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Federal court sides with Louisiana Town Against Abortion Protesters
NEW ORLEANS - A federal appeals court has ruled that a central Louisiana town isn't liable for the actions of a police officer who violated the constitutional rights of a group of street preachers. A lower court ruled that Columbia Police Officer Robert Miles violated the First Amendment rights of World Wide Street Preachers Fellowship members when he threatened to arrest them if they didn't end their abortion protest outside a church in February 2005. But the judge also concluded that Columbia wasn't liable because the street preachers failed to prove that Miles' actions resulted from a town policy or custom. The group appealed, but a three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld last year's ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert James.
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Democrat Accuses Health Care Opponents of Racism
Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse raised eyebrows during the health care debate Sunday night when he called conservative Americans "lunatic fringe."
"They are desperate to break this president," Whitehouse said. "They have ardent supporters who are nearly hysterical at the very election of President Barack Obama. It is unbearable to them that President Barack Obama should exist."
Bob Parks, a member of the national advisory council for the Project 21 black leadership network, said Whitehouse would quiet all dissent, if he could.
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Abortion Remains A Key Obstacle to Final Passage of Health Care Bill
Washington - Twice now, abortion was almost a deal-breaker. This time, it was a deal-maker. But of the hundreds of deals cut to keep health care legislation alive, the hardest to retain may be the Senate's abortion compromise -- achieved after 13 hours of negotiation.
The volatile issue remains the biggest threat to getting a history-making bill to President Barack Obama.
Deals are the lifeblood of legislation. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana got $100 million more for her state, Connecticut's Joe Lieberman stripped the bill of a government insurance plan and Ben Nelson won a slew of favors for Nebraska -- all in exchange for their votes.
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"Craven Betrayal": Associates Baffled by Nelson's Mysterious About-Face
Fear that "Nelson could have been using the abortion issue as a bargaining chip all along for the other concessions"
WASHINGTON, D.C. - After Senator Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) announced Saturday that he had decided to support the amended health bill that allows federal funding of abortion, he set to work defending the decision in terms more familiar on the lips of his liberal colleagues: emphasizing the need for a compromise, and highlighting the greater good of the health of millions of Americans. Yet Nelson left behind a still-reeling pro-life and conservative constituency questioning what could have prompted the sudden change in the senator - who days before seemed so placidly settled in his convictions against the bill, particularly regarding abortion.
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