Yesterday a House Appropriations subcommittee voted to save 1,900 scholarships for low-income D.C. children from teachers unions intent on killing school choice. The chairman of the subcommittee, Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY), warned that this was the last year he would allow low income DC students and their families to choose which schools they wanted to go to. Hopefully, given another year, more promising results will come from the program like this week’s Department of Education study showing scholarship students out performed those in public school on reading scores. The District’s …
Last year, Congress rejected legislation that would violate the Constitution by granting the District of Columbia voting representation in the House of Representatives. But advocates of this plan haven’t given up hope. Instead, voting rights activists have stepped up their lobbying efforts, and Roll Call reported last week that they may be about to secure a major victory: Washington, D.C., voting rights advocates expect to be able to more openly lobby for representation in the House next year, using money from the District budget. A step forward came Tuesday, when …
If today’s oral arguments in the D.C. gun ban case are any indication, the nation’s most restrictive gun-control law could soon be ruled unconstitutional. Today’s hearing before the Supreme Court revealed that Justice Anthony Kennedy is far more inclined to support an individual right to keep and bear arms than anyone might have suspected. Supreme Court reporter Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSblog offered this take on the oral arguments: The Supreme Court’s historic argument Tuesday on the meaning of the Constitution’s Second Amendment sent out one quite clear signal: individuals may …
… difficult cases make bad law, get ready for some more awful law(s) in the lawyer-saturated District of Columbia. The case in question is a grisly one. Last week a woman was found living with the corpses of her four dead daughters. The wheels of justice turn slowly, but will eventually determine whether Banita Jacks was guilty of the crime and, if so, what her punishment ought to be. It would be tempting to dismiss this case as one of those awful things that happen from time to time. But …
