Category: Constitutional Law

Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Politics, Society

Virginia Senate Kills Measure To Repeal Criminalization of Adultery

virginia%20is%20for%20loversA legislative proposal by Sen. Scott Surovell (D–Fairfax) would have seemed a no brainer in any legislative body. Surovell was seeking to decriminalize adultery in Virginia. As I have previously discussed (here and here), Virginia has an anachronistic and facially unconstitutional law that makes adultery a crime. Yet, the Virginia Senate killed the bill this month and reaffirmed its intention to criminalize what the majority deems immoral choices by consenting adults. Adultery will remain a Class 4 misdemeanor despite 13 other states that have repealed similar laws in recent years.

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Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Media, Politics, Society

Indiana Moves Toward Law Giving Police Departments The Right To Withhold Video From Police Body Cameras

legislator_kevin_mahan_1028bwc_leadAn Indiana House government committee voted unanimously to allow police departments to withhold video from police body cameras. Unanimously. These videotapes have resulted in arguably the single most effective deterrent of police abuse in the history of this country. However, Rep. Kevin Mahan (left) (R., Hartford City) wants to leave the release of the evidence at the discretion of the very department that often faces the greatest criticism and costs over such evidence.

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Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Justice, Lawyering, Politics, Society

Thomas Tamm Hit With Bar Charges For Exposing The Warrantless Surveillance Program Under President Bush

Screen-Shot-2016-01-26-at-3.05.42-PM-640x712There is a disturbing proceeding unfolding before the the District of Columbia Office of Disciplinary Counsel where Thomas Tamm, a former U.S. Department of Justice lawyer who leaked information to the press about warrantless domestic spying under President George W. Bush, is facing legal ethics charges in Washington. Tamm is viewed as a hero by many in exposing the program, but even among his detractors there are those who view him as a whistleblower. The intervention of the DC Bar into the case is troubling given the various policy and legal questions over his status in exposing the program.

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

Turkey Seeks Life Imprisonment For Two Journalists Who Reported On Gun Smuggling By Government To Syria

220px-Recep_Tayyip_ErdoganWe have followed the rapid decline of civil liberties under the authoritarian rule Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the past few years as well as his empowering of Islamic parties in the once secular state. This trend was evident recently with the rounding up of dozens of professors for simply signing a petition denouncing military operations against Kurds in the south-east of the country. Now, his government has announced that it will seek life sentences for two journalists who reported on the gun smuggling operations of Turkey to Syria. Erdoğan has been gradually arresting or threatening the dwindling number of independent journalists in Turkey and this prosecution may succeed in forcing the remaining reporters into silence or living in exile.

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Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, Media, Politics, Society

Video Makers In Planned Parenthood Scandal Indicted By Texas Grand Jury

CMPgoldfinal200px-Logo_plannedparenthoodThere is a surprising development out of Texas in the investigation of into Planned Parenthood and the scandal over the selling of fetal tissue and body parts. The Center for Medical Progress had gone undercover to record officials with the organization speaking about the sales in ways that outraged the public and triggered a backlash against Planned Parenthood. However, the grand jury opted not to indict anyone at Planned Parenthood and instead charged David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt with the Center of Medical Progress for tampering with a governmental record, a second-degree felony. Perhaps the most interesting charge was the indictment of Daleiden with the purchase and sale of human organs, a class A misdemeanor. The group has insisted that it was using standard journalistic practices in showing that Planned Parenthood was illegally profiting from the sale of fetal tissue. Planned Parenthood has been cleared of any wrongdoing in various states. However, Planned Parenthood was forced to apologize for the casual tone of its officials and changed its policy on reimbursements for tissue and body parts.

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

University of Missouri Communications Professor To Be Charged With Assault

Screen-Shot-2015-11-10-at-6.41.56-PM-620x375We have been following the controversy surrounding the outrageous conduct of University of Missouri Mass communications professor Melissa Click attacking the media covering a “Black Lives Matter” protest.” She has now been charged with third-degree assault — an offense that is criminal but likely to result in only a fine.

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Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, Society

New York Settles Case Of The Arrest Of Two Protesters For Insulting Police

215px-NypdpatchNew York city has reportedly agreed to pay two Occupy Wall Street protesters $52,000 for their arrest in 2013 after flipping off two New York City police officers on a Queens subway train. The arrests of Nicholas Thommen, 21, and Channing Creage, 26, clearly violated the first amendment and lacked probable cause of any crime. The question is not the settlement but, again, the absence of any indication of discipline of these officers for knowingly violating the constitutional rights of citizens.

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Academia, Constitutional Law, Free Speech

Former LSU Professor Files Lawsuit Challenging Her Termination For Sexual Harassment

teresabuchanan.facebook-370x242Former LSU Education Professor Teresa Buchanan has filed an interesting federal civil rights lawsuit against the President of Louisiana State University and other school officials, claiming that the school’s sexual harassment rules (modeled on the rules crafted by the Department of Education) violated free speech and due process. I have been a critic of actions taken by the Administration against universities in forcing schools to strip students and faculty of due process rights. We previously discussed the controversy HERE.

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Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Politics, Society

Federal Court Rules Against Obama Administration’s Withholding Documents From “Fast and Furious” Investigation

ajacksonUS-DeptOfJustice-Seal_svgIn a major victory for Congress, U.S. District Judge Amy Jackson Berman rejected the executive privilege claims of the Obama Administration in withholding documents from a House Committee looking into the Fast and Furious “gun-walking” scandal. I have long maintained that the refusal of the Administration to turn over material to this and other committees is denial of congressional authority protected under Article I. The case is Comm. on Oversight & Gov’t Reform v. Lynch, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5713.

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Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, International

Leading Turkish Opposition Figure Put Under Investigation After Defending Dozens of Arrested Academics Who Signed Peace Petition

220px-Recep_Tayyip_ErdoganWe recently discussed the latest authoritarian move by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in rounding up dozens of academics who signed a peace petition. The move was denounced throughout the world, but Erdogan is clearly unmoved. Now, those who objected to the crackdown and loss of the freedom of speech are themselves being targeted by the government. Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu is facing arrest after saying that “Academics who express their opinions have been detained one by one on instructions given by a so-called dictator.” Prosecutors launched an investigation into Kilicdaroglu’s comments on charges of “openly insulting the president.”

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Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts

House of Representatives Files Opposition To Summary Judgment Motion In ACA Challenge

800px-Capitol_Building_Full_ViewOn December 2, 2015, the United States House of Representatives filed its motion for summary judgment in its challenge to the Administration’s unilateral actions taken under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). At the time, the Administration filed its own summary judgment motion. This evening, the House filed its opposition to the Administration’s motion.

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Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Politics, Religion

Pakistani Lawmakers and Clerics Block Law Imposing Sanctions For Forced Child Marriages As “UnIslamic” and “Blasphemous”

In another disturbing example of the abuses that occur in the absence of church (or mosque) and state separation, Pakistani lawmakers have yielded to the demand of Islamic clerics and killed a law that would have imposed real penalties for those who arrange forced child marriages, including raising the legal age of marriages. Clerics denounced the law as “blasphemous” and against Islam.

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

Turkey Arrests Dozens of Academics Who Signed Peace Petition As Enemies of the State

220px-Recep_Tayyip_ErdoganTurkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s increasingly authoritarian rule is again evident this week with the rounding up of dozens of professors for simply signing a petition denouncing military operations against Kurds in the south-east of the country. The signatories of the petition included famous linguist Noam Chomsky and the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. Erdoğan responded angrily to the letter, which was denounced as “terror propaganda” and he called on the judiciary to act against their alleged treachery. Supporters of Erdoğan and nationalist students have been intimidating academics by marking their doors and threatening professors who signed the petition calling for peace.

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