We previously discussed the rather shocking treatment Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner gave an ACLU lawyer over the right of citizens to videotape police in public. As discussed in prior columns and blogs, police across the country have been arresting citizens who film them — a clear abuse of their rights and an effort to prevent citizens from creating incriminating videotapes increasingly used against police. The Seventh Circuit has now barred the use of the law to prosecute citizens for videotaping. Posner dissented and showed, again, a dismissive view of the rights of the citizens vis-a-vis police. The court majority slams State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez for her extreme views expressed in the case and effort to strip videotaping of constitutional protections.
Year: 2012
President Obama faced his toughest competitor in West Virginia this week and barely came out ahead. Mitt Romney? Guess again. Keith Judd won 10 counties in West Virginia and 41 percent of the vote against Obama. He was not on hand, however, for interviews because Judd is Federal Inmate No. 11593-051 and was sitting in his prison cell for the duration of the campaign.
Continue reading “Meet Keith Judd: The Man Who Almost Beat Obama In West Virginia”
After years of “evolution,” President Obama today switched his past opposition to same-sex marriage and says that he now supports the right. Obama stated that he only came to this realization after speaking with his family and gay and lesbian associates, but he now personally supports same-sex marriage. He continues to maintain however that the question of same-sex marriage must remain a state issue, which would indicate that he does not view this as a right protected under the Bill of Rights. Obama however has now distinguished himself as the only major candidate in the general election who will not oppose same-sex marriage as a personal matter.
Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., has introduced legislation that would protect service members and chaplains who oppose gay and lesbian service members. The bill raises the long-standing question of status of chaplains as service members as well as members of religious orders.
Reps. Keith Ellison and Raul Grijalva introduced a bill yesterday that would amend the House appropriations bill for Commerce, Justice and Science to add a provision punishing states with “Stand Your Ground” laws — the law at the heart of the trial of George Zimmerman in Florida. While I have been a long critic of both Castle Doctrine laws and “Stand Your Ground” laws, I believe this bill is a mistake and represents an attack on federalism principles.
North Carolina yesterday became the 30th state to ban same-sex marriage. Early results showed the amendment to its Constitution passing overwhelmingly by as much as 61 percent. The popularity of the amendment and key position of North Carolina in the upcoming presidential election appears to have prompted the White House to cancel an event in the state. President Obama cancelled a scheduled trip to North Carolina on the day of the vote. While Obama opposed the amendment last year, this week the White House was ridiculed by the media over the President’s refusal to support gay marriage and his insistence that his views were still “evolving” on the subject. The cancellation was widely viewed as an effort to avoid renewed questions over Obama’s refusal to take a clear stand on the civil rights question.
Continue reading “North Carolina Overwhelmingly Bans Same-Sex Marriage”
No wonder President Obama is so supportive of evolution, he finds it essential to explain both scientific and political developments. Faced with Vice President Joe Biden’s moment of honesty in a weekend interview that he is “comfortable” with same-sex marriage, White House Spokesman Jay Carney appeared to have a brain aneurysm in trying to respond to questions about the President’s position on one of the most fundamental civil rights issues of our generation. Since Biden had clearly “evolved” into supporting same-sex marriage, the reporters wanted to know the status of the President’s long evolution. It appears that Australopithecus evolved faster that President Obama on this civil rights question because Carney kept repeating he is still “evolving” over and over again.
In our trial practice classes, our students are trained on how to move the court for procedural and evidentiary rulings. Next year we should post this picture for students to learn the perfect pleading pose. It came to mind after reading the charges against a public defender Therese Cesar Garza who was accused of yelling at judges who ruled against her on motions and saying “shit” in court.
The Bronx District Attorney has opened an investigation into the actions and statements of Bronx police officers after a video surfaced that contradicts their statements as to the actions of 19-year-old Jateik Reed, who was beaten in the course of an arrest.
In Aurora, Colorado, D’Avonte Meadows, 6-year-old boy at Sable Elementary School was suspended for sexual harassment and disrupting other students. How can a six-year-old boy sexually harass someone? He told a girl “I’m sexy and I know it,” a line from a popular song.
Continue reading “D’Avonte Meadows Is Six, Sexy, and Suspended . . . And He Knows It”
It is the ultimate testament to the life of the academic. You spend ten years in the finest schools gathering your degrees only to find yourself calculating dinosaur farts. British scientists have done exactly that. Estimating the flatulence of sauropods including the gas giant, Brotosaurus. The result is a finding that the Earth’s climate was actually warmed by the huge amount of methane gas produced by dinosaurs. It was also the reason why alien civilizations never invaded our planet.
Cheryl Bormann, counsel for defendant Walid bin Attash, has created a stir over wearing a hijab to the military tribunal and asking other women to cover up out of respect of the Muslim sensibilities for the defendants. I have received a fair number of calls on this from reporters and lawyers due to my past representation of Muslims in national security cases. I believe the display was a professional and tactical mistake and I would not want someone on my team to try to make such an extreme accommodation to a client.
Police in Springfield, Massachusetts are looking for a man caught on camera who attempted to rob and then stabbed a mother outside of a store. I may be a bit judgmental on this one but the video shows the mother saving herself and her purse by running away from the man . . . while leaving her four-year-old daughter with the knife-wielding maniac. I realize that this is a panic situation, but it seems an odd reaction for a parent like a “Sophie’s Choice” without the second kid.
Continue reading “Attack on Mother and Girl Captured on Video in Massachusetts”
There is an interesting challenge to the conviction of John Goodman, the creepy multimillionaire who killed a man in a drunken driving accident. He became even more infamous when he adopted his girlfriend to try to protect his wealth from court-ordered damages. Now, his lawyer is seeking to overturn the conviction after a juror, Dennis DeMartin of Delray Beach, wrote a self-published book detailing his experience in the trial. The book includes DeMartin’s account of how he got drunk on the night before the guilty verdict to see how the alcohol would have affected Goodman.
In the last couple of years, there have been periodic articles about a Chinese industry selling powdered human flesh — usually ground up babies — as a stamina booster. Now, there is a report of South Korean agents seizing drug capsules filled with powdered human flesh. This follows other reports on testing showing endangered animals in various Chinese products, including endangered porpoises. I was unaware however of the allegations of the consumption of human remains. I guess Soylent Green (set in 2022) was just off by ten years.