Category: National politics

Civil rights attorney Oliver Hill is well known for the role he played in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions that ended the doctrine of Guv,!E”separate but equalGuv,!Vkj and other forms of racial discrimination in the United States. One of the cases in which Hill was a key figure was NAACP v. Button. On its face, Button was a challenge to Virginia statutes defining and punishing attorney malpractice. The impact of the 1963 decision was, however, far greater. NAACP v. Button established the principle that active encouragement of public interest litigation is Guv,!E”speechGuv,!Vkj protected by the First Amendment Guv,!vDjnj a principle that was critical to civil rights litigation.

In February 2000, the Thomas Jefferson Center sponsored a conference at Howard University on the lasting impact of the decision. Prior to the conference, Center director Robert OGuv,!v,,uNeil interviewed Oliver Hill about NAACP v. Button and his involvement in the case. Hill was 93 years old at the time of the interview and his voice was sometimes weak, making it occasionally difficult to hear his comments. His mind was sharp, however, making it worth the effort of concentrating to hear his comments.

In March 2007, ABC News Supreme Court Correspondent Jan Crawford Greenburg delivered the ninth annual lecture of the Henry J. Abraham Distinguished Lectureship Series. Sponsored by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, the series was created and funded by the former students of Professor Abraham to honor his outstanding career as teacher and scholar of constitutional law at the Universities of Pennsylvania and Virginia.G,V Ms. Greenburg spoke on her recently published book, Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court.

Judy Daubenmier is a veteran AP reporter, and a history lectures at the University of Michigan. Her new book is Project Rewire, which takes a look at how journalism in America can be improved by watchdogging from new media. Daubenmier was a consultant on the documentary Outfoxed, and is a contributer to the media monitoring blog Newshounds.

The Rutherford Institute routinely gives out pocket constitutions to help educate Americans on their system of government. John Whitehead joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now to discuss freedoms, and threats to liberty. Topics include the conviction of Scooter Libby, Ann Coulter’s position in the media, and the role of habeas corpus in American history.

Eric Boehlert is a senior fellow at Media Matters, an organization that says it monitors press coverage for Republican bias. He joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now to discuss recent comments made by Ann Coulter about presidential candidate John Edwards, as well as Washington’s reaction to the Scooter Libby conviction.

Morgan Felchner is the editor of Campaign and Elections magazine. She joins WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now with Coy Barefoot to discuss the February issue, which features a look at 2006’s nastiest political ads.

Slate Senior Editor Dahlia Lithwick joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now to discuss a recent article she wrote on the decline of American support for the death penalty – except on the Supreme Court. She also talks about other legal news, including the Anne Nicole Smith case and the Jose Padilla competency hearings.

Larycia Hawkins is a fellow at the Governing America in a Global Era program at U.Va’s Miller Center for Public Affairs. The Chicago Tribune recently published an op-ed she wrote in response to Senator Joe Biden’s controversial remarks about Barack Obama.

On this edition of Charlottesville–Right Now! with Coy Barefoot, Hawkins discusses how much race plays an issue in politics, specifically about Obama’s run for the Democratic Presidential Nomination. Is America ready for a black President? Is that really the issue? Listen to the podcast, and post your thoughts!

John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute makes his first appearance of the year on WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now with Coy Barefoot. Of course, it’s the height of flu season, and Coy wants to know more about Whitehead’s recent article on Tamiflu. Whitehead points to evidence that Tamiflu may not be the wonder drug doctors purport it to be, and says the FDA has not done its job in properly labeling the drug. From his article:

It was thought that the drug, which has been used by over 30 million people worldwide, was causing some of its users to manifest very unusual behavior. For example, during the 2004 and 2005 flu seasons, two teenage boys committed suicide within hours of taking Tamiflu. The 17-year-old jumped in front of a large truck on a busy road after walking outside his house barefoot and in pajamas during a snowstorm. The 14-year-old jumped to his death from the balcony of a ninth-floor flat. Later, a teenage girl was narrowly prevented from jumping to her death from a window within days of starting a course of the flu drug. By November 2005, it had been reported that 12 Japanese children had died while on the drug and that others had experienced hallucinations, encephalitis and other symptoms.

Other topics include issues with the new cervical cancer vaccine, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s connections with the makers of Tamiflu, the rights of non-custodial parents, the legality of giving students psychological tests without their parents’ consent, and the Bush administration’s use of signing statements.

Chris Graham is the editor and publisher of the Augusta Free Press. Graham has recently been reporting on the ideological fights going on within the Republican Party, both in Virginia and on the national stage. Coy Barefoot of WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now spoke with Graham about “The battle for the heart and soul of the GOP.”

CharlottesvilleGuv,!vDjnjRight Now is broadcast live Monday through Friday on NewsRadio 1070 WINA from 4 to 6pm. Best-selling author and historian Coy Barefoot is the host and producer. To participate in the program, you can call 434-977-1070. Coy can be reached at barefoot@wina.com.

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