U.S. Supreme Court

Equality Symbol Inspires Memes (PHOTOS)

That "equals" symbol all over Facebook is the brainchild of the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign, which set out to make social media "awash in a sea of red" to support marriage equality as the U.S. Supreme Court takes up the legality of California's Prop. 8. The viral change from blue t ... More >>

Marijuana Movement Gets Own Super-PAC

The marijuana nation has marched, lobbied and voted. But while legalization has been successful in Colorado and Washington and medical pot is available from California to New Jersey, weed is still an outlaw on a federal level, and attempts to change that have so far been futile. But a pair of Cali ... More >>

Why Los Angeles Deserves Major Credit for the National Gay Marriage Movement

When it comes to life-impacting stuff -- civil rights, political movements, or education reform, for example -- Los Angeles too often gets overlooked by snobby journalists and intellectual types in New York City and Washington D.C. Let's just admit it: They don't take L.A. seriously and they hate ... More >>

Henry Rollins: Our Constitutional Rights Require Constant Vigilance

[Look for your weekly fix from the one and only Henry Rollins right here on West Coast Sound every Thursday, and come back tomorrow for the awesomely annotated playlist for his Saturday KCRW broadcast.] See also: Henry Rollins: Hardcore Nostalgia in Washington D.C. "If destruction be our lot, we ... More >>

Marijuana Remains 'Schedule 1' Outlaw Under Federal Court Ruling Today

Despite growing evidence that marijuana is more than just a buzz-drug, a federal appeals court rejected an attempt to reclassify pot as a medically recognized substance. The United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today voted 2-1 to agree with lower courts that "adequate and well-contro ... More >>

U.S. Supreme Court Will Hear Oral Arguments on Proposition 8 in March

The U.S. Supreme Court announced today that it will hear oral arguments for the federal Proposition 8 lawsuit on Tuesday, March 26 -- followed up the next day with arguments on the constitutionality of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). So in a little over two months, the question of legalize ... More >>

Same-Sex Marriage Could Return To California Under Supreme Court Decision Today

Today is the day that U.S. Supreme Court could take up the legality of same-sex marriage in California. Seems to us that folks who back equality in marriage would rather see the high court turn its back on California's Proposition 8, the initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage in the Golden Stat ... More >>

Prop. 8 Sent to U.S. Supreme Court by 'Protect Marriage' Camp

They're like potato bugs who refuse to die. After four yeas of rejection, ProtectMarriage.com and four other individuals in the pro-Prop. 8 camp have taken California's gay-marriage fight to the highest court in the land: They submitted a nearly 500-page petition to the U.S. Supreme Court this mor ... More >>

Voter Suppression Efforts Could Take Out Barack Obama This Fall

L.A. City Council Bans Camping in Public Parks; Occupy Declares It a War on Civil Rights

Local politicians keep insisting that their new ban on camping in city parks was not in reaction to Occupy L.A. That's insanely hard to believe, considering they're smack-dab in the middle of a makeover story starring the L.A. City Hall lawn -- which got thoroughly wrecked by the hundreds of protes ... More >>

Prop. 8 Victory: California Ninth Circuit Sticks With Decision to Support Gay Marriage

The court battle to overturn California's infamous Proposition 8, a voter-approved initiative that effectively banned gay marriage in 2008, has been long and grueling. Every decision that comes down from a judge (or panel of judges) plants a little hope in the hearts of same-sex couples up and down ... More >>

Illegal Immigrants Win Right to Gather on Street Corners, Ask for Work (Radical!)

Looks like illegal immigrants really can hang out on a street corner and whistle at well-proportioned white women ask for work. In fact, the most conservative U.S. Supreme Court in decades says so (sorry John & Ken). The court today denied a petition to overturn a lower-court decision that says Red ... More >>

Monday Morning Food News: Happy Halloween

Guzzle & NoshChocolate!​Happy Halloween. Here's the food news you need to know this fine morning. The rise & fall (& return?) of Mr. Jelly Belly. [Business Week]Barney's Beanery has ghosts, maybe. [LAT]Alton Brown on hosting Iron Chef & the end of Good Eats [WSJ]Chocolate's bittersweet legacy: ... More >>

Starting Today, You Can Get Sued in L.A. For Calling a Bad Bicyclist an Idiot (Really)

Elvert Barnes​Just the other day we were thinking, What we really need in Los Angeles is another reason to sue people. Of course, the L.A. City Council, not so good at balancing the budget or focusing on serious problems faced by our town, was quick to pass a bicyclist-harassment law that wil ... More >>

California Prison Release no Good For L.A. County, Which Could See 11,000 Convicts, Argues LAPD Union

​The L.A. police union isn't happy with the state's handling of a U.S. Supreme Court order to reduce the prison population by about 33,000. Already reports indicate that California could miss a court deadline for kicking off the reductions unless the state legislature comes up with cash so th ... More >>

Release of 33,000 California Prisoners Will Create 'Wave of Crime' For L.A. if City Doesn't Act, Says LAPD Union

Alex ThompsonThe police union wants the city to reconsider cutting LAPD funding.​The union representing Los Angeles police is predicting certain mayhem for the city if a U.S. Supreme Court-ordered release of about 33,000 California prisoners goes through and, at the same time, funding and staf ... More >>

Give Sodomy a Chance

Sexual rights are protected by the Constitution, if only the U.S. Supreme Court would open its eyes

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Approves C-SPAN Request to Televise Proposition 8 Hearing

Ted SoquiGay marriage supporters at a West Hollywood rally in August.​On Wednesday, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals approved a request by C-SPAN to televise a Proposition 8 hearing on December 6. Two cameras will be allowed in the courtroom, which will also serve as a pool feed for ot ... More >>

Albert Greenwood Brown Execution And Six Others On California Death Row Put Off By Judge -- Now, Months Of Wrangling Over Killer Poison

​Updated with Attorney General's office calling off the execution. First posted at 11:46 a.m. That California death row execution of Albert Greenwood Brown, Jr., scheduled for Wednesday, then Thursday, looks like its it might not happen any time soon. Update: California Attorney General Jerr ... More >>

Prop. 8 Overturned: Major Victory For Gay Marriage Advocates

Patrick Range McDonaldProposition 8 protesters in West Hollywood in October, 2008.​Updated throughout. Originally posted at 1:48 p.m. U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker has overturned Proposition 8 in San Francisco today, handing gay rights advocates a major victory in the continuing bat ... More >>

Thurgood

Jerry Brown Joins Bill O'Reilly In Support Of Family's Suit Against Anti-Gay Protesters

Jerry Brown.​California Attorney Jerry Brown has joined a lawsuit brought by the family of a late Twentynine Palms Marine whose funeral was protested by anti-gay demonstrators, and Brown's move puts him on the same page as conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly, who has backed the family. "Di ... More >>

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects California's Appeal Of Prisoner Release Mandate

​The administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger lost its appeal (PDF) to have the U.S. Supreme Court to stop a federal order that would force California to release more than 40,000 prisoners to reduce overcrowding. The release, which we told you previously was planned for Jan. 25, must go ... More >>

Prop. 8 Trial: Both Sides of Gay Marriage Lawsuit Endure Rough Day at Court

On the third day of the Proposition 8 federal trial in San Francisco, it was tough going for both sides of the big stakes lawsuit over California's gay marriage ban.For the plaintiffs, who want to overturn Proposition 8, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to indefinitely block a video feed of the tri ... More >>

Supreme Court Says No To YouTube Streaming Of Gay Rights Trial

​The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday temporarily prohibited online video streaming of the San Francisco-based trial that could uphold or knock down California's ban on same-sex marriage. The court also prohibited any other "broadcast of the proceedings" at least until Wednesday afternoon (PDF). ... More >>

Phil Anshutz's Paper Criticizes L.A. Times Over Same-Sex Marriage Reporting

​On Monday the Washington Examiner, the conservative daily newspaper owned by Staples Center magnate Phil Anschutz, called out the Los Angeles Times for its coverage of events surrounding the same-sex marriage trial in San Francisco. As the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked streaming vid ... More >>

Supreme Court Rules in Favor of White Firefighters

A group of white firefighters dubbed the New Haven 20 were the victims of illegal racial discrimination, according to a Supreme Court ruling today. The white firefighters lost promotions in New Haven, Connecticut after New Haven officials set aside results of a 2003 test after the officials learned ... More >>

Riding the Cultural Divide with Proposition 8

What's at stake in California's gay-marriage ban

Protecting Obama from Gay Marriage Politics

Activists argue that now isn't the time for more gay lawsuits

Laurence Tribe Tangles with CBS and L.A. City Hall

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s Courtroom 3 - a miniature auditorium with comfortable, smoked salmon-colored seats - was mostly filled with law students who seemed to be interested in just one thing: listening to Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe argue constitu ... More >>

California GOP: The Queer Enablers of Gay Marriage

How Republicans accomplished what the Dems could not

Key Moments in the Struggle for Gay Marriage in the U.S.

Holy unions to Supreme Court battles

Critical Condition

Will the NLRB deny nurses union cards?

Clean Air vs. Cancer

A federal judge re-affirms California's authority to fight pollution

Loss and Loathing on the Cheney Trail

The environmental destruction wrought by the vice president’s secret energy plan

Disorder in the Court

The Final Frontier

Depending on whom you ask, stem-cell research is either a medical godsend or further proof that God is dead.

Tough Roe to Hoe

Who will fight the next battle for choice?

Imperial Times

Why one Owens Valley is enough for all of us

Ashcroft’s Song

The Attorney General’s trigger-happy record on the death penalty

Justice for All

The old-school belief in racial equality through public education gets new blood

Break Time

Taking on L.A.’s health-care workers’ union

Indecent Executions

Considering death row's mentally retarded inmates

Green Eggs and Lawsuits

Artists, contracts and money

Bush Web Intrigue

The Weekly’s Person of the Year

John Paul Stevens, Associate Justice, US Supreme Court

Whatever It Takes

The Supreme Court makes a mockery of the law to make a president of George W. Bush

W. Stands for Wrongful

And suffrage hits the skids

The Great Divide

Why Cornel West, Barbara Ehrenreich, Alexander Cockburn, Katha Pollitt and others are voting for Ralph Nader . . .And why Todd Gitlin, Ishmael Reed, Arlie Hochschild, Robert Scheer and others are not