Category: Constitutional Law

Constitutional Law, Courts, Justice, Media, Politics

Second Amendment Boogey Man

Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger

 

When it comes to the Second Amendment and guns, it seems that President Obama can’t make anyone happy.  Ever since Obama announced his candidacy for the Presidency, the NRA has screamed that Obama will be taking away the guns. This scare tactic continued when Obama defeated John McCain for the Presidency.  Just what has Barack Obama done to make the NRA and gun owners frightened for their guns?  The simple answer to this question is nothing. Continue reading “Second Amendment Boogey Man” →

Columns, Constitutional Law, Free Speech, International, Military, Politics, Religion, Society

As We Careen Towards a Dream of Armageddon

Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger

To my mind the greatest movie satire on the idiocy of the Cold War and the fear it inspired in humanity, was Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece “Dr. Strangelove, or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”,  released in 1964. The plot in brief was, “An insane general starts a process to nuclear holocaust that a war room of politicians and generals frantically try to stop”. For those unfamiliar with one of the best American movies of all time check this link:   http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/  

Rent the movie if you haven’t seen it, for it will bring you dark laughter and present you with much to ponder. At the time of its release, some disparaged the movie as being un-credible in its characterizations and not believable in it premises. I hadn’t thought of the movie in years until I came across this article at the website Buzzflash.com titled “The Theology of Armageddon” by Robert Koehler. http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/13024 . The article is relatively brief, but well worth your time.

 The article deals with a course titled “Nuclear Ethics and Nuclear Warfare” at Vandenberg Air Force Base, given under Air Force auspices. As the Robert Koehler states:

“(I)t turns out that the point of the mandatory course, which was recently canceled by the Air Force after officers of numerous faiths complained to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation about it and Truthout published an exposé in July, was to give officers in the first week of missile-launch training a Bible-verse-studded indoctrination in faux-Just War Theory (cynically known in the ranks as the “Jesus Loves Nukes” training)”.

What got me thinking of the movie Dr. Strangelove was a quote in the article from Dr. Wehrner Von Braun, which makes credible the satiric reality of the movies title character, Dr. Strangelove, hysterically portrayed as a heavily accented former NAZI, by Peter Sellers. Seller’s character was widely denounced as being unfair to Von Braun, at the time, but seeing this quote from him makes me wonder:

“We knew that we had created a new means of warfare and the question as to what nation . . . we were willing to entrust this brainchild of ours was a moral decision more than anything else,” von Braun is quoted as saying. “We wanted to see the world spared another conflict such as Germany had just been through and we felt that only by surrendering such a weapon to people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world be best secured.”

To me this is post facto justification by von Braun of his choice of the comfort of an honored life in the U.S. mirroring his NAZI lifestyle and providing a sop to detract from the truth that he was an enthusiastic war criminal. Von Braun had developed the V (I & II) guided missiles for the NAZI’s and became the head of the United States Ballistic Missile Program. Von Braun was a NAZI Party member of distinction and it seems dedication. His missiles fell upon Great Britain in the closing days of WW II as an attempt to cause terror within the British people and were random in their destruction. That he then became an honored man in the U.S., rather than a defendant at Nuremburg, is a tribute to our own hypocrisy in prosecuting the Cold War. A similar mindset seems to have infected some in our Air Force as I will show. Continue reading “As We Careen Towards a Dream of Armageddon” →

Constitutional Law, Courts, Lawyering, Society

Judges Behaving Badly (3): Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs Attacks Civil Libertarians and Lawyers Before Second Circuit

We recently discussed the shocking outburst by conservative judges on the Seventh Circuit and Fifth Circuits. Now, a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has joined the ranks of jurists engaging in visceral and, in my view, inappropriate commentary from the bench. The circuit sitting en banc split 6-6 Wednesday on whether to grant en banc review on a challenge of the federal wiretap law. What was most striking, however, was not the sharp division but the rhetoric of Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs. Building on a trend of federal judges to so narrow standing as to block any meaningful avenue to challenge government actions. However, Jacobs decided to vent his anger at public interest attorneys and their causes and clients.
Continue reading “Judges Behaving Badly (3): Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs Attacks Civil Libertarians and Lawyers Before Second Circuit” →

Academia, Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Politics, Religion, Society

Student Disciplined For Telling Friend In Class That He Views Homosexuality As Wrong

There is an interesting controversy in Fort Worth, Texas where Dakota Ary, an honors student was suspended for turning to another student in his German class and saying that he viewed homosexuality as wrong. The teacher at Western Hills High School became angry in overhearing the comment and accused Ary of being a bully.
Continue reading “Student Disciplined For Telling Friend In Class That He Views Homosexuality As Wrong” →

Constitutional Law, Courts, Society

Texas Judge Rules Gay Father Cannot Leave Children With His Husband

Harris County judge Charley Prine, a Republican judge in Texas, is under fire for a clearly homophobic order barring a gay father from leaving his children alone with his husband. William Flowers (pictured, left below) and Jim Evans (right) were legally married in Connecticut and are appealing the order that says that the children cannot be left alone with with any man who is not related to them by blood or adoption unless his ex-wife consents.
Continue reading “Texas Judge Rules Gay Father Cannot Leave Children With His Husband” →

Bizarre, Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Politics, Society

First Circuit Reinstates $675,000 Verdict Against Boston University Student For Downloading Songs

For years, we have discussed the abusive litigation by the Recording Industry Association of America in seeking obscene damages against people for downloading songs. Congress, again, caved to demands by lobbyists to allow for such lawsuits. The result has been thuggish lawsuits where industry lawyers threaten not only citizens with ruin but, in the case of the Copyright Group, those who try to help them. Now, one of the most obscene verdicts against Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum has been reinstated by the First Circuit — $675,000 for downloading and sharing 30 songs. The court, however, takes the rare step of suggesting that Congress may want to look again at the law. The problem is that these citizens do not have well-paid lobbyists and massive campaign funds to motivate many members to act. The Obama Administration joined the industry in defending the law and the original fines as not unconstitutional.

Continue reading “First Circuit Reinstates $675,000 Verdict Against Boston University Student For Downloading Songs” →

Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, Lawyering

Posner Ridicules Right of Citizens To Film Police in Seventh Circuit Oral Argument

Judge Richard A. Posner is a legal icon who has had more impact on the development of the law. As the father of the Law and Economics movement, Posner’s writings are featured heavily in my classes as well as other classes around the country. While I disagree with him, I have tremendous respect for his scholarship and jurisprudence. However, a recent oral argument revealed a less flattering side of the former University of Chicago professor. Faced with an attorney from  the American Civil Liberties Union in a case involving the right of citizens to film police in public, Posner cut him off after 14 words and spoke derisively of the right of citizens and groups to engage in such protected conduct.
Continue reading “Posner Ridicules Right of Citizens To Film Police in Seventh Circuit Oral Argument” →

Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Media, Politics, Religion

Fidler in the Subway: New York Council Member Calls For Censorship of Pro-Palestinian Ads in Subway

Councilman Lewis Fidler (D-Brooklyn) is calling for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) to pull down ads critical of funding for Israel. Fidler is demanding that MTA President Thomas Prendergast put an end to billboards calling for an end to funding for Israel as “a highly political campaign with a controversial underlying anti-Israel message.” Apparently, amid all of the graffiti and ads and pamphlets in the MTA there is no room for messages critical of Israel. Fidler wrote I would urge you to disallow and/or remove these advertisements.”
Continue reading “Fidler in the Subway: New York Council Member Calls For Censorship of Pro-Palestinian Ads in Subway” →

Constitutional Law, Politics

Redistricting and the Citizen Legislator

Submitted by Mike Appleton, Guest Blogger

The decennial exercise in legislative self-dealing known as redistricting has been frequently assailed as corrupt.  Efforts to eliminate the incentive to treat redistricting as an incumbency protection racket by placing term limits on House and Senate members have run afoul of the Constitution.  But Floridians may have found a partial solution.  As Republicans were strengthening their super-majority status in the state legislature this past November, eagerly anticipating the opportunity to redistrict the remaining Democrats to somewhere in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, voters were simultaneously adopting by substantial margins two amendments to the Florida constitution intended to eliminate gerrymandering.  And a federal judge has now thrown out the Florida legislature’s constitutional challenge to one of those amendments.
Continue reading “Redistricting and the Citizen Legislator” →

Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, International, Justice, Military, Politics, Society, Supreme Court, Things That Tick Me Off

Recent American History According to Cheney

Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty(Rafflaw)-Guest Blogger

 

I admit that I get a headache when I read any news about former Bush administration officials, but it seems that former Vice President Dick Cheney is in the news again and I am left scrambling for my migraine medicine.  He has written a book detailing all the wonderful things he accomplished as Vice President under George W. Bush.  Unfortunately for Mr. Cheney, in his efforts to explain his work as Vice President under George W. Bush, he may have provided an admission of some of the alleged lies that critics claim were being spread by Cheney and the Bush administration in the lead up to war in Iraq.  Continue reading “Recent American History According to Cheney” →

Constitutional Law, Courts, Free Speech

Federal Judge: Florida Docs Can Talk To Patients About Guns

Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Gun-owning Floridians will now be able to discuss those lethal weapons with their physicians after a federal judge has blocked the enforcement of a Florida law. Florida governor and Tea Party darling, Rick Scott, signed into law a gag order preventing doctors from talking to their patients about the hazards of gun possession in their homes when small children and teenagers are present.

  Continue reading “Federal Judge: Florida Docs Can Talk To Patients About Guns” →

Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, International, Society, Supreme Court

Cherokee Tribe Asserts Right To Expel Blacks

The Cherokee Tribe is in an interesting confrontation with the federal government over the right of the tribe to ban 2,800 African Americans from its citizenship rolls. Joe Crittenden, the tribe’s acting principal chief, insists that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has challenged the sovereignty of the tribe and “The Cherokee Nation will not be governed by the BIA.”

Continue reading “Cherokee Tribe Asserts Right To Expel Blacks” →

Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Politics, Religion, Society

North Carolina Sued For Issuing Pro-Life License Plates While Refusing To Issue Pro-Choice Plates

The State of North Carolina is about to pay litigation costs to fight for the right to favor pro-life citizens over pro-choose citizens. The state has approved “Choose Life” license plates while steadfastly refusing to allow a pro-choose plate. Now, at a time of budget shortfalls and unemployment, the state will pay to litigate for the right to discriminate on the basis of the content of such messages.
Continue reading “North Carolina Sued For Issuing Pro-Life License Plates While Refusing To Issue Pro-Choice Plates” →

Columns, Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, International, Lawyering, Media, Military, Politics, Society

Reflections On 9/11

Below is today’s brief essay in the Los Angeles Times that is part of a series called Reflections on 9/11. I was asked that day after the attacks to write a column for the newspaper, which ran on September 13, 2001. As I wrote the piece, I could still see smoke rising from the Pentagon. The plane in Washington hit just behind my car a minute or so after I passed the Pentagon on my way to work from Alexandria. On that day, my greatest concerns were two-fold: a change in the definition of war and the expanded use of assassination. Unfortunately, my worst predictions were exceeded by the Bush Administration and later the Obama Administration. It is shocking to think that this was ten years ago. The images and feelings remain so vivid. My car was forced into a curb by a careening car that morning and I had to replace my tire as the smoke bellowed from the Pentagon. The thought of all the innocent people lost in Washington, New York, and Pennsylvania remains an open wound for so many of us. The sheer savagery and inhumanity of the attacks shocked the conscience — a feeling only magnified later when Bin Laden was shown gloating over how he personally advised the terrorists on the best place to hit the buildings. The cautionary piece on September 13th was not meant to take away from the legitimate and collective anger that we felt — and still feel. However, it was already clear within two days of the attacks that Bush officials were going to seek the radical expansion of presidential powers and were already referencing our civil liberties as an impediment to our safety. My heartfelt sympathy to all who lost friends and family on that day.

Continue reading “Reflections On 9/11” →