Reproductive Rights

The Hill reports today that liberal groups are stepping up their pressure on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to call a vote on Dawn Johnsen, President Obama’s pick to head the Office of Legal Counsel.
As I reported earlier this week, Republicans have stalled Johnsen’s nomination with their ambivalence about supporting cloture and the leadership’s [...]

The Michigan Messenger’s Todd Heywood reports:
While the state is coming down from its second temporary shut down in two years, ever increasing unemployment and unresolved budget issues, Michigan House Republicans this week introduced legislation to amend the state constitution to define life as beginning at fertilization.
The resolution to amend the constitution was introduced by Democratic [...]

On Tuesday I reported that an Arizona judge had ordered Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to stop pre-charging female prisoners for the transportation and security costs associated with their obtaining abortion services at a medical clinic. The American Civil Liberties Union had won its argument that the charges — which ranged from $300 to $900 [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union just won a court order against Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona, who was illegally pre-charging female prisoners hundreds of dollars for the costs of being securely transported to medical clinics to obtain abortions.

Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio, not content with arresting illegal immigrants despite having lost his federal authority to do so, is now resisting a federal court order to allow women in his prisons to obtain abortions, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which is suing him over this in Arizona.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said goodbye to her constituents Sunday afternoon and handed off the baton to Lieutenant Gov. Sean Parnell. Explaining her puzzling move, Palin cited her inability to get anything done as a lame duck — though her term would have ended in about a year and a half.
After a few jabs [...]

For a comedian-turned-politician with no formal legal training, the newest senator and Judiciary Committee member, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) asked Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor some of the most complex but elucidating questions about Supreme Court cases we’ve heard yet. After bonding with Sotomayor over their mutual love of the Perry Mason show as kids, [...]

Earlier today I talked to Jill Stanek, an anti-abortion rights activist who hounded Barack Obama over his vote against Illinois’s Born Alive Infant Protection Act, about the possibility of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin stepping out as a pro-life advocate after she leaves the governor’s office.
“It would be exciting if Sarah Palin were to decide to [...]

Activists see a potentially galvanizing figure in Gov. Sarah Palin.

The Iowa Independent’s Jason Hancock attended Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour’s speech at the “Night of the Rising Stars” GOP fundraiser last night in Des Moines, Iowa. Notably, Barbour — who has been mentioned as a possible 2012 presidential candidate — encouraged the party to try to expand its base by making overtures to supporters of [...]