Category: Academia

Academia, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, International, Media, Politics, Society

Dr. Sami Al-Arian Leaves The United States

unnamedIn the conclusion of ten years of intense litigation, Dr. Sami Al-Arian and his wife Nahla boarded a plane last night and left the United States for Turkey. He arrived in Istanbul a couple hours ago. I was Dr. Al-Arian’s lead criminal defense counsel in Virginia until all charges were eventually dropped by the United States Department of Justice against him. I have received many calls from the media over the last couple of days and I have declined to respond because Dr. Al-Arian was represented by an immigration law team after the criminal proceedings concluded. I wanted to defer to those lawyers in any media comments, as I have since handed over the case last year. Dr. Al-Arian issued the statement below this morning.

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Academia, Bizarre, Society

Bad Wizard: Nine-Year-Old Boy Suspended For “Making Terroristic Threat” . . . With Magic

suspended1n-5-web-450x338200px-Unico_AnelloThe teachers at Kermit Elementary School in West Texas has suspended Aiden Steward, 9, for threatening the safety of a fellow student with magic. That’s right. Aiden told a friend he could turn him invisible like Bilbo Baggins if he put the “one ring” (from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” books) on his head in the Fourth Grade. Before he could carry out his threat, the school suspended him and sent him no doubt to Mordor in the middle earth. There appears a growing consensus: either Aiden is a real wizard or his teachers are real morons.

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Academia, Bizarre, Politics, Science, Society

Choose Life, Live Left? Study Finds That Liberals Outlive Conservatives

President_Barack_ObamaGeorge-W-Bush_jpegFor conservatives, it must sound like “better red than dead” all over again. A new study in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health suggests that liberals live longer than conservatives in the United States. The researchers looked at more than 32,000 adults and tracked them over 15 years. The result was surprising: conservatives seemed to be expiring faster than their counterparts on the left. However, conservatives claimed to be happier than their counterparts in life.

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Academia, Environment, Politics, Religion, Science, Society

New Poll Shows Huge Gap Between The Views of Scientists and The Public Over Basic Questions From Evolution to Genetically Modified Food

Huxley_-_Mans_Place_in_Nature-2-300x179As new study by the respected Pew Research Center shows a striking disconnect between the views of scientists and the public on basic scientific questions. In eight out of thirteen science-oriented issues, there was a 20 percentage point or more difference between the two groups on issues like genetically modified food, global warming, or evolution.

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Academia, Bizarre, Criminal law, Society

New Jersey Teacher Attacked In Classroom After Confiscating Cellphone From Student

250B22D500000578-2925629-image-a-38_1422203620087For teachers, there is nothing more sacred than the space of a classroom. While the sanctuary of rooms are sometimes shattered by violence, it remains thankfully rare. That makes the video this week particularly disturbing as physics teacher at John F. Kennedy High School in Paterson, New Jersey is attacked by one of his students. The other students do not come to the aid of the 62-year-old physics teacher as he is thrown to the ground by a sixteen-year-old student, though one student eventually comes over to tell the attacker to break off the attack. The teacher had taken the teenager’s cellphone.

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Academia, Bizarre, Criminal law, Media, Politics, Society, Torts

University of Michigan Frat Suspended And Faces Criminal Investigation After Trashing Hotel

frat23n-7-webfrat23n-6-webThe University of Michigan Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity has been suspended by its national office and its members may face criminal investigation after its members were accused of causing $50,000 in damage at a ski resort last weekend. The pictures of the damage at the Treetops Resort are astonishing and the incident raises the question of whether students involved in potential criminal mischief should be expelled from the school for such extracurricular conduct.

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Academia, Society

Sherman’s Spoils: Thousands of Civil War Relics Found On South Carolina Riverbed

imrs-1.phpimrs.phpAs some of you know, I am a military history nut and collect (on a small level) military historical items. That is why this story caught my eye . . . and my greedy imagination. Sitting at the muddy bottom of the Congaree River in Columbia, South Carolina appears to be the long lost munitions booty of General William T. Sherman from his Carolinas campaign. If retrieved, the find could yield thousands of saves, cartridges, scabbards and other items that would thrill civil war buffs — and flood the market for such items. In a curious way, the river find shows history repeating itself. It was the dumping of pollutants by a gas-producing plant that led to the discovery of Sherman dumping his munitions in the river.

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Academia, Environment, Science, Society

New Report Finds 2014 The Hottest In 135 Years of Record-Keeping While Another Study Warns Of “A Major Extinction Event” Due to Climate Change

earth-screensaver_largeA new study in the journal Science suggests that humanity is on the very of causing “a major extinction event” in our oceans while another study has found that 2014 was the hottest year in 135 years of record keeping. In the meantime, Pope Francis has again raised climate change and called environmental destruction a “sin” and affront to God.

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Academia, Lawyering

GW Accused Of Poaching Transfer Students

charles-spencelayh-the-poacher-approximate-original-size-7x9150px-gwulogoGeorge Washington Law School (where I teach) has been accused of “downright predatory” tactics by the Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs in its acceptance of transfer students from American law school. The tension caused by transfers has increased during a period of reduced applications. Not only are schools fighting over a small applicant pool, but transfer students are effectively “off the books” for the purposes of reported GPA and LSAT rankings used by U.S. News and World Report. Thus, schools are more inclined to accept a transfer student in the second year (when scores are not reported) than when they first applied as first-year students.

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Academia, Bizarre

Northern Virginia Hit By Blizzard of A Tenth Of An Inch Of Snow . . . Schools Close

IMG_1806Ok, I admit that I can be a broken record about snow phobia in Virginia and the inability of drivers to cope with a single flake of the white stuff without creating piles of burning wrecks. However, my four children will be staying home today because of the snow. I had to actually go outside to see it but it is there — a dusting of the stuff but enough to shutdown one of the largest school districts in the country.

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Academia, Criminal law, Media, Society

Virginia Reinstates Fraternity After Gang Rape Allegations Are Discredited

tsullivan3220px-UVA_Rotunda_Logo.svgThe University of Virginia has reinstated the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity after a Rolling Stone magazine article on gang rape allegations was discredited. Teresa A. Sullivan, the president of the university said that “We welcome Phi Kappa Psi, and we look forward to working with all fraternities and sororities in enhancing and promoting a safe environment for all.” The question is whether the University treated these students fairly in ordering the suspension and whether the University will take any steps with regard to the original accuser if it concludes that there was no gang rape at the fraternity as she alleged.

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Academia, Bizarre, Society

Sixty-Four Dartmouth Students Suspended For Cheating . . . In Ethics Class

883_original220px-Dartmouth_College_shield.svgDartmouth college has suspended 64 students in what appears an unprecedented action over cheating. What makes the action even more unnerving is that the cheating occurred in an ethics class. Most students have been suspended for a term. Professor Randall Balmer said that he was tipped off when he received more answers to this questions than students in the class.

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Academia, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Politics, Religion, Society

Cameron Government Moves To Impose Speech Code On English Universities

David_Cameron_official150px-royal_coat_of_arms_of_the_united_kingdom-svgA proposed British law creates a serious threat to academic freedom and free speech. The law seeks to force universities to take action to stop young people being exposed to extremist ideas and speakers. The law is consistent with a trend toward greater speech regulation in the West As I discussed in column yesterday in the Washington Post.

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Academia, Constitutional Law, Free Speech, International, Media, Politics, Society

Irish Muslim Leader Warns Any Newspaper From Publishing Charlie Hebdo Cartoons Or Face Blasphemy Charges

FlagbigAli Selim of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland has declared publicly that he will bring legal action against any Irish newspaper or publication that runs the Charlie Hebdo or other similar cartoons featuring Muhammad. As discussed in my Sunday Washington Post column, these laws in Western countries like France have served to emboldened those like Selim in demanding that others confirm to their religious sensibilities. Despite his effort to deter others from speaking in this fashion, Selim insists without any appearance of embarrassment that he is “a great advocate of freedom of expression” . . . so long of course that it is his expression or an expression that does not offend him.

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Academia, Criminal law, Society

Alleged Victim of Florida State Quarterback Sues University

Jameis_Winston_2013_headcropFSU_Seminoles_logoThere has been considerable controversy over the allegation of a woman against Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston of sexual assault. The woman has now filed a civil suit against the university’s board of trustees for allegedly ignoring her claims of sexual harassment and discrimination by Winston in protection of its all-star quarterback. We recently discussed another case where a FSU player was engaged in what appears to be a hit-and-run but was given lenient treatment by local police and campus security.

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