The Rape of Alaska

With the Supreme Court's decision to stike down the DC gun ban grabbing the headlines today, I think it's important to highlight the fact that the Court is having an all-star week. Yesterday, they cut the damages paid by Exxon Mobil to Alaskan victims of the Exxon Valdez oil spill from $5 billion to $500 million. Unfortunately, the Times article does not quite capture the gravity of this decison. If you do the math, that's a 90% reduction. It would also have been helpful for the Times to have noted that just a few months ago Exxon Mobil posted record profits. In fact, Exxon Mobil's annual profit for 2007 ($40.6 billion), is the largest annual profit ever recorded in US history! Needless to say, Exxon Mobil has plenty of resources at its disposal that could go a long way towards assuaging the anguish suffered by residents of the Alaskan coastline. I'll end with this excerpt from Justice John Paul Stevens' dissent:

In light of Exxon’s decision to permit a lapsed alcoholic to command a supertanker carrying tens of millions of gallons of crude oil [through] the treacherous waters of Prince William Sound, thereby endangering all of the individuals who depended upon the sound for their livelihoods...the jury could reasonably have given expression to its moral condemnation of Exxon’s conduct in the form of this award.

Photo used courtesy of Flickr user, jimbrickett March 23, 2008

U.S. Constitution 1, Bush 0

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled today that the prisoners held in captivity at Guantanamo Bay have the right to challenge their imprisonment in U.S. courts. The majority was made up of Breyer, Ginsberg, Souter, Stevens, and Kennedy. The dissenters were Alito, Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas. Scalia commented that the "nation will live to regret what the court did today." I know, classy. Look, I have no doubt that many, perhaps even a majority, of the dudes being held at Gitmo are bad news. However, it's not even worth fighting the so called "war on terror" if the US treats its prisoners as subhuman demons without rights. Also, we can be almost certain that at least some of the prisoners being held in Cuba were innocents picked up by Afghan warlords and turned over to US forces in exchange for cash. Our system should be one that risks the possibility that some of the guilty may go free in order to ensure that NO innocents are punished. This decision will be lauded around the world and hopefully it will begin to mend our image.

Otters for Justice

Today the Supreme Court is hearing ExxonMobil's appeal over a previous appellate court ruling that ordered the company to pay $2.5 billion in punitive damages for the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. According to this McClatchy article, the appeal has at least a reasonable shot of being struck down. Samuel Alito is recusing himself from this case because he owns Exxon stock. As always, it seems that Kennedy will be the swing vote. One can only hope that the Court will decide in favor of the people of Alaska and the cute little otters pictured above.