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HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Happy New Year to everyone on our blog! We rang in 2025 at home in Virginia. The kids went to parties after dinner with us this year, so it was just Leslie and me. That was appropriate since New Year’s Eve is also our wedding anniversary. Twenty-seven years ago, Leslie and I eloped in Old Town Alexandria. (We used my high school ring for the wedding ring.)

There is, however, a lingering legal dispute that continues to dog our celebrations. I count this anniversary as our 35th, while Leslie insists on counting this year as our 27th anniversary.  (She takes a purely contractual approach that we must go by the marriage license while I insist on credit for eight years of our dating as constructive monogamy).  We toasted our anniversary and the New Year (as we did 26 years ago and every year since) with a bottle of Schramsburg Cremant.

On New Year’s Day,  we will follow tradition and make the Bowl of the Wife of Kit Carson Soup. My father, Jack Turley, first introduced the soup to our family in Chicago, which is a Mexican turkey soup. (He claimed that the spicy soup was the cure for any hangover).  We have made the soup every year for over 50 years. I smoked a turkey that will go into the soup today.

I will be giving the summary of our year on the blog later, but I wanted to wish everyone a safe and joyous New Year in 2025. It has been another great year with our rapidly expanding community. I cannot thank you enough for contributing to our daily dialogue on issues great and small in our society.

This year will get off to a fast start with a new administration and sweeping changes promised in the election. It will undoubtedly be intense, and there will be a return to the rage that has characterized much of our politics. Many in politics and the press will be fueling that rage. We should all resolve not to be played for chumps and allow others to manipulate our feelings toward those around us. On this blog and in our lives, we can commit to civility and respect despite what will be legitimate and passionate disagreements.

Happy New Year to everyone on our blog.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”

79 thoughts on “HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!”

  1. @Anonymous Democrat Apparatchik “ We should all resolve not to be played for chumps” When is that Biden impeachment happening?

    FBI Identifies ISIS Terrorist Who Carried Out New Orleans Terrorist Attack: 10 Dead, Dozens Wounded
    https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/01/01/New-Orleans-dead-injured-New-Years/6531735737631/

    Oh! You want a news update instead of New Years greetings! Okay, give us one:

    Will Biden only stop supporting Iranian and Arab Hajji terrorism that murders Americans only when The Oval Office House Plant Formerly Known As President Biden eventually leaves office?

    Maybe if you cowardly Anonymous Democrat Apparatchiks had removed The Big Guy, Bribery Biden yourselves, there wouldn’t be those American dead in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and New Orleans today from the last four years.

    Do you have any further words of wisdom to pass on from Obama’s Third Term, as we woke up today to learn that one of the hidden followers’ of Iran’s Mad Mullahs and Obama/Biden/Clinton’s ISIS just murdered 10 people New Year’s Day?

    Other than “Happy New Year from Biden’s Oval Office and his protected classes of Iran/Hamas/Hezbollah/ISIS terrorism”????

    We have now gotten the message from The Big Guy’s favorite and protected Arab terrorists. Would you care to add to their message?

    Or are you too busy helping Biden’s young followers from the New Hitler Youth Movement celebrating yet another hajji terror attack? This time The Great Satan, instead of The Little Satan?

    This is why you impotent cowards will only post as ‘Anonymous’ before running back to share Dennis McIntyres fetid little hidey-hole?

    Old Airborne Dog

      1. Does your probation officer know you’re using your Mom’s internet as “Anonymous”?

        You’re lucky that a pedophile like you isn’t rotting in the brig for the rest of your life!

  2. (She takes a purely contractual approach that we must go by the marriage license while I insist on credit for eight years of our dating as constructive monogamy).

    Happy Anniversary. I had a discussion yesterday with an Orthodox Priest. Priests can get married in the Orthodox Church. He was telling me about his spouse, that marriage can be difficult but it is worth it as long as you realize it is about compromise. I told him what I was taught decades ago by a Jesuit: “to marry is to be wedded to your cross, a person who will make you holy”. The Orthodox Priest busted out laughing and I said, “true, no?” . He said, “definitely true”. Cede to Leslie, Jonathan. She, a Jew, is making you, a Catholic, holy. Win win!

    We toasted our anniversary and the New Year (as we did 26 years ago and every year since) with a bottle of Schramsburg Cremant.

    For years I’ve been a champagne snob and grabbed a bottle of Veuve Clicquot for New Year’s Eve. Costco usually has reasonable prices for the widow, but yesterday at my local Costco, there appeared a pack of customers plucking bottles of champagne from an end cap in the alcohol section. Curious to see the cause of the frenzy, I approached the end cap and there it was: Kirkland Signature Champagne Brut
     for 20 bucks. Costco wine has always been pretty decent, so I took a chance and ditched the widow and took home a Kirkland brut. We liked it so much last night for toasting the new year, that we used leftovers with orange juice to make fabulous mimosas.

    🎶¡Feliz Año Nuevo! 🎶

    1. * oh, btw professor Turley., your wife is correct. Vows, promises, oaths spoken 26 years ago. ☺

  7. To echo the words of Professor Turley: “We should all resolve not to be played for chumps and allow others to manipulate our feelings toward those around us.”

    1. Totally agree with this post, agreeing with Dr Turley’s call to exhibiting respect toward our fellow citizens, and always expressing ourselves in a civil manner, even if we do not agree.

  8. Happy New Year to the Turley family and all on this blog!

    Professor Turley, congratulations on your anniversary, but, as a law professor, you should know that it is a matter of interpretation and definition, here, such that you are both correct: 35th as a committed couple, 27th as “lawfully wedded man and wife.” But your high school ring? Did you see Moonstruck?

    Could you share the soup recipe?

    Yes, let us resolve to appreciate free speech as a legal matter, without letting it be an ongoing excuse for rage; not disagreement, even anger, but reflexive, often childish, name-calling, rage. One of the best lessons I learned in law school was that law is the baseline we owe each other: just because it’s “legal” does not make it “OK.” And things said and written in rage tell more of the speaker or writer than of his or her target.

  11. Happy new year, and thank you for your voice of reason and civility in this age of rage.

  12. TY, PROF. TURLEY… SAME TO YOU.. WITH GREAT APPRECIATION.. WISHING YOU A BLESSED 2025.. AND.. EVEN MORE BRILLIANCE TO FLOW FROM YOUR PEN.. MORE HEALTH & HAPPINESS TO YOU, YOUR WIFE & FAMILY.. HAPPY NY & ANNIVERSARY!!

  13. If the two of you were living together during the 8 year period in dispute, then I think you were married by “common law”. Then, if you always lived together until the statutorily defined marriage began, then I think you have the better argument.

    If you lived separately during the 8 year period, or there was a break between your common law marriage and your state certified one, then you lose.

    I’ll bill you later for this legal advise.

    Somebody has to eat Mexican Turkey Soup on New Year’s Day. Better you than me.

    1. Regardless, people who co-habitate for 27 or 35 years are special. Like those birds who mate for life.

      *no charge, yw.

    2. * only possible for common law if finances are mixed and limited to the time period as no promises nor vows were spoken and without a written contract of any kind. Commerce

  14. Happy New Year Professor! Thanks for teaching all of us about the law. Blessings and protection to your family in the Mighty Name of Jesus.

  15. 27 vs 35 the type of whimsical discourse that makes it to SCOTUS these days. Just kidding, Happy Anniversary Jonathan and Leslie!

  16. The “Graduation ring” is the true wedding ring. Symbolic of a lifetime together that no man can put asunder.
    May you and your family have a prosperous and Happy New Year!

    1. Yes. Keep your powder dry. And if the bluebird of happiness lands on your shoulder, don’t tell the Fates. 🐦

  19. A happy new year to you as well professor! And congratulations on your wedding anniversary!

  20. Thank you, Professor, for always regaling us with stories of the rich heritage of Turley traditions, lessons and lore, here on the most-prized blog in the universe.
    Wishing you and all a Happy and Hope-filled 2025………
    Let the games begin!

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