Harold Koh–good Asian American!
≡ Category: Politicking, Semi-daily thoughts | ≅ Comments Off
Republicans are threatening to filibuster Harold Koh’s appointment to head the Office of Legal Counsel (lawyer/advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton).WTF?! Serving under Republican AND Democratic administrations, being Dean of The Most Prestigious Law School in the Country, and getting the endorsement of the future conservative ruling elite isn’t enough for the Republican partay?
Harold Koh challenged the detention without trial of Haitians at Guantanamo waaaay Back in The Day–pre-Torture Memo Author John Yoo (ahem…BAD Asian).
Harold Koh’s nomination is a definitive statement that the Obama administration is going 180 from Bush/Cheney when it comes to adhering to basic principles of human rights and international law.
Harold Koh sez…
“…I once represented Haitian refugees. When I went to speak before an Asian American group, a man stood up and asked “Why are you representing these black Haitians? Why aren’t you devoting your time to our people?” And I said to him, “Sir, do you mean to say that in the face of Haitian boat people, you don’t see Vietnamese boat people? Do you mean to say that in the Haitian internment, you don’t see the Japanese internment? Do you mean to say that in the quest for Haitian democracy, you don’t see the quest for Korean democracy? And don’t you see that we may all have come in different boats, but we are all in the same boat now? What I am saying is that if you think about it, the Haitians are ‘our people.’ And if we care about their problems, we are addressing our own problems as well.”
Join the fun and games here.
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Iowa
≡ Category: Politicking, queer, Semi-daily thoughts | ≅ Comments Off
In a unanimous decision, the Iowa Supreme Court held denying same-sex couples the right to marry is unconstitutional. So in 21 days, Iowa will continue to slouch towards Gomorrah as gay men, lesbians, trannies and queers of all stripes storm the Bed and Bath to set up marriage registries and file joint tax returns.I only skimmed the decision, but it seems that it’s not as sweeping as California’s In re Marriage decision. That case also declared unconstitutional the ban on same-sex marriages. More importantly though, it held laws that discriminate based on sexual orientation are subject to “strict scrutiny.” Sexual orientation joined race, religion and national origin as a “suspect classification.” And all that is legalese for “you better have a damn good reason to treat this group of people differently from others.” In sum, the California Supreme Court provided queers the highest level of protection against discrimination.
The Iowa Supreme Court didn’t go quite as far. Concluding that the ban on same-sex marriage didn’t even pass “intermediate scrutiny”, judges in Iowa called it a day and punted the question of whether laws that discriminate based on sexual orientation require a highest level of review. Perhaps this was a compromise to get a unanimous decision.
Nonetheless, with most court-side cheerleaders and commentators tensely expecting California’s court to uphold Prop 8’s ban on same-sex marriage, we can rest assured that we can always move to Iowa…or not.
As I re-read this, I wonder why I am compelled to post this sort of constitutional law 101 entry. I don’t even enjoy reading legal writing. Oh well, one of the many existential queries facing Lunamania. Off to do more productive things on this beautiful Saturday afternoon.
A musical Friday treat
≡ Category: Books, fliks, tunes..., Gear and tech, Semi-daily thoughts | ≅ Comments Off
My Friday gift to residents of Lunamania–a 5 minute musical wonder. It took me a minute to understand the audio and video editing wizardry that seamlessly connects musicians from around the world. Actually, I still don’t understand it, but some art-tech ninja (supported by The Playing for Change Foundation) does and brought us this little gem.I like ninjas.
