Word: legalism
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...statement announcing his reversal, President Obama stressed the reconfigured commissions will increase legal protections for defendants, such as barring information obtained through brutal interrogations and limiting the use of hearsay evidence. "This is the best way to protect our country, while upholding our deeply held values," Obama said on May 15. Many Republicans and some Democrats applauded the move, insisting that some terror suspects are simply too dangerous to be tried in open court with the full protections afforded American citizens. "I give them great credit for coming to their senses," said David Rivkin, a former Reagan administration lawyer...
Defendants are offered fewer legal protections in military commissions than civilian courts, such as the right to public proceedings and a trial by jury. Military officers serve as judges and jurors (in cases that call for a jury) and the right to an appeal is not guaranteed. Unlike courts martial, which are mainly concerned with violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice by U.S. servicemembers, modern military commissions are generally intended to try foreign combatants accused of violating the laws of war. As it is with many war powers, the Constitution is vague about the scope of military commissions...
...happened. In 1995, when Gallup started asking the question, the split was 56-33 in favor of abortion rights. Now the lines have crossed, and 51% call themselves pro-life while only 42% say they are pro-choice. It's a shift that stretches past personal convictions and into legal constraints. For 35 years, a majority of Americans have wanted abortion to be, essentially, legal with limits. But the movement toward greater restraint is clear. In the mid-'90s, when pro-choice forces were especially dominant, only 12% believed abortion was always wrong; now that number has nearly doubled...
...expected; when fewer people call themselves Republican, the party condenses into a pool of true believers. It's the people in the middle who are constantly weighing which restrictions are reasonable. A new Pew poll finds that while a majority of independents said abortion should be legal in most cases as recently as October, just 44% do so now. This may inspire some introspection on the part of political operatives in both parties who attribute the Republicans' present frailty to its orthodoxy on social issues. The GOP may have fielded some hapless messengers, but their message, on abortion at least...
...think the numbers, inadequate and simplified though they may be, reflect deeper changes - some generational, some legal, some technological. People under 30 are more opposed to abortion than those who are older, perhaps because their first baby pictures were often taken in utero. I also wonder if younger women are now sure enough of their sexual autonomy and their choices generally that they don't view limits on abortion as attacks on their overall freedom. The calculation of rights subtly shifts, and the fetus, as it develops, asserts its claim on the conscience...