In my email correspondence with former Justice Sandra Day OConnor, the

first woman to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, I asked her about an issue I
once editorialized about in this newsletter: lowering the voting age (for a
throwback to The Daily Rundown the Wake Ups original name, for newer
subscribers and badly written editorials, I am half-embarrassed to link the



Since 2011
Gabe Fleisher, Editor-in-Chief
wakeuptopolitics@gmail.com wakeuptopolitics.com @WakeUp2Politics
THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL

Excerpt from
exclusive interview with former Supreme
Court Justice Sandra Day OConnor
January 3, 2012 Iowa caucuses edition including my voting age editorial.
OConnors thoughts and my own from the age of 10 touch on similar
points. ) The following is what Justice OConnor had to say on the issue, a
never-before-published quote not included in my feature on my interview
with her from two weeks ago:
I think it is an intriguing idea. As you probably know, some have argued
that giving people the right to vote at eighteen years of age is bad timing
because they havent typically been trained on how to vote or why it matters,
and it might not be the most pressing things on their minds. Of course,
maybe if they were trained how to be a citizen at an earlier age, it is possible
that timing might be less of a concern.
Regardless, it is important to remember that theres no excuse for not
actively engaging in civic life. Being a citizen doesnt start at the voting age.
While voting is a hallmark of our democracy, and one of our most important
and precious civil rights and duties, there is much more to civic engagement
than voting.
There is nothing stopping a 13-year-old from presenting to the city council
on matters that concern him, or a 10-year-old from proposing changes to a
school board. Nothing that is, except the skills, attitudes, and knowledge
required to do so. The possibilities for engagement are pretty endless for
citizens of all ages, which is truly awesome, isnt it?
I would encourage all parents and schools to equip every child in their
home or at their school with the knowledge to navigate the process of
solving problems in their community. That knowledge should be as much a
part of the curriculum as language arts, math, or science (in fact, the more
you learn about civics the more you realize how intimately related these
topics can be). Voting will come naturally after that, I assure you.
- Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day OConnor to
Wake Up To Politics Editor-in-Chief Gabe Fleisher on lowering
the voting age



White House Watch

The Presidents Schedule Today, President Obama will have one-on-one
meetings with two of his Cabinet secretaries.
He will sit down with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack at 11:30, and with
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew at 2:30.

Capitol Hill News

Congress Returns The U.S. Congress returns from summer recess today,
facing the midterm election less than two months away, a looming
government shutdown deadline, and many hot issues on the table.
Both the House and Senate have been away from town since August 4
more than a month ago, and well before the debut of Wake Up To Politics,
Volume 4 (I was still at camp in Bemidji, Minnesota at the time).
Now both chambers of Congress are back, but dont expect a lot to be done
just because theyve returned. The Senate is expecting to leave once again
on September 23, and the House on September 19 these dates would be
their last days in session before Election Day in November.
That means until then, both parties will be racing to set up the midterms,
putting up political bills to force the hand of the other party. For Senate
Democrats, this means a campaign finance constitutional amendment,
minimum wage, student loans, and gender pay gap proposals. On the House
Republican side, this means an attempt to pass job and energy measures.
None of those proposals will get a vote in the other chamber, but it still gives
both parties a chance to brand the other as obstructionists, and [bad for
women] OR [bad for middle class] OR [playing politics instead of fixing
problems] OR [not creating jobs]
As the next spending deadline looms on September 30, both parties will
have to put aside election-year politics and get to work.
Since this is apparently throwback day at Wake Up To Politics, I am also
posting another one of my old editorials: the one on congressional recesses,
kicking off Volume 4 last year, my first year in middle school and without
recess.
Senate: Status Today, the Senate will vote on Jill Pryors nomination to be
a U.S. circuit judge for the 11
th
circuit, as well as on three nominations to the
Social Security Advisory Board.
The big, shiny vote today will be a roll call to invoke cloture on the motion
to proceed to a considering of a constitutional amendment on campaign
finance, allowing Congress and the states to set limits on the
raising/spending money of candidates and others to influence elections. It
also gives Congress power to distinguish between natural person and
corporations or other artificial entities created by law, including by
prohibiting such entities from spending money to influence elections.
House: Status Bills before the House today include: renaming post offices;
renaming the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Memorial to the
Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial; improve
Energy Department computer research; strengthening the tsunami detection,
forecast, warning, research, and mitigation program at the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration; and authorizing a memorial in
Washington, D.C. to the 5,000 black slaves and free persons who fought for
American independence in the Revolutionary War.

Headline
Court Arguments on Same-Sex Marriage in Three
States

Three judges on the 9
th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hear arguments today
on same-sex marriage bans in three states: Idaho, Nevada, and Hawaii.
All three of the 9
th
Circuit judges were appointed by Democrats, and one
was the same judge who wrote the opinion overturning Proposition 8, a ban
on gay marriage in California which the court declared unconstitutional. The
courts allowing same-sex marriage in California went all the way to the
Supreme Court.
Now, in a very different political/legal climate than the Proposition 8 case,
the same court returns to the issue of same-sex marriage, and will decide
whether to approve or deny gay marriages in three more states.

Question of the Day

Todays Question Today in 1974, after serving in office less than a month,
President Gerald Ford addresses the nation to announce the pardon of his
predecessor Richard Nixon for any crimes.
Just a month before, Nixon had resigned over the Watergate scandal, causing
then-Vice President Ford to ascend to the Presidency. Although it probably
cost Ford his political career at the time, 40 years later, it is viewed as a
noble, courageous, and justified action by one President to another (the only
such pardon in U.S. history) to take eyes away from a distracting and messy
court case, and likely eventual conviction, of a former Commander-in-Chief.
After leaving the White House by way of re-election defeat, former
President Ford gave himself justification for the pardon by carrying the text
of a Supreme Court decision in his wallet, stating a pardon indicated a
presumption of guilt, and that acceptance of a pardon was tantamount to a
confession of that guilt. This meant that, in accepting the pardon, Nixon
was admitting he was guilty, not that he was innocent. What was the year
and name of that Supreme Court case?