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Richard Fausset gives this exceptional account in NYT of the way Hispanics and Whites are coping with changes in a small Alabama town before and after president Obama's executive order on immigration in Nov. 2014.

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Sandra Day O'Connor always carried a copy of the US Constitution with her and worked to expand civic knowledge of the younger generation through iCivics from 2009 when she left the US Supreme Court after 25 years service. As she lies at the Supreme Court after her death at age 93, president Biden who was ranking member of the US Judiciary Committee when O'Connor was nominated in 1981, remembers her as "gracious and wise, civil and principled." Biden said: "One needed not agree with all of O'Connor's decisions to recognize that her principles were "deeply held and of the highest order, and that her desire for civility was genuine... She empowered generations of American women in every part of American life." 

 

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Madras High Court decides that it has no jurisdiction over whether Indian patent law violates WTO guidelines on intellectual property. Novartis had asked the Madras High Court to clarify this point. Indian patent law (2005 patent legislation) states that a drug qualifies for a patent only if it is a new invention or a significant improvement, not a new version of a drug from before 1995. The court upheld this. Novartis's modified version of Gleevec, a leukemia drug, was denied a patent by a Indian court. Was it right in doing so? The Madras High Court affirmed this decision, and it will not be appealed to the Supreme Court.

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Justice Kennedy's Sacramento roots and how this may have given him tolerance and respect for gay people.

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How a bauxite project in Orissa, India, goes all the way to the Supreme Court over environmental objections. The uneven distribution of benefits of industrialization and the protests as India industrializes.

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On Canada's Justin Trudeau- looking back at his 10 years 2015-2025 mostly inherited the work of his father. He tackled Covid, improved childcare, tackled the renegotiation of trade with Republicans in the US, but lacked the major achievement of the 1970's of Pierre Trudeau setting up Canada as an independent state. The Washington Post looks at the political career of Justin Trudeau. He is the son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, a politician from Quebec, who was prime minister from 1968 to 1984 except for one year in 1979-1980. During that period Pierre Trudeau a lawyer practicing labour law in Montreal and educated at the University of Montreal had three significant accomplishments. Canada Act of 1982 passed into law by Queen Elizabeth and the British Parliament, set up Canada as a sovereign state. Prior to this only the British Parliament could amend the Canadian Constitution under the Dominion Act of 1867 under Queen Victoria. As a Quebeker Pierre Trudeau succeeded highly respected Lester Pearson as head of the Liberal Party, and held off the Party Quebecois's effort for separatism in the early 1980's. By 1981 the Canadian Supreme Court 9-0 rejected the Party Quebecois bills that conflicted with the Charter of Rights set up under the Canada Act which protected minorities in Quebec having education in English.   ...

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Peggy Noonan reflects on the deep changes taking place in America. Behind the changes is a strong feeling in the middle and working class that it has been ignored by the establishment in both parties. She points to Citizens United and says it is bad for the Republican Party, encouraging large donors and hedge fund billionaires, making the party less accountable to ordinary people. The Clinton's fundraising also raises similar questions. Trade policies depressing wages have worked against the working class, yet espoused by politicians of both parties. The young supporting Sanders, she says have seen little to show capitalism is working for them. Institutions such as Congress, the presidency, the political class, the Supreme Court, the media, are all in an uncertain position, as voters lose faith in the ability of these institutions to work for them. Yet she points out that it is important that the U.S. voters choose wisely- keeping in mind the importance of electing someone who can demonstrate goodness and a sound mind- not obscuring the questions about Trump. Uncouth language, uncouth behaviours reflect sense and sensibilities, it matters a lot, Peggy Noonan tells the Republican Party and America....

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The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a U.S. administration request staying the effect of a lower court ruling, giving the government the $3.6 billion in U.S. Defense Department funds to build a border wall. This money goes towards the goal of building 500 miles of the wall by the end of 2020. In a 2-1 decision the court majority cited a Supreme Court order from July 2019 that gave the Trump administration the go ahead to use military funds for border wall construction.

The $3.6 billion is part of a $6.7 billion plan of spending under an emergency declaration by president Trump on grounds of border security. So far 100 miles of border wall have replaced flimsier construction barriers that existed. The government now needs to convince private land owners along large stretches of the border along the Rio Grande and other areas to give up their land for the wall. 

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The Supreme Court's ruling against Wyeth knocks down a 2006 Bush administration regulation which declared that permitting product-liability law suits conflicted with "FDA's role "as the expert federal agency responsible for evaluating and regulating drugs." Justice Paul Stevens writing the majority opinion said the Bush position is "entitled to no weight, and was "inherently suspect because no evidence was given in support of its position and the states and the public did not get an opportunity to comment before it was issued. Wyeth had argued that it met FDA guidelines in the label for its antinausea drug Phenergan, and wasn't liable when a 63 year old guitar player lost her arm after receiving the drug.