Sheila Kennedy

In the five years I have served as Executive Director of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, I have gone into countless classrooms throughout the state of Indiana. Generally–despite media coverage that would lead one to believe that we are…
Continue reading “Res Gestae”

Before the American Revolution, British soldiers entered the homes of colonists at will, searching any person or place they wanted and often motivated by nothing more than political animosity. Resentment of this practice was a significant cause of…
Continue reading “Turning the Fourth Amendment Upside Down”

While I am not one of those who believe in a monolithic liberal media, I do wonder whether Joseph Leiberman’s constitutional insensitivities would be so easily dismissed if he were running as a Republican.
Continue reading “The Season for Slogans and Scapegoats”

Congressman Mike Pence is at it again. In comments made during debate over the recent court-stripping bill he sponsored, Pence asserted that "the notion of an independent judiciary is a flawed notion."
Continue reading “Majorities & Rights”

I am always mystified when polls show that most Americans don’t even consider judicial appointments when they vote. They don’t realize that the judiciary can change America profoundly. And they also don?t realize that, despite campaign rhetoric and talk radio sound-bites, the choice is not between "liberal" judges and "conservative" judges. In the world of Rush Limbaugh and Michael Moore, the terms liberal and conservative have become insults; they have lost whatever analytical meaning they ever had, and they definitely don’t help us understand the judicial choices confronting us.
Continue reading “Just One Vote”