Clarence Thomas visits an old theme: Affirmative action is bad.

There’s one undeniable fact about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas: He’s consistent. On Tuesday, speaking before an audience of Black-college presidents, the ultra-conservative justice, who was appointed by President G. H. Bush following the death of Thurgood Marshall, hammered home one of his favorite themes – that affirmative action is unconstitutional. Read more of what he said at BET.com/News. Nation’s top educator is canned in Miami. Rudy Crew, who just seven short months ago was lauded as the No. 1 school superintendent in America, was canned amid charges that his action within Miami-Dade County schools didn’t quite match the rhetoric. Find out more at BET.com/News.

 Accused murdered doesn’t seem crazy, judge says

Attorneys for Brian Nichols, the 36-year-old Atlanta man accused of killing his judge, a court reporter and two law-enforcement officials during a daring courthouse escape three years ago, does seem as insane as he wants everybody to believe, the presiding judge said Tuesday. Superior Court Judge James Bodiford did not hear expert psychiatric testimony, but he said he also hasn’t heard anything that would lead him to accept Nichols’ claims that his diminished mental state is the reason for his testimony. Nichols had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The fact that defense witness Vincent Velazquez, an Atlanta Police detective, testified that Nichols was not only coherent but clear and articulate following the alleged murders helped undermine the insanity argument “that Nichols had suffered from a delusional compulsion at the time of the killings,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. “He was very up front and very detailed and meticulous in telling me what happened,” Velazquez said. “It was one of the easiest interviews I’ve ever done.” 

Anti-affirmative action measure dies in its tracks. Advocates of an Arizona initiative aimed at doing away with affirmative action programs have finally given up the fight – at least for now. Last week, the head of the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative – which critics say is deceptively labeled – told the East Valley Tribune that Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Edward Burke gave supporters until this week to prove that a major chunk of the signatures they had accumulated to force a ballot initiative were not bogus. Max McPhail had claimed that he had garnered more than enough signatures from registered voters, and that Proposition 104 had earned a rightful spot on the November ballot. He apparently no longer thinks so. “Because of the upcoming primary, Maricopa County said we could have only two computers to check 4,000 signatures,” he said. “It takes about six minutes to check each signature. It’s not humanly possible to check all the remaining signatures (the county declared invalid) to present on Tuesday.” But the fight isn’t completely over, McPhail says. He says that a new ballot initiative will be introduced in the 2010 election. If passed, the measure would prohibit the consideration of race or gender in any state hirings or college admissions. However, state Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Phoenix) says the initiative won’t pass now or ever because she’ll work to expose it for the divisive program it is. “When they understand it’s going to eliminate programs that help, for instance, young Latina women prepare for college, like the Mother-Daughter Hispanic Program, they don’t want to eliminate those programs,” she said.

Like the recent N.Y. case, Edith Rodriguez was ignored as she yelled in pain on the floor
Prosecutors in Los Angeles will not lodge criminal charges against workers at a predominantly Black hospital where a woman died screaming in pain as staff ignored her, The Associated Press reported. City officials said in a report released Tuesday that there was too little evidence to charge a nurse and other staff at the former Martin Luther King, Jr.-Drew Medical Center in the death of Edith Isabel Rodriguez, a 43-year-old mother of three, according to AP. Rodriguez died of a ruptured bowel on May 9, 2007. Los Angeles Police took her to the emergency room after finding her yelling for help in front of the hospital. She had been released from the emergency room just three hours before, given a prescription and told to see a doctor. Upon her return visit, a nurse told her, “…[T]here’s nothing we can do.” Rodriguez fell on the floor and writhed in pain for 45 minutes as hospital workers toiled at their desks and patients looked on. The case is eerily similar to a June 19 case at the Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, where 49-year-old Esmin Green died after falling to the floor and remaining there for about an hour as staff ignored her. In that case, Green’s family filed a $25 million lawsuit this week.

Famed death-row inmate wants another trial

Mumia Abu-Jamal, the journalist and former Black Panther member who is in prison for killing a Philadelphia police officer 27 years ago, is asking for a new trial. His attorneys argue that the federal appeals court that denied him a new trial in the killing of Officer Daniel Faulkner should have pondered the question of whether prosecutors deliberately denied Blacks the right to serve on the jury, which violates a later Supreme Court ruling. Robert R. Bryan, who represents Abu-Jamal, and Widener University law Professor Judith Ritter, asked the three-judge panel and the full Third Circuit court to review the case again. Convicted in 1982, the 54-year-old Abu-Jamal gained legendary status while on Pennsylvania’s death row. He is the author of several books, and his taped commentaries are aired on radio shows nationwide. He has maintained his innocence from the beginning.

Affirmative action haters want the program banned
Despite recent failures to get anti-affirmative action measures on ballots in Missouri and Oklahoma, supporters of such initiatives say they’ll reap success in Nebraska and Arizona this time around. They contend that they’ve gathered the necessary signatures, unlike in Missouri and Oklahoma. But opponents of efforts to ban affirmative action aren’t sitting still while the program they say is a needed to ensure equal opportunity for qualified minorities is held back by race. They are going after Arizona signature-gatherers in a lawsuit, alleging that they are using deceptive means to trick supporters of affirmative action into signing their petitions. They point to the name of the anti-affirmative action measure as an example – the American Civil Rights Initiative. Petitioners traditionally tell unsuspecting individuals that they are trying to ensure equal opportunity in hiring, knowing full well that potential signers will be duped into believing that they helping ensure the survival of affirmative action, critics contend. “There’s a significant difference between submitted signatures and valid signatures,” David Kramer, head of Nebraskans United, which opposes the measure, told The Associated Press. “We’ll wait to see the outcome of that process before litigation.” If the anti-affirmative action forces are successful, a constitutional amendment would make it illegal for public entities to give preferential treatment on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.