In a major victory for the first amendment, the Supreme Court ruled that a California law regulating the sale of violent video games is unconstitutional. It was a strong 7-2 vote with only Justice Clarence Thomas and and Stepen Breyer dissenting — an odd couple to be sure from both ends of the ideological spectrum. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion.
Continue reading “Supreme Court Upholds Free Speech in the Violent Video Game Case”
It appears that same-sex marriage is being groomed for a major issue in this election. With Jay Carney insisting that President Obama remains clear that his views are unclear, Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann stepped forward this weekend to put the issue front and center in their campaigns. Gingrich this weekend announced that he will lead the fight against same-sex marriage to stop the nation from “drifting toward a terrible muddle.” He said that he would be looking for ways to “defend that view as legitimately and effectively as possible.”
Continue reading “Gingrich and Bachmann Call For Campaign Against Same-Sex Marriage”
Attorney Brian Kammer has called for the suspension of further lethal injections in Georgia after he said the execution of his client, Roy Blankenship, was botched with the use of an untested animal tranquilizer.
Continue reading “Attorney Calls For Cessation Of Lethal Injection After Use of Animal Tranquilizer Allegedly Lead To Botched Execution”
We have been following the intra-court war on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the recent narrow victory of conservative Justice David Prosser in his reelection. The prior controversy involved Prosser calling Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson a “total bitch.” Now, fellow justice Ann Walsh Bradley has accused Prosser of putting her in a chokehold during a dispute. Prosser denies the allegation.
North Carolina prosecutor Eric Bellas, 45, has been placed on administrative leave and removed from the high-profile murder case of Zahra Baker following his arrest this month. What is strange is the charge: drunken bicycling. I do not wish to make light of drunken bicycling, but is it really such a crime that warrants removal from a murder case?
Continue reading “North Carolina Prosecutor Removed From High-Profile Murder Case After Being Arrested For Drunken Bicycling”
When an eleven-year-old boy was hit by her car, driver Brittany Gonzales, 21, reportedly did not just drive on like she didn’t care. According to witnesses, Gonzales stopped and got out of her car. Unfortunately, she simply retrieved her hubcap and proceeded to drive away — leaving the boy in the road.
Continue reading “Colorado Woman Allegedly Hits Boy on Bike, Stops Car To Retrieve Hub Cap, Leaves Boy In Road”
Yesterday, we took the kids with some friends for one of our favorite hikes along the river on the “Billy Goat Trail.” This is the sign we encountered at the start of the hike. Does this mean some bilingual citizens are counted twice by the National Park Service since they drown in two languages?
Continue reading “Bilingual Victims Count Twice?”
While TSA has finally given into complaints about its staff groping children, it appears undeterred with geriatrics. A family was horrified last week when TSA subjected Lena Reppert, 95, to a 45 minute search and forced her to remove her adult diaper. Reppert is in the late-stages of leukemia and was traveling to her native Michigan to say goodbye.
Continue reading “TSA Searches Dying 95-Year-Old Woman For 45 Minutes and Reportedly Forces Her To Remove Adult Diaper”
Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
I’ve lived in the Boston area all my life. I, therefore, have read a lot of news stories about the Bulger brothers—Billy, a once powerful politician, and Whitey, the
fugitive mobster who had been “evading” capture by the FBI since 1995. Both my husband and I were astonished when we heard the news that Whitey Bulger had finally been arrested by the FBI in Santa Monica, California, a few days ago. We have doubted for a long time that the FBI seriously wanted to find Whitey. After all, agents at the Bureau had once looked the other way when the mob boss committed serious crimes–including murder–while he was serving as an informant for them.
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Do illegal immigrants have a Second Amendment right to own guns? In the case of United States v. Portillo-Munoz, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that illegal immigrants are not part of the “people” protected by the Second Amendment and have no constitutional right to bear arms.
Continue reading “Illegal Immigrants and the Bill of Rights”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
A little over a month ago, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal (left) signed HB 87, an Arizona-like immigration law. The law was designed to drive illegal immigrants out of Georgia, and now state officials are shocked feigning shock that it worked.
The resulting labor shortage has meant that millions of dollars of unharvested blueberries, onions, and other crops will be left rotting in the fields. Since many farmers live harvest-to-harvest, the loss of one crop could mean the loss of their farm.
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
We have previously discussed the case of Geert Wilders, here, who was accused of inciting hatred with his anti-Islamic diatribes. In an unusual move, the prosecution team had asked for an acquittal. Wilders has advocated outlawing the Koran in the Netherlands, like Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. He also referred to Mohammed as “the devil.”
Wilder’s right of free expression has been upheld, the same right of free expression he wants to deny to Muslims.
Continue reading “Amsterdam Court Acquits Geert Wilders of Hate Speech”
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
The bedrock of modern Western jurisprudence is the supposition that we are free to choose our actions from a range of choices. Some of these choices are socially acceptable and we deem them “legal.” Other choices made in specified contexts are socially unacceptable, and we deem these “illegal.” For those extremely unacceptable actions denominated as “crimes” we reserve progressive punishments to deter their occurrence. Gratuitous violence is one of the most important of these condemned actions, and we have striven for centuries to overcome this endemic feature of our nature. The basic assumption being that we can deter conduct that is the product of free will by imposing undesirable consequences on the actor. How have we done? I suppose the obvious answer is that despite a multitude of approaches ranging from severe punishment to compassionate rehabilitation, we haven’t yet mastered a way to banish senseless violence from our midst. Perhaps it is time to question that basic assumption that violence is purely volitional conduct.
Continue reading “When “Gage Is Not Gage”: Neuroscience And The Law’s Assumption of Free Will”
For years, many of us have been noting that the United States continues to violate international law and the sovereignty of foreign nations in some of our military assaults on terror targets. We have often asked how we would respond to countries like Mexico sending military personnel into our territory. Well, it happened this week when three military trucks loaded with Mexican soldiers crossed the border at Bridge Number Two into the U.S.
Continue reading “Mexican Invasion! United States Objects To Mexican Troops Briefly Entering U.S.”
We have been following the case of self-help guru James Ray, who was criminally charged in the deaths of three people in his Arizona sweat lodge. He has now been found guilty of negligent homicide, though he was acquitted on the manslaughter charge. Once again, I believe the verdict shows the wisdom of the jury system. The jurors reached a fair result given these facts.
Continue reading “Self-Help Guru James Ray Convicted in Sweat Lodge Deaths”