U.S. Supreme Court

US Supreme Court to SF Restaurant Association: Pay Up!

Ka-Ching!

Gay Marriage: Next Stop, U.S. Supreme Court

Will Gay Marriage Have to Wait for Democracy to Catch Up?

History's Answer: Yes By Peter Jamison Since Californians voted to enshrine discrimination against gay couples in their state constitution on Nov. 4, the varied strains of lamentation from San Francisco's chattering classes have risen to a choral swell. The success of Proposition 8, which banned s ... More >>

Guantánamo's Last Days

America prepares to shutter the infamous prison camp, and more jihad looms.

Whipped and Gagged

Is government spending obscene? Well, it paid to train S&M filmmakers.

The Past and Future Fraud

Yes, punch-card voting machines are error-prone. The touch-screen systems planned to replace them may be just as bad.

A Black and White Issue

A lawsuit alleging racism at Amtrak's Oakland yard has made it to the Supreme Court -- and could affect discrimination cases nationwide

Reversing Course

A broad repudiation of Prop. 209 surfaces at Berkeley

The Illusion of Roe V. Wade

While feminists loudly celebrate the 25th anniversary of legalized abortion, quiet changes in the medical landscape make the procedure less and less available

Letters

While feminists loudly celebrate the 25th anniversary of legalized abortion, quiet changes in the medical landscape make the procedure less and less available

REAL ASTROLOGY For an Unreal World

While feminists loudly celebrate the 25th anniversary of legalized abortion, quiet changes in the medical landscape make the procedure less and less available

Unspun

While feminists loudly celebrate the 25th anniversary of legalized abortion, quiet changes in the medical landscape make the procedure less and less available

Totems Are Taboo

But if the court's crucifixation is overblown, let a thousand icons bloom

Dog Bites

But if the court's crucifixation is overblown, let a thousand icons bloom

Chronic City: Getting It Wrong -- What's The Press-Enterprise Been Smoking?

familydocs.orgDr. Tom Bent, president, California Academy of Family PhysiciansRiverside newspaper the Press-Enterprise reported yesterday that "observers don't expect a flood of applicants for medical marijuana cards" even though challenges by San Diego and San Bernardino counties to California ... More >>

Chronic City: San Diego Says 'No Bongs For You!'

Photo: smorgBusted: Freak Factory smoke shopApparently nostalgic for the bad old days of pot paraphernalia raids, our law enforcement friends down in San Diego have taken time off from pursuing what seem to be less pressing matters -- like, you know, murder and rape and stuff -- to bust four smoke s ... More >>

Chronic City: Marijuana Moratorium -- How To Ignore The Voters And The Law

Dispensary moratorium: Latest political fad?​One by one, across California, the lights are winking out.In city after city, town after town, patients who had dared hope they would at last have safe access to the medicine recommended by their physicians are having those hopes dashed  by politic ... More >>

Chronic City: 'Truth In Trials' Bill Would Lift Ban On Medical Marijuana Evidence In Federal Court

​U.S. Representative Sam Farr (D-Carmel) and more than 20 bipartisan co-sponsors introduced legislation today that would allow defendants in medical marijuana cases the ability to use medical evidence at trial, a right they currently do not have. Due to the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in G ... More >>

Perverting Justice

Jessica's Law prevents paroled sex offenders from residing near schools or parks. That means they can only live one place in S.F.: on the streets.

Doggy Bag: Supreme Court Ruling Will Work Its Way into Your Shopping Bag

Jeff.L/FlickrNot even Berkeley Bowl can save you.​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. Oh noes!: What does yesterday's U.S. Supreme Court decision to jimmy open the sewer lid to corporate campaign contributions have to do with the food you eat? Pantloads, writes Food Politics blogger Marion Ne ... More >>

A Higher Court

The legal tussle between SF Weekly and the Bay Guardian rises to a new level.

School That Deemed American Flag Clothing 'Incendiary' on Shaky Legal Ground

Higher-ups at Live Oak High School may be caught with their pants down, legally​Administrators at Morgan Hill's Live Oak High School who opted to send home students bedecked in American flag regalia on Cinco de Mayo likely ran afoul of the law, one of the nation's foremost constitutional scholars ... More >>

Memo to Elena Kagan: Come Out of the Closet

Elena Kagen's life as a -- ahem -- softball player shouldn't be a big secret​"She's a lesbian!" said Betty White over and over again on Saturday Night Live this past weekend. White was talking about a character in a Little Women parody but she might as well have been talking about Elena Kagan, ... More >>

Did Elena Kagan Shill for Monsanto on GMOs?

arcticpenguin/FlickrIs the Supreme Court nominee Roundup Ready?​Over at The Atlantic's online presence, Barry Estabrook, a former contributing editor for Gourmet, has a bone to pick with President Obama's Supreme Court nominee. Some critics may question Elena Kagan's position on battlefield ... More >>

SF Weekly Appeal Finally Heard, But No Decision Yet from the Court

​ Twenty-seven months after a San Francisco jury levied a gargantuan $16 million judgment against SF Weekly and its parent company for allegedly trying to "injure" the Bay Guardian, the California Court of Appeal heard oral arguments in the case Friday morning. The brief session before a thr ... More >>

Prop. 8 Cast Goes to Court ... And Gets Celebrity Doppelgangers

​When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cameras would not be permitted to film Perry v. Schwarzenegger,  directors John Ireland and John Ainsworth, along with a band of volunteer actors, decided to reenact the entire Prop. 8 trial and post the results to Youtube. Until today, the actors relie ... More >>

The Week in Gay: Gays Invade San Francisco!

Adam Hood loves you​What is the best way to kick off San Francisco Pride Weekend? By listening to an ex-gay, ex-San Franciscan who wears an ascot and just loves him some pussy! Adam Hood doesn't want the gays to bring the gangrene into heaven but he does want to bring flavor savers. Imagine hi ... More >>

Supreme Court Won't Hear Challege to Healthy San Francisco

​The U.S. Supreme Court this morning delivered a major victory for gun ownership rights -- and also denied to hear a challenge to San Francisco's universal health care plan. So if you're uninsured and shot within city limits, this is your lucky day.

Week in Gay: Carrie Prejean to Wed 'Jesus in Cleats'

Her prince has come!​On Thursday, members of the LGBT media were invited to participate in some kind of weird press conference at the White House. Was it a show of good faith (this is a first for queer journalists) or just another attempt to appear attentive? An administration official named Melod ... More >>

Marriage Rights Can't Rely on Fickle Politicians' Whims

Some day his prince will come. But will a political consensus? ​Over the past few days, columnists Jonathan Rauch and Jonathan Capehart have been wringing their hands over what Judge Vaughn Walker might do to Proposition 8. They are convinced that Walker will either start an "inferno" or cause ... More >>

What a Week in Gay it Was!

Photo illustration | Audrey FukumanJudge Vaughn Walker gave Prop. 8 the pimp slap​Seriously, this was one mother fu**ing gay week! Can I hear a what what?You may have heard that Vaughn Walker, the gayest judge in the world -- even gayer than Supreme Court's new softball coach, Justice Elena Ka ... More >>

Judge Vaughn Walker Targeted for Impeachment

Judge Vaugn Walker is not universally popular these days​ In an effort to undermine his Prop. 8 ruling, the American Family Association is leading a campaign to impeach Judge Vaughn Walker. The right-leaning pro-family organization states in a letter on its website that Walker should not have been ... More >>

Violent Video Game Law Court Found Unconstitutional Has 72 Percent Approval: Poll

Ah, but is it Constitutional? ​According to a recent Zogby poll, 72 percent of Americans support a California law preventing the sale of ultra-violent videogames to children. And yet, the validity of that law isn't for Americans randomly picking up the phone to decide, but the nine justices of the ... More >>

Iowa Ousts Three Judges Who Approved Gay Marriage

​LGBT Advocates Blast Special Interests' Campaign To Intimidate Judges NationwideThe huge shift to the right in yesterday's election probably doesn't bode well for any LGBT-friendly legislation coming down the pipeline. But perhaps the harshest rebuke of those who support LGBT rights came from Iow ... More >>

Judges Named For Prop. 8 Hearing

​A liberal, a conservative, and a moderate. An old guy, a middle-aged guy, and a sorta young guy. Sounds like the makings for a road-trip comedy. Could be. But it's definitely the composition for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' Dec. 6 hearing of the Proposition 8 case, which could determine the ... More >>

Supreme Court to Hear Arguments on Overcrowded California Prisons Today

Hot, flat, and crowded: San Quentin State Prison​The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments today in Schwarzenegger v. Plata, the landmark prison-overcrowding lawsuit that could eventually result in tens of thousands of state inmates being released.California has faced a lot of pro ... More >>

Prop. 8 Trial: The Live Blog

The big day has arrived...​Check back often for frequent updatesMonday, 12:05 a.m.: This is it, folks: the big day for Prop. 8 at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Lawyers for both sides get just two hours to make their cases this morning, and we're going to be on the scene to report about how it ... More >>

The Year in Gay, 2010 Edition

What a year it was​Who Will Be The Uppity Fag Of The Year?Let's face it -- this was a messy, messy year for the gays. Much of the news was good, ultimately, but shit dragged on! There were three major federal trials (four, technically -- but two were sorta merged in Massachusetts), promises ... More >>

Kamala Harris Wants Federal Appeals Court To Allow Gay Marriages Now

Harris: Let the people marry​Supporters of same-sex marriage just got a powerful ally: California Attorney General Kamala Harris. The newly minted AG is urging the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to allow gay couples to marry while it considers a federal appeal over the constitutionality of Propositi ... More >>

Supreme Court: S.F. Politicians Free to Denounce Catholic Church

Heresy: The business of S.F. government?​The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a lawsuit brought by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights against the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, essentially settling the question of whether the supervisors were out of line when they passed ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Patients Sue Federal Government

Stoners aren't the only ones who are slow to react ​We all know that the wheels of government move slowly -- but nine years slowly? That pace is too lazy for Americans for Safe Access, which just wants answers. So it's going to court to force the federal government to get some response.At issue is ... More >>

U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United Ruling Cost S.F. $290,000

They're not using real money to elect pliant candidates, are they?​The U.S. Supreme Court's crappy Citizens United ruling, which allowed unlimited corporate funding of independent political advertising, just cost San Francisco $290,000.That Supreme Court's 2010 ruling, it turns out, affected the o ... More >>

Supreme Court Shoots Down State Ban on Violent Videogames

Keep shooting, kids​Kids can continue to legally play ultraviolent videogames after the Supreme Court ruled this morning that California cannot restrict kids from buying or renting the shooting games.  The court voted 7-2 that such a ban, which was spearheaded by Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Franci ... More >>

Does Your Woman Have Bad PMS? Tell Her to Smoke Some Weed

Let's roll you a joint, madam​Recently, we wrote about a study which claimed that a majority of medical marijuana users in California are probably white men. Not included in the study was how many of those men were acquiring marijuana to placate their wife or girlfriend to cure the myriad of "wome ... More >>

U.S. Supreme Court Hearing Challenge to California's Pig Protection Law

​Two years ago, President Obama signed a federal law that that would keep "downed" cows -- animals brought to the slaughterhouse too sick or weak to stand -- out of the human food chain. Other animals -- well, the humans who eat them, really -- haven't had the same kind of federal protections, wh ... More >>

Alameda Gun Ordinance to Go Before Full 9th Circuit Appeals Court

​The quest for the rights of ordinary, hardworking Americans to carry bazookas and roll Abrams tanks across government property continues its slow advance. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has  agreed to revisit an Alameda County couple's claim that a law banning guns on county land ... More >>

Prison Break: Realignment Inmates Enter Rehabilitation in S.F.

​The quest for the rights of ordinary, hardworking Americans to carry bazookas and roll Abrams tanks across government property continues its slow advance. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has  agreed to revisit an Alameda County couple's claim that a law banning guns on county land ... More >>

Prop. 8 Appeals Court Ruling: Inside the Dissenting Opinion

​Same-sex marriage advocates rejoiced today as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker's 2010 decision that Proposition 8, the 2008 California ballot initiative banning gay marriage, is unconstitutional.The decision is almost certainly destine ... More >>