Month: September 2012

Criminal law, Society, Torts

Foul or Tort? Texans QB Schaub Loses Part of Ear After Late Hit By Broncos

Yesterday, I watched with millions of fans for some great games in the NFL even with the questionable ref calls. I was not able to watch the Bears win unfortunately but I was able to bask in the glory from afar. The Patriots/Ravens games was exceedingly rough with both teams doing everything short of beating each other with folding chairs. However, the shocker came in the Texans/Broncos game where Houston quarterback Matt Schaub lost a bit of his ear to a late hit from Broncos defender Joe Mays. The video below raises a long-standing question of what constitutes a foul and what constitutes a tort in professional football.

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Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Media, Politics, Religion

Egyptian President Demands Criminalization of Anti-Islamic Speech At United Nations

For many years, I have been writing about the threat of an international blasphemy standard and the continuing rollback on free speech in the West. Much of this writing has focused on the effort of the Obama Administration to reach an accommodation with allies like Egypt to develop a standard for criminalizing anti-religious speech.  We have been following the rise of anti-blasphemy laws around the world, including the increase in prosecutions in the West and the support of the Obama Administration for the prosecution of some anti-religious speech under the controversial Brandenburg standard.  Now that effort has come to a head with the new President of Egypt President Mohamed Mursi calling for enactment of an anti-blasphemy law at the United Nations. Mursi is also demanding legal action against the filmmaker by the United States despite the fact that the film is clearly protected by the first amendment.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Free Speech, Media, Politics, Religion

Pakistani Minister Puts Bounty On Head Of Anti-Muslim Filmmaker; Calls On Taliban or Al Qaeda To Collect the $100,000 Reward

Railway Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour has put a $100,000 bounty on the head of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the man who made the anti-Islamic film “The Innocence of Muslims.” The offer to pay anyone who kills the filmmaker is reminscent of the Fatwa placed on the head of Salman Rushdie for his book, The Satanic Verses. However, this is not just a government official but an official in the government of a U.S. ally calling for the murder of a U.S. citizen. Yet, Bilour insisted “I am a Muslim first, then a government representative.”

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Criminal law, Society

Houston Police Officer Shoots and Kills Double Amputee In Wheelchair Armed Only With Pen

Officer Matt Marin shot and killed Brian Claunch, a one-armed, one-legged man in a wheelchair who turned out to only have a pen in his hand. Nevertheless, Police Department spokeswoman Jodi Silva insisted that “fearing for his partner’s safety and his own safety, [Marin] discharged his weapon.”

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Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Free Speech, Justice, Politics, Religion, Supreme Court, Uncategorized

Pastors Take on the IRS

Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger

In light of the ever-increasing influence on National and local politics by churches and clergy, I was interested in the recent news that over 1,000 churches will be challenging the IRS by telling their parishioners who they want them to vote for in the upcoming national elections.  The event is dubbed “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” by its organizers and it is designed to challenge the IRS on its prohibition of churches from intertwining politics and religion, as a requirement of maintaining their tax-free status. Continue reading “Pastors Take on the IRS” →

Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Supreme Court

Is “Innocence of Muslims” Protected Speech?

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

The film “Innocence of Muslims” and the violence in Libya, Egypt, and Yemen, are at the heart of a debate as to whether the film falls within the category of “freedom of speech.” In an Op-ed in the LA Times, Sarah Chayes writes that it’s not “free speech protected under the U.S. Constitution.” In USA Today, Anthea Butler calls for the arrest of the filmmaker and writes that the film denigrates religion and “is not about expressing a personal opinion about Islam.”

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Animals, Bizarre

Two-Headed Pelican?

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

The Daily Mail has published an amazing photograph (click to enlarge) of a two-headed pelican. You don’t see those every day. The Daily Mail even cites the Massachusetts Audubon Society that “animals with abnormalities like that usually do not live very long in the wild.”

What’s even more amazing is, not only does the pelican have two heads, it has four wings.

H/T: Jerry Coyne.

Religion

Iran Cleric Learns The Benefit Of Covering Up

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

In the rural Iranian town of Shahmirzad, Muslim cleric Hojatoleslam Ali Beheshti encountered two girls on his way to the local mosque for noon prayers. The cleric confronted the two girls and admonished one of them to cover herself more completely. “She responded by telling me to cover my eyes, which was very insulting to me,” Beheshti said.

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Justice, Lawyering, Society, Torts

Three Victims Sue Theater At Center of Aurora Colorado Shootings

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Three wounded patrons of the now infamous midnight showing of the latest Batman flick, The Dark Knight Rises, have filed suit against owners of the Aurora 16 movie theater. The negligence suit claims, that despite knowing about the large crowds sure to attend the blockbuster movie premier, movie-house proprietors failed to provide security personnel or door alarm systems that could have prevented the shooter, James Holmes, from unleashing his mayhem.

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Academia, Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Politics, Religion, Society

“Cease and Desist, Brother Twede”: Mormon Blogger Says Church Officials Threatened Excommunication Over Criticism of Romney and the Church

I am still in Utah for a speech and I have spoken to many people here about the current presidential campaign. Many locals here have expressed dismay over the missteps of the Romney campaign. However, David Twede, 47, a scientist and managing editor of the online magazine MormonThink.com, says that his criticism of Mitt Romney has led to his being called to account — and possible excommunication — from the Church of Latter Day Saints. The fifth-generation Mormon says that Church elders demanded names of other Mormons with which he was working on the site. He says he was told “Cease and desist, Brother Twede.” The controversy has now been reported on the Washington Post, Huffington Post and a number of other sites – though primarily as a political story. From a legal standpoint, the case raises a classic conflict between free speech and free exercise that we have discussed in other areas.

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