News Roundup for 11/9/10

Likely opponent of Oklahoma's new constitutional amendment

-Headline of the Day-
"Oklahoma Voters May Have Accidentally Voted Against Ten Commandments, Too."

Oh man, you guys are in trouble... God is gonna be so mad!

Oklahoma voters took the urgent step of banning Sharia law in their state, because oppressive, unconstitutional Islamic law is a huge problem for Okies as the prairie jihad goes on and fatwas are issued against... Pffft! I can't go on. This is stupid. It's the paranoid fantasy of teabaggers, bigots, and various and sundry other morons.

But, dumb and pointless as this thing is, they had to be smart about it, because singling out a faith's religious laws is probably as unconstitutional Sharia law is. So they shrewdly threw out an insanely wide net, just to make sure to get it. According to the report, the new constitutional amendment says "Oklahoma courts must 'rely on federal and state law when deciding cases' and forbids them from 'considering or using international law' and 'from considering or using Sharia Law.'"

The problem here is that the Big Ten aren't state or federal law and Moses didn't come down off the mountain in Iowa. The Ten Commandments aren't quite so local as the lawmakers seem to have believed.

"Many of us who understand the law are scratching our heads this morning, laughing so we don't cry," Rick Tepker, a law professor at the University of Oklahoma School of Law, told CNN. "I would like to see Oklahoma politicians explain if this means that the courts can no longer consider the Ten Commandments. Isn't that a precept of another culture and another nation? The result of this is that judges aren't going to know when and how they can look at sources of American law that were international law in origin."

The law's probably unconstitutional anyway, since "international law" most often means treaties. This runs counter to the Supremacy Clause and it doesn't matter if you write it down in your little state constitution or not. And, shrewd though they tried to be, they actually messed up and mentioned Sharia law by name, so there's a little First Amendment problem there too.

But don't worry too much Oklahoma. The Muslim group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has filed a lawsuit stopping the amendment, so the dreaded Muslims are coming to save your Ten Commandments.

Make sure you thank them for it. (Think Progress)


-Quote of the day-
Adam Serwer on John McCain's defense of "don't ask, don't tell":

"...Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona seems determined to go down in history as the Richard Russell of gay rights, attempting to strip DADT repeal from the Defense Authorization Act much as Russell once tried to prevent Harry Truman from desegregating the military. When the reporters who fawned over him for two presidential campaigns are dead, all that history will remember of his political legacy, beyond introducing the country to Sarah Palin, will be this disgraceful footnote."

OK, so it's not funny. It's just righteous. (Plum Line)


-Bonus HotD-
"Ex-BP CEO Tony Hayward: I would have done better with an acting degree."

Because then he could have acted like he gave a crap. (Raw Story)