WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide
how the First Amendment applies to license plates, and what courts must
do to determine whether death row inmates should be spared from
execution because they are mentally disabled.
The
case about license plates arose from Texas’s refusal to issue a
specialty plate bearing a Confederate battle flag. The state allows many
kinds of plates, including ones proposed by nonprofit groups. The
state’s Motor Vehicles Board rejected this one, proposed by the Sons of
Confederate Veterans.
The
board said it had based its decision on public comments from people who
“associate the Confederate flag with organizations advocating
expressions of hate.”
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, ruled against the state, saying it had violated the First Amendment.
There
are two basic issues in the case, Walker v. Sons of Confederate
Veterans, No. 14-144. One is whether statements on specialty license
plates are the government’s speech or that of the car’s owner. If they
are the government’s speech, the First Amendment largely drops out of
the analysis, as the government is free to say what it likes.
The Supreme Court made that clear in 2009 in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum,
ruling that a Utah city did not have to allow a minor religion to erect
a monument to its Seven Aphorisms near a Ten Commandments monument in a
public park.
The
court acknowledged that the government could not discriminate among
speakers in the park and among people handing out leaflets there. But
permanent monuments, whether donated by private groups or commissioned
by the government, are government speech, the court said.
Most
federal appeals courts, like the Fifth Circuit, have ruled that
specialty license plates are different, conveying the positions of the
drivers involved rather than that of the government. The appeals court
in Chicago, the Seventh Circuit, for instance, ruled that specialty plates are “mobile billboards” for “organizations and like-minded vehicle owners.”
The second question was whether Texas had engaged in impermissible discrimination based on the speaker’s viewpoint. Texas argued
that it should be allowed to reject particular license plate designs as
long as it does not allow ones expressing any point of view, pro or
con, on the topic at issue, here the confederacy. The Seventh Circuit
allowed Illinois to turn down “Choose Life” plates on this ground,
saying the state had declined to allow any abortion-related designs.
The
Fifth Circuit noted that Texas had approved plates from several
veterans’ groups but rejected this one based on “the view that the
Confederate flag is an inflammatory symbol of hate and oppression.” The
court said that amounted to viewpoint discrimination.
The last time the Supreme Court considered what the First Amendment has to say about license plates was in 1977 in Wooley v. Maynard,
when it ruled that New Hampshire could not force George Maynard to
drive around with plates bearing the state’s motto, “Live Free or Die.”
Mr. Maynard, a Jehovah’s Witness, said he preferred life, “even if it
meant living in bondage.”
The
capital case the court agreed to hear on Friday concerns Kevan
Brumfield, a Louisiana man who was sentenced to death in 1995 for
killing a Baton Rouge police officer. Seven years later, in Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court barred the execution of the mentally disabled.
Mr.
Brumfield sought to be spared on that ground, but was denied a hearing.
A state judge reasoned that the evidence submitted at Mr. Brumfield’s
trial was sufficient to resolve the issue against him even though he had
not argued that his mental disability was a reason to spare his life.
A
federal trial judge disagreed. After a seven-day hearing, the judge
concluded that Mr. Brumfeld’s I.Q. and limited abilities to perform
basic functions proved that he was mentally disabled. The Fifth Circuit reversed, ruling that the state court had been entitled to rely on the trial-court record.
In their petition
seeking Supreme Court review, Mr. Brumfield’s lawyers said there was an
urgent need for the justices’ intervention. “This case presents the
extraordinary circumstance,” the brief said, “in which petitioner faces
imminent execution, despite the fact that the sole court to conduct a
hearing on his Atkins claim concluded that he was in fact mentally
retarded.”
In urging the Supreme Court not to hear the case, Hillar C. Moore III, the district attorney in East Baton Rouge, wrote that Mr. Brumfield “is not mentally retarded but has an impulsivity disorder.”
The
Supreme Court agreed to decide two questions in the case, Brumfield v.
Cain, No. 13-1433: whether the federal judge was allowed to second-guess
the state judge’s determination and whether the state judge should have
provided funds to Mr. Brumfield to allow him to try to prove that he
was mentally disabled.
Stop scratching on holidays
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
Stop scratching on holidays
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
HI-
Thanks for
the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy,
if you give me a mailing address.
Claude
Solnik
(631)
913-4244
Long
Island
Business News
2150
Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348
Home > LI
Confidential > Stop
scratching on holidays
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
NY Const Art 1, Sec 3 was written by a Texan
HI-
Thanks for
the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy,
if you give me a mailing address.
Claude
Solnik
(631)
913-4244
Long
Island
Business News
2150
Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348
Home > LI
Confidential > Stop
scratching on holidays
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
No comments:
Post a Comment