News & Commentary

It's been a long time since Edward Snowden revealed to the world the extent of electronic surveillance by the National Security Agency -- so long, in fact, that a movie, CitizenFour, has just been released detailing how and why Snowden did what he did. Congress is not a promising nominee for an award bestowed for quick redress of violations of Americans' basic rights. It has a chance to get in the running, though, for such an award (if not for "quick redress," then at least for "redress") if it takes up and passes the USA Freedom Act during the lame duck session now underway in Washington.

Since 1999, seven Vermont police agencies have applied to the federal Department of Defense's used military equipment giveaway program to obtain sniper rifles. The St. Johnsbury PD asked for a pair to watch over the town of 7,000. The Orange County sheriff's department also asked for two (the county's population is 29,000, which raises the question of what goes on in St. J. that doesn't go on in Orange County). And the PD in the Chittenden County suburb of Shelburne similarly asked for a pair. Shelburne is the image of peacefulness, with few or no known outbreaks of long-range combat (although the town does have, according to its application, approximately "4,000 tourists in during the season not counting camp residents"). The Lamoille County sheriff's department asked for two sniper rifles, and Brattleboro did, too -- along with 15 M-16 automatic assault rifles.

The Supreme Court of the United States has denied review in all of the marriage equality cases pending before it. As a result of the court's action, same-sex couples in Virginia, Wisconsin, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Utah will now be able to marry the partners they love. Today's orders also mean that same-sex marriage will soon become lawful in at least 30 states.

Vermont's federal trial court has ruled in favor of a Rutland County parent who was barred from school board meetings, concluding that the ban violated his rights to free speech and due process.

The ACLU of Vermont has filed suit on behalf of a motorist who was stopped and had his car seized, leaving him stranded on the side of the road eight miles from his home in Rutland, because a state trooper said he smelled marijuana but otherwise had no evidence of a crime. At issue is not just an illegal traffic stop but whether police can continue to use a "sniff test" as evidence of a drug crime when possessing small quantities of the drug (marijuana) is no longer a crime.

Constitution Day is this week. It was on Sept. 17 in 1787 that the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia wrapped up their work and put their signatures to the document they had been working on for four months. In 2004 Congress officially designated Sept. 17 as Constitution Day, a day to celebrate the federal form of government established in that document and the individual rights attached to it in the Bill of Rights, added in 1791 as the first 10 amendments. But there's a second constitution we should celebrate, too, and that's the Vermont Constitution. The cause for celebration is not just because it's our own state's constitution but because in some cases, the Vermont Constitution provides better protection of personal rights than the U.S. Constitution.

This afternoon, Sen. Patrick Leahy introduced a bill aimed at regaining control over the NSA's dragnet of America. It's a good start to fixing the immense problem.

On June 30th, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby that closely held corporations with religious objections to the Affordable Care Act may refuse to provide certain reproductive health care to employees. We've been asked: could a business opt out of a Vermont law in the same way?

Last week, the Vermont Supreme Court confirmed that police may not warrantlessly take DNA from everyone arraigned for a felony. That's great news for the Vermont Constitution.