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High court should expedite health reform ruling
Former Kansas Attorney General Robert Stephan wants the U.S. Supreme Court to hurry up and weigh in on the constitutionality of the health reform act, much as the court expedited Bush v. Gore in 2000....
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Schmidt right about need for court to act
The constitutional challenges to the health reform law would have played out without Kansas’ help, which is why Attorney General Derek Schmidt should have followed his predecessor in keeping Kansas and...
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Pro-con: Should there be a check on the courts?
No doubt the court must check the president and the Congress when they exceed their powers. But who is checking the court when it violates the Constitution? Under a system of judicial supremacy, the...
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Pro/con: Should Supreme Court uphold health care law?
Two years ago, Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a landmark, once-in-a-generation legislation that was decades in the making. Having lost...
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Judgment day begins on health care law
Oral arguments began today before the U.S. Supreme Court in the challenge to the federal health care law. Kansas is one of the states opposing the law. Attorney General Derek Schmidt wrote a commentary...
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Obama should have kept quiet about Supreme Court
President Obama shouldn’t have suggested Monday that U.S. Supreme Court justices would be guilty of “judicial activism” if they disregarded the will of Congress and overturned the federal health care...
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Several Kansas officials backing Arizona law
The Kansas Legislature and Gov. Sam Brownback have wisely shown little interest in Arizona-type legislation to combat illegal immigration. But several state officials have signed on in support of the...
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Sebelius says there’s no post-Obamacare contingency plan
Given how the oral arguments on the Affordable Care Act seemed to go, shouldn’t the Obama administration have a backup plan ready in case the U.S. Supreme Court declares the law unconstitutional?...
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Kansans favor public prayers
Fifty years after the U.S. Supreme Court nixed school-initiated prayers as a violation of the First Amendment, 74 percent of Kansans think that public schools should open their day with either a spoken...
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Arizona ruling no victory for either side
It was a big stretch for Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer to call the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on her state’s immigration law “a victory.” The high court tossed out much of the law, which Kansas Secretary of...
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It’s official: Obamacare is constitutional
After all the contentious debate, the U.S. Supreme Court has finally settled it: The federal health care law is constitutional, including the individual mandate. But the politics of the law are far...
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Pro-con: Was court’s health care ruling correct?
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision upholding the core of the Affordable Care Act is good news for the court and the country. Chief Justice John G. Roberts was statesmanlike in choosing to side with...
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Kansans at odds with justices on immigration, health care
If it had been up to Kansans, rather than the U.S. Supreme Court, to pass judgment on the Arizona immigration law and “Obamacare,” last week’s decisions would have gone the other way. In a SurveyUSA...
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GOP doesn’t talk about disclosure anymore
Many GOP lawmakers used to argue that the best campaign-finance solution was to lift limits on donations but require immediate, full disclosure. But Fred Hiatt, editorial page editor at the Washington...
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Is covering the uninsured ‘not the issue’?
Pressed repeatedly by Fox News anchor Chris Wallace about the GOP health care alternatives, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (in photo), R-Ky., finally responded that reducing the number of...
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Majority backs Roe decision, but opponents most motivated
Seventy percent of Americans want the Roe v. Wade ruling upholding abortion rights to stay, while 24 percent would like it overturned, according to a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll that came out on...
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Supreme Court bias in the eye of beholder
As the U.S. Supreme Court considers how to rule on two same-sex marriage cases, its favorability rating is at a near historic low – though it is sky-high compared with Congress. A Pew Research Center...
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Big day for gay rights
Though they stopped short of declaring there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, Wednesday’s decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court on the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition...
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Top Kansas leaders mostly silent on same-sex marriage decisions
It was interesting that Kansas’ two U.S. senators and three of its four members of the U.S. House did not release official statements about the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings on the Defense of Marriage...
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Pro-con: Was same-sex marriage ruling the right decision?
Wednesday saw a triumph in the continuing struggle for equality in America. A divided Supreme Court rolled back two discriminatory laws, California’s Proposition 8 and a provision of the federal...
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Keep special legislative session focused and brief
Gov. Sam Brownback was persuaded of the need to call a $35,000-a-day special session of the Legislature on Sept. 3 to rewrite the state’s “Hard 50” law, because of questions about its constitutionality...
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Court majority doesn’t understand danger of religious intimidation
The reasoning process of the conservative majority (all five are Catholics) in ruling that legislative assemblies can start their sessions with prayers “is nothing short of horrific,” columnist Martin...
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Public wants action on climate change
More than 6 in 10 Americans think action is needed to combat climate change, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey. What’s more, 57 percent support requiring companies to reduce...
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Kansans for Life credits Brownback for Alito
Gov. Sam Brownback welcomed the U.S. Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision, saying it “affirmed the right of religious freedom, one of the bedrock principles enshrined in our Constitution,” and “again...
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Pro-con: Was Hobby Lobby ruling correct?
Since March 2010, as the Obama administration turned the Affordable Care Act into federal regulations, few provisions grew as controversial as the mandate that most employers provide insurance coverage...
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