Owner Account

Retraction noted.

63,400,000

43,100,000

47,150,000

25,150,000

36,100,000

19,500,000

36,150,000

28,950,000

72,150,000

51,000,000

Judicial Roundup
 

Federal District Court:

Murphy versus McAllister: Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled that the President of the United States of America was under no legal obligation to respond to a subpoena issued by a Senate committee, noting that the Constitution of the United States of America did not grant the power of subpoena or investigation to the United States Congress – however, Howell also argued that Congress did have legislative authority, and that the ability to investigate and acquire information is implied through the power of legislation. Dealing with conflicting precedent, conflicting powers, and convoluted interpretation, Howell threaded the needle by ruling that the President and the State Department were obligated to turn over all material related to any discussion between the United States and any Palestinian figures involving Al-Najjar in particular or members of the United States Congress in general, but not documents outside of the scope of the investigation.

Supreme Court:

McCullen v. Coakley: In a five-four decision (Sears, Breyer, Castillo, and Ginsburg in the minority, all others in the majority), the Supreme Court has ruled that laws limiting the ability of protestors to enter within a certain distance of abortion clinics violated the first amendment ‘too broadly.’ In Roberts’ opinion, he also cited the fact that Massachusetts had consistently failed to bring charges under the law.

 Riley v. California: In a unanimous decision with Alito concurring, this Roberts authored decision ruled that warrantless searches of cell phones were illegal and could not be considered as viable evidence in a criminal proceeding. In Alito’s dissent, while he agreed with the sentiment, he expressed concern that the court was creating arbitrary distinctions between cell phones and wallets.

McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission: In five-four decision with Roberts, Kennedy, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito in the majority, the Supreme Court struck down overall limitations on campaign donations from individuals to candidates or political organizations, while maintaining that limits per election remained constitutional. In a concurrence, Thomas argued for the elimination of all campaign contribution laws. In one dissent, Breyer argued that the decision created a massive loophole that allowed individuals to contribute millions of dollars to single campaigns decide the standing limit, and in a separate dissent Sears argued that the primary force of determining campaign election law should be the decisions of Congress as opposed to courts.

ABC v. Aereo: In a six-three decision (Scalia, Thomas, and Alito dissenting), the Supreme Court has ruled that the internet start-up company Aereo was in violation when it captured the signals of television broadcasters and streamed the material directly to its subscribers. This marks the first time that the Court has ruled this decisively against a ‘disruptive’ technology – Alito, again authoring the dissent, argued that this was a significant retreat from judicial precedent and that disputes of this nature were better left to Congress.

Town of Greece v. Galloway: In a six-three decision (Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Sears in the majority), the court ruled that it was legal for a government meeting to begin with a sectarian prayer. In a concurrence, Thomas wrote that the First amendment separation of church and state should only be applied to Congress and not state or local governments. In the dissent, Castillo argued that the denominational nature of the prayers in question violated the equal protections of constituents and those present in the meeting who might not adhere to said denomination.

(OOC: This is a small recap because I am going to introduce some of the material that would normally be in a recap through other sources)

National:
- After shifting its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River, the city of Flint, Michigan announces that a significant amount of lead has leached from corroded pipes and contaminated the city’s water supply.
- Governor Phil Bryant of Mississippi signs a law allowing businesses to deny service to a customer based on their religious beliefs.
- Heartbleed, a security bug, is found to have exposed over 17% of the internet to hackers.
- Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr. leader of the White Patriot Party of North Carolina, opens fire at a Jewish community center in Overland Park, Kansas, killing three.
- Federal judges in Indiana and Ohio rule that those states’ bans on gay marriage are unconstitutional, but following recent precedent stay the orders; concurrently, judges in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin overturns those states’ restrictions on gay marriage but do not stay the order, bringing about functionally legal gay marriage in those locales. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals maintains the unconstitutionality of Utah’s ban on gay marriage, becoming the first appellate court to rule in favor of gay marriage.
- A series of tornados kill at thirty-five people across the Midwest and the American South, focused on northern Alabama and western Tennessee.
- Elliot Rodger, a university student in Isla Vista, California, killed six people by stabbing and shooting before shooting himself after a confrontation with the police. Rodger was reportedly motivated by feelings of being spurned by women.
- Morgan Geiser and Anissa Weier, two twelve-year old girls, are charged in the killing of a third twelve-year-old girl. Geiser and Weier reported that their actions were motivated by Slender Man, a fictitious internet persona.

International:
- Collapse of an apartment building in North Korea leads to nearly five hundred fatalities.
- (Backdate) Marc Ouellet is selected as the new Pope, taking the title of Pius XIII.
- General Prayut Chan-o-Cha assumes the premiership in Thailand following a military coup against the caretaker government of Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan, three weeks after the latter took office. Boonsongpaisan had also assumed power due to a military coup.
- Boko Haram-led terrorist attack in Jos, Nigeria claims at least one hundred and eighteen lives.

Arts and Entertainment
- Conchita Wurst wins the Eurovision contest.

Business:
- The Federal Communications Council rules that it will allow some internet providers to prioritize the speed of some internet services due to consumer usage, ending the era of ‘pure’ net neutrality. Throttling of access to other services is, however, rejected.

Sports:
- Ryan Hunter-Rea wins the Indianapolis 500.
- Bubba Watson wins the Masters Tournament.
 

(OOC: This is a new feature that I am looking at exploring in-game, so feedback is welcomed. Basically, I’ll select a handful of bills submitted every week and I will give an initial response to the submission from activists and officials in the field providing some initial feedback.)

Quarterly Legislative Reactions

Changing Organ Donations to Presumed Consent Law (Mike Kennedy, D-WA)

Douglas Wilder, Former Democratic Governor of Virginia: “This bill would be a step back. Early in my career I represented families that felt that their loved ones were taken advantage of by the medical system in order to provide organs for wealthier, more likely to be white individuals. There is still a significant disparity in the ratio of black or Hispanic patients who receive organ transplants compared to white patients, so the underlying abuses that informed why I started the opt-in organ donation laws campaign in the 1960s are still very present in our system.”

John Fabre, Professor Emeritus, King’s College School of Medicine: “This is a highly emotional issue, and one that in previous writings I have described as ‘powerful tide driven by a curious mixture of good intentions, ignorance and uncritical zeal.’ There is an obvious need to increase participation in organ donation, but there are policies that could accomplish this with much broader support than presumed consent, which is always a powder keg. The fact is, countries without presumed consent laws tend to have much, much higher rates of organ donation than those with presumed consent that use opt-out policies. People do not want to feel railroaded into surrendering their organs to a faceless medical machine.”

Neehar Pahrik, Professor, University of Michigan School of Medicine: “If we transitioned into a full presumed consent system, the bill’s estimation of eight thousand lives is probably low. We’re looking at a 52% rate of reduction in the organ donation list – it would be impossible to ever eliminate the list entirely, but this would have a significant impact – a positive impact – for people who are on the list and need organ donations immediately.”

Hyde Amendment Repeal Act (Nadia Al-Najjar, D-NJ)

Terry O’Neil, President of NOW: “The Hyde Amendment is nothing more than a piece of legal writing that is designed to limit the ability of women to control their own body and deny them access to life-saving care in a way that no other medical procedure is regulated. If we passed legislation saying that no money could ever go to cancer, that no money could ever go to HIV, what have you, we would immediately recognize how ludicrous the legislation is and how much of it is designed to do nothing more than limit the rights of women.”

Bart Stupak, former Democratic Representative from Michigan: “Taxpayer-funded abortion is a non-starter issue. Not only do the vast majority of Republicans oppose this kind of move, a significant number of Democrats, including myself, do as well. Look at the polling – even people who believe unequivocally that abortion should be legal in all cases do not have majority support for taxpayer funding of abortion.”

Francis Kissling, founder and former President of Catholics for Choice: “A lot of my career has been advocacy based around the story of Rosie Jimenez, a wonderful woman who was the first victim of the Hyde Amendment. When that bill was passed, Rosie Jimenez died due to pursuing non-government funded or regulated access to an abortion. Ending the Hyde Amendment will not necessarily increase the number of abortions, but it will decrease the number that are performed in unsafe, unsanitary, and dangerous situations.”

Hospital Competition Act (Kyle Fitzgerald, R-TX and Osiris Thorn, R-FL)

Ardis Dee Hoven, President of the American Medical Association: “What we are experiencing is a continued display of a lack of trust in the medical establishment from those in Washington. There is no recognition that physicians and hospital administrators and yes, some insurance companies, know how to manage healthcare and treat patients better than government bureaucrats. I am just shocked by this continued assault on the single-most effective healthcare system in the world. If this bill comes to pass, it will be much harder for us to perform the most expensive operations – if you want quality, under our current system, you have to pay for it. If you want a system where alternative medical practitioners are not driving mainstream practitioners out of the industry because inert homeopathic medication is more appealing to low income patients than actual effective medicine, you need to put up walls to entry into this field.”

David Friedman, author of the Machinery of Freedom: “My father [Milton Friedman] established that current medical practice in the United States of America is nothing more than an elaborate continuation of the medieval guild system, designed to concentrate power in the hands of a few elite bureaucrats and tenured – if not best-skilled – craftsmen. The structure of the American hospital is the same way, and this has been on full display as multiple regional hospital systems have slowly morphed into one giant hospital system that is free to set rates, deny services, and blacklist physicians without any real competition or consequences. Just objectively, a bill like this not only will reduce costs dramatically due to the natural functions of the market once opened to competition, it will expand freedom of choice in medicine. This will not fix medical premiums over night, but it will allow more normative market forces to take hold in medicine and will drive down costs over the long run.”

Avik Roy, President of FREOPP: “Debates in this country have largely been about how we, as a people and as a government, buy healthcare. What we’ve needed to look at for a longtime is how we -sell- healthcare, because it is one of the most corrupt systems in the United States of America today. This bill will go a long way in breaking up one of the last real monopolies in the American economy.”

China Human Rights Protection Act of 2014 (James McAllister, R-GA)

Statement from the Committee of 100, American-based advocacy group for improved relations between China and the United States; “We condemn the further escalation of negative feelings between the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China. While we understand that there are cultural differences, governmental differences, and economic differences at work, we maintain that closer cooperation between the People’s Republic of China and the United States of America is in the best interests of both countries and the world as a whole – legislation like this would do little to improve relations.”

Christopher Cox, Former Republican Representative from California: “The United States has allowed some extreme behavior from the People’s Republic of China to go unchecked for decades – their treatment of their own citizens is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of their malfeasance. This legislation and other pieces like it will be critical to improving America’ standing in the region as the freest country in the world and a leading example of how people should be governed .I really applaud this legislation and hope for more like it.”

Peter Chen, President of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs: “We have to remain vigilant against the abuses of the CPC against people living in mainland China and the abuses they would inflict against other people should their power expand. I support this legislation and bringing light to the extreme abuses of totalitarian rule.”

For speed purposes, I graded these - note however that these should be specific outreaches to organizations when possible.

41,100,000

So I am making a ruling regarding the Senate elections, since there has been a lot of discussion over this and actual character input and the like.

Wilder will be allowed to stand for Iowa under the same rules of write-in that Goose is using to run. This means that he will have a starting penalty due to late entry, but will be allowed to proceed. 

To clarify, no additional candidates will be allowed to enter the race at this point from either party. Thank you. 

So this seat is locked due to it being in an election.

27,460,000

65,950,000

19,100,000

106,000,000

41,500,000

74,800,000

40,100,000

The Ojibway are open to the idea of creating a national park, but only under the condition that they would still have significant access to the region for their own purposes.