HAWAII JUDGE LEAVES TRAVEL BAN ALONE | It’s All On SCOTUS | Today In History SDO Nominated to Supremes
July 7, 2017
TODAY IN HISTORY
|On this day in 1981, PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN announced his nomination of JUDGE SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR. She would go on to become the first female justice on the United States Supreme Court.
SORRY, GRANDMA
|A U.S. judge in Hawaii just denied the state’s request for clarification on the Trump administration’s temporary travel ban, saying the matter should be taken up by the Supreme Court. Hawaii claimed the government violated instructions from SCOTUS in defining who is or isn’t covered under the ban, protesting that the guidelines were too narrow with grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles and other “extended” family members left off the list of folks who could circumvent the ban.
NOBODY CAN DRAG ME DOWN
|Susan Svrluga with The Washington Post reports that despite worries about PRESIDENT TRUMP’S travel ban, international students are still planning on enrolling in U.S. colleges, with overall demand holding steady compared to previous years.
OTHER NEWS
All New Refugees Could Soon Be Temporarily Banned From Traveling to the U.S.
Buzzfeed“The US government plans to temporarily not issue any refugees the travel documents needed to come to the US after July 12 — even if those refugees meet the Supreme Court’s requirement that they have ‘bona fide relationship’ with someone in the US to enter, according to a guidance letter from the Department of State.”
Legal Fight Continues Over Mississippi Gay Marriage Law
The Associated Press“Wrangling continues over a Mississippi law that lets merchants and government officials cite their religious beliefs to deny services to same-sex couples. Attorneys filed papers Thursday asking the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block the law. Legal experts say it’s the broadest religious-objections law enacted by any state since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015.”
The Supreme Court Says States Can't Execute the Insane. Virginia is About to Do it anyway.
The Washington Post“In the meantime, in the absence of a clearly articulated set of rules and procedures, those with delusional disorders are often left to languish on death row without receiving medical attention, save a few summary evaluations that tend to treat their mental aberrations as evidence that they are either malingering or too dangerous to be spared the death penalty.”