A top advisor to Barack Obama says, if elected president, the Democratic
candidate will look to appoint Supreme Court justices in the mold of Justices
Stephen Breyer and David Souter.
 
“Of course, he’s interested in people
of integrity and competence, that’s a given,” Pepperdine University law
professor Doug Kmiec told CNSNews.com. “He’s also indicated that he’s most
attracted to the kind of justice represented by Justice Breyer and Justice
Souter.”

The Fredericksburg City Council's policy prohibiting a member from opening meetings with a prayer mentioning Jesus does not violate his free-speech rights, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rejected the Rev. Hashmel Turner's lawsuit challenging a nonsectarian prayer policy adopted by the council in 2005. The court said the policy does not violate Turner's rights because the prayer is "government speech," not individual speech.

The 2008 presidential election is "foremost about the United States Supreme Court," the president of the National Right to Life Committee said at the group's annual convention Thursday.

"It's not the economy, stupid," said Dr. Wanda Franz, referencing President Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign slogan. "No, for us, it's the Supreme Court."

Sen. Mitch McConnell, whose strident opposition to campaign finance reform legislation helped move the McCain-Feingold bill before the Supreme Court, praised Thursday's court ruling striking down a provision that benefits the opponents of wealthy political candidates.

John McCain welcomed a Supreme Court decision invalidating a District of Columbia handgun ban. Barack Obama sought to straddle the subject by saying he favors an individual's right to bear firearms as well as a government's right to regulate them.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, has struck down the District of Columbia's handgun ban.

The ruling says Americans have the individual right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the Associated Press reported. It is the high court's first definitive Second Amendment ruling in U.S. history.

Some reaction to the Supreme Court's ruling Thursday that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting:

The Supreme Court on Wednesday outlawed executions of people convicted of raping a child.

Does the District of Columbia's ban on handgun ownership violate the Constitutional right to "keep and bear arms"? The U.S. Supreme Court will issue its ruling tomorrow.