the judiciary should not over-rule the voters on the issue of capital punishment. Redhawk Review has a good summary of the case.

U.S. v. Gonzalez is an interesting case primarly because of the lineup of justices who voted each way. Scalia, who wrote the majority opinion, was joined by Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer in holding that “A trial court???s erroneous deprivation of a criminal defendant???s choice of counsel entitles him to reversal of his conviction.”

Alito wrote the dissenting opinion, in which he was joined by Roberts, Thomas, and Kennedy. He argued:

I disagree with the Court???s conclusion that a criminal conviction must automatically be reversed whenever a trial court errs in applying its rules regarding pro hac vice admissions and as a result prevents a defendant from being represented at trial by the defendant???s first-choice attorney. Instead, a defendant should be required to make at least some showing that the trial court???s erroneous ruling adversely affected the quality of assistance that the defendant received. In my view, the majority???s contrary holding is based on an incorrect interpretation of the Sixth Amendment and a misapplication of harmless-error principles. I respectfully dissent.

The majority makes a subtle but important mistake at the outset in its characterization of what the Sixth Amendment guarantees. The majority states that the Sixth Amendment protects ???the right of a defendant who does not require appointed counsel to choose who willrepresent him.??? Ante, at 3. What the Sixth Amendment actually protects, however, is the right to have the assistance that the defendant???s counsel of choice is able to provide. It follows that if the erroneous disqualification of
a defendant???s counsel of choice does not impair the assistance that a defendant receives at trial, there is no violation of the Sixth Amendment.

After a careful examination of the legislative history behind the Sixth Amendment, Alito added:

Because the Sixth Amendment focuses on the quality of the assistance that counsel of choice would have provided, I would hold that the erroneous disqualification of counsel does not violate the Sixth Amendment unless the ruling diminishes the quality of assistance that the defendant would have otherwise received.

Alito makes an interesting and thought-provoking case. Put in simple terms (if I understand correctly), if the government makes a mistake in disqualifying a qualified lawyer, but the defendant receives an adequate and sufficient defense yet is convicted, his conviction cannot be overturned on this technicality.

If this is a sign of the future of American jurisprudence, then the future looks promising.

Tags: Conservative

Stopped at the airport on his way back to the US he was caught with (what the MSM called possession of illegal prescription drugs.

WEST PALM BEACH Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh was detained at Palm Beach International Airport for the possible possession of illegal prescription drugs Monday evening.

In fact the item was picked up by a myriad of sources on Memeorandum. However MacsMind spotted a MSM drive by on this one.

UPDATE II: Drudge: “Miami, FL — June 26, 2006 — Roy Black, Rush Limbaugh’s attorney, issued the following statement today in response to several inquiries by the media:

While going through routine Customs inspection of luggage at Palm Beach International Airport upon his return from an international trip, Rush Limbaugh was detained by customs agents after they noticed a non-narcotic prescription drug, which had been prescribed by Mr. Limbaugh’s treating physician but labeled as being issued to the physician rather than Mr. Limbaugh for privacy purposes. After a brief interview, Mr. Limbaugh was permitted to continue on his journey.”

Regardless… the MSM persists in following the story line to the bitter end.

However, the sheriff’s office plans to file a report with the state attorney’s office.

“We believe there may be a second degree misdemeanor violation, which is possession of certain drugs without a prescription, because the bottle does not have his name on it,” Miller said.

A doctor had prescribed the drug, but it was “labeled as being issued to the physician rather than Mr. Limbaugh for privacy purposes,” Roy Black, Limbaugh’s attorney, said in a statement.

Last month, Limbaugh reached a deal with prosecutors who had accused the conservative talk-show host of illegally deceiving multiple doctors to receive overlapping pain pill prescriptions. Under the deal, a single charge commonly referred to as “doctor shopping” would be dismissed after 18 months if he complies with terms that include submitting to random drug tests and continuing treatment for his acknowledged addiction to painkillers.”

So far the ending of the story sounds like this… and I didn’t make it up… really.

“He said he had the Viagra in his possession for his use and that he did obtain it from his doctors,” Miller said.

Sheriff’s investigators confiscated the drugs, and Limbaugh was released around 5:30 p.m. without being charged.

Tags: Conservative

Earlier this month, the FDA announced that it was approving Gardasil, a vaccine designed to counter the effects of HPV, a sexually transmitted disease, and its side effects (including cervical cancer).

Press coverage is playing this up as a necessary vaccine. Here’s one sample article:

Clinical trials showed Gardasil prevented 100 percent of cervical cancer related to the two HPV strains most often associated with the disease, HPV types 16 and 18.

Based on this, the national Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is scheduled to decide Wednesday whether this vaccine will be recommended as a routine vaccine. If they give the affirmative, state legislatures will then be free to decide whether to mandate the vaccine as a necessary vaccine to take before children can attend school. The target market for this $360 vaccine will be girls between the ages of 9 and 15.

There’s only one problem. The FDA press release contains a disclaimer buried deep in the text. After mentioning that four studies had been conducted on 21,000 women and stating that the vaccine proved effective in eliminating most lesions and warts, the press release went on to say:

While the study period was not long enough for cervical cancer to develop, the prevention of these cervical precancerous lesions is believed highly likely to result in the prevention of those cancers.

So now the government is considering mandating this STD vaccine for all schoolchildren (or perhaps only all girls), despite the fact that it has not been tested long enough to know whether it actually prevents what is supposed to prevent?

No tags for this post.

All this time people clamored for gay marriage. Rights were being violated. People lined up to get the marriage licenses. But now the real truth comes out.

Few Homosexuals Interested in Tying the Knot

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, JUNE 24, 2006 (Zenit.org).- After the clamor to legalize same-sex marriage, it turns out that not many homosexuals really want it. Following a bitter battle last year, the Spanish government gave homosexuals the right to marry. Since the law took effect last July 3, until May 31, only 1,275 same-sex marriages took place, reported the Madrid daily newspaper ABC last Saturday.

Comparatively, that would add up to a mere 0.6% of the 209,125 marriages contracted in Spain during 2005. Of the total number of same-sex marriages, 923 were between males and 352 among females.

A recent study by the Virginia-based Institute for Marriage and Public Policy did a roundup of same-sex marriage trends. The study, “Demand for Same-Sex Marriage: Evidence from the United States, Canada and Europe,” was published April 26.

So far the highest estimate of the proportion of homosexuals who have used the new laws to marry is in the American state of Massachusetts, with 16.7% tying the knot. But this seems to be an exception. In the Netherlands, where same-sex marriage has been established the longest, the percentage was far lower.

It has never really been the issue. The only goal was the undermining of the people’s will to hold to conservative values and create an environment where marriage’s value in the culture was greatly diminished. Now that doors are opening up all over the world for marriage we now find that those organized protests were not for the right but for a dramatic cultural shift. Something they have apparently been able to create very effectively everywhere. They will have to be less visible on the issue as the very organization that performed the most marriages (the churches) are now pushing for gay marriage. They are promoting the stray man while the gay community is able to chuckle in their victory.

Tags: Conservative, Marriage Expansion

Mary Taylor, GOP candidate for Auditor, campaigned as a 100% pro-life conservative in the primary. Now she is trying to moderate her position; witness this Plain Dealer story.

She essentially said that the issues conservatives care about are a distraction:

Republican state auditor candidate Mary Taylor agrees that her party???s attention to social issues, often referred to ???God, guns, and gays,??? distracts politicians from dealing with more pressing state issues.

???It???s a fair criticism,??? Taylor, a state representative from Green, told Plain Dealer editors and reporters Monday. “We have focused on some very polarizing issues.???

Also, she wouldn’t say whether she was more ideologically like Blackwell or Petro.

Although this stance merited the Plain Dealer’s laudatory term “candid,” this is the sort of candid opinion that casts a bucket of cold water on the enthusiasm of conservative grassroots volunteers.

Tags: Conservative, Pro-Life

Even when a Dem pretends to be “pro-gun” it just sours the stomach of the MSM. The Plain “mis”Dealer puts it this way.

Ted Strickland numbers gun enthusiasts among his biggest supporters. And given the Democratic nominee for governor’s Appalachian roots, there’s nothing surprising about that.

But when Strickland said last Monday that he would sign House Bill 347 - a bad gun bill now pending in the Ohio Senate - the “moment it hits” his desk, he needlessly put into play an issue that has long occupied too much of the legislature’s time. Strickland’s response reflected an over-eagerness to please gun enthusiasts.

Strickland may want to please gun owners now simply by saying the right words. But what will he do in office? And why would any gun owner want to put the Dems in charge knowing their pro-ban stance for many years? When the Plain Dealer said similar things about Blackwell they missed one key ingredient. Blackwell believes in the 2nd amendment. He isn’t trying to please anyone but rather states his position. The Plain Dealer has revealed Ted’s real motive for the pro-gun talk. It’s what some want to hear.

Tags: Ohio