Senate passes wage discrimination bill

We now know what will be the first bill that President Obama will sign into law. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act passed through the Senate yesterday. The Senate voted 61-36 — with all 16 female senators voting “yea” for the measure. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is a wage discrimination bill that heralds the pro-labor policies of the Democratic-controlled Congress and White House. The House passed the bill earlier this month.

This legislation reverses a terrible 2007 Supreme Court rightwing ruling that narrowly defined the time period during which a worker can file a claim of wage discrimination, even if the worker is unaware for months or years that he or she is getting less than colleagues doing the same job. It has been a priority for women's groups seeking to narrow the wage gap between men and women.

The Ledbetter bill would clarify that every paycheck resulting from discrimination would constitute a new violation, extending the 180-day statute of limitations for filing a claim. The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision denying Ledbetter's complaint, ruled that a worker must file a claim within 180 days of the initial decision to pay a worker less, even if the worker did not discover the pay disparity until years later.

Obama-haters Rally to Oust Obama

Those who question Barack Obama's eligibility for the White House due to his birth status reached their collective apogee this morning in front of the Supreme Court.

The justices are considering whether to put on the docket a New Jersey case that alleges Barack Obama does not meet the "natural-born citizen" standard demanded of presidents by Article II of the Constitution.

Legal experts doubt that the case will move forward, but still some 20 people gathered on the steps of the Supreme Court building to wave flags, pray, say the pledge of allegiance, and generate as much media attention as they could.

Personally I would like the Supreme Court to review Barack Obama's birth certificate, rule it valid, and shut this story down. Lets crush once and forall this stupid conspiracy theory perpetuated by Rush Limbaugh.

Mother Jones has a video on the story here:

LibertyAir Blog

Breaking News: Supreme Court Rules Against Ohio Republicans in ‘Voter Fraud’ Case.»

Earlier this week, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Ohio Republicans in ruling that the Secretary of State must “establish a system of verification that would match driver’s license numbers or Social Security numbers with new voter applications.” Today, the Supreme Court reversed the ruling, saying the lower courts were wrong to get involved in the issue. This was the biggest Republican "voter fraud" case, and it just got thrown out by George Bush's conservative Republican US Supreme Court.

The Ohio GOP tried to challenge the voting rights of 200,000 voters in that state, after ACORN and others registered a couple hundred thousand voters. Not because these voters were ineligiable to vote, but because they might have misspelled names on their registration forms.

The conservative U.S. Supreme Court just took the side of Democrats in Ohio, and ACORN, and overturned a lower court's decision which took the side of the GOP. Ohio's Secretary of State appealed that earlier ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court -- and won.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that voter protection laws of Ohio were enough to verify the identities and validity of voters, and that additional measures for counties to verify voter eligibility were burdesome and would not provide additional protection.

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis of course objected to the Court's ruling.

The Supreme Court in 2007

The

Supreme Court under Roberts