On Sunday Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, the prime minister of Iceland and the world’s first openly gay head of government, the first day that the country’s new law legalizing same-sex marriage went into effect. She wed her longtime partner, the writer Jónína Leósdóttir, with whom she had been in a domestic partnership registry since 2002. The law had passed on June 11 in the legislature without a single vote cast in opposition.

Britannica’s article on same-sex marriage provides background on the cultural ideals of marriage and sexual partnership, religious and secular expectations of marriage and sexuality, and same-sex marriage and the law.

A new survey from Findlaw.com has revealed that only 35% of Americans can name a single U.S. Supreme Court justice.

The question is, who cares? If most Americans know more about the winners of American Idol than the nine justices who make decisions that will affect their lives for decades to come, does it really make a difference in the life of the body politic?

To quote Sarah Palin, “You betcha’.”

My daily newspaper yesterday carried a story about a decision by our state legislators not to extend the ban on texting while driving to drivers over the age of 21.

Texting while driving was banned for the younger set last August, and our solons evidently felt that this had taken care of the problem. The theory would be, I suppose, that by the age of 22 people have matured sufficiently to know that they shouldn’t be doing anything in the car that would distract them from the very serious business of controlling a ton or so of steel moving at high speed among other moving objects, some of which are people.

In America we hold this truth to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

But then we can hardly be expected to ignore another self-evident truth, that some folks are a little different from most of us. And if they look different, then in that respect they aren’t exactly equal, are they?

So we have some wiggle room, a little ground for an argument over just how equal we have to hold them.

Who is Elena Kagan?

Click here.

Kermit Roosevelt III, great-great grandson of Theodore Roosevelt and author of Britannica’s recently published entries on judicial activism and judicial restraint, is a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania, and author of The Myth of Judicial Activism: Making Sense of Supreme Court Decisions (Yale University, 2006).

He’s kindly agreed, on the occasion of a looming confirmation battle over President Barack Obama’s choice to replace Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, to answer a few questions for us.

“Last week by voice vote, the Senate unanimously approved a measure to reduce the infamous 100-1 disparity in federal mandatory minimum prison sentences for possession of crack versus powder cocaine. The new, improved disparity would be 18-1.” So writes Debra Saunders at Townhall.com.

Saunders is write. There is nothing logical or sensible about the huge sentence disparity, it’s nonsensical hysteria that is part of an insane War on Drugs.

Keep in mind that crack cocaine is made by adding baking soda to powder cocaine, so that’s a lot of extra jail time for a little Arm and Hammer.

Michigan’s second petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to order the temporary closure of the rivers and canals connecting the Illinois River to the Great Lakes was denied yesterday.

Michigan, along with other Great Lakes’ states and Canadian provinces, believe that the closure of key locks will keep the Asian carp, specifically the silver carp and bighead carp, from entering the Great Lakes.

Click here for background on the story.

Judges, prosecutors, defendants, window cleaners, engine drivers, and fake French cardinals — a weird assortment of “professions” are covered in this week’s sketch from the ever unpredictable Monty Python.

Each Saturday we highlight a humorous and sometimes poignant video, interview, comic, or skit concerning different “careers,” past and present. From W.C. Fields to Rowan Atkinson, from classic films and commercials to Monty Python—all and everything will be tapped for this look each week at various professions and pastimes (loosely defined).

Click here for all of the videos and careers highlighted to date and click below for a larger viewing screen.

There is a widespread, if somewhat vague, notion abroad that in recent decades there has been an explosion of court cases seeking – and too often winning – exorbitant amounts of money from defendants with what have become known as “deep pockets.”

We all recall the lady who spilled hot coffee on herself while driving; we rather despise her for attempting to turn her own carelessness into a windfall at someone else’s expense, and we perhaps secretly wish that we’d had that accident and that windfall ourselves.