A federal court in Ungar v. New York City Housing Authority, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3578 (SD NY, Jan. 14, 2009) has ruled against the claims of a Hasidic group that the New York City Housing Authority should be required to give them preference in allocating units in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. They challenged the Tenant Selection Assignment Plan saying that they have religious needs to live near other members of their religious community in Williamsburg.
Continue reading “Federal Court Rules Against Hasidic Jews Who Challenged Public Housing Rule”
Anthony Hernandez has sued the Chicago police department after officers arrested him without probable cause on drug charges and then held him for six months in jail. Not only did Hernandez lose his jobs, but he missed the birth of a child. It also turns out that one of the arresting officers, Slawomir Plewa, was stripped of his police powers in 2008 for his involvement in a false arrest.
South Carolina state senator Robert Ford is seeking to criminalize bad language in songs and droopy pants. The former civil rights worker believes that he has the right to dictate the speech and styles of citizens — dismissing any claims of constitutional rights. Indeed, he has proudly proclaimed that “[w]e’re talking about teenagers. They have no rights.”
The international trend toward criminalizing any insulting of religion has reached Austria, which has now convicted far-right legislator Susanne Winter for making anti-Muslim statements, including the oft-stated charge that Mohammed was a pedophile for marrying an underaged girl. Winter is an obvious wingnut and her statements obnoxious. However, the first amendment is being sharply curtailed by a movement to criminalize insults to religion, including 
President Barack Obama issued four executive orders Thursday, including one requiring that the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay be closed within a year. It was a widely anticipated move. The question remains, however, what to do about the war crimes committed at the facility. In the meantime, the Republicans are demanding that Holder promise not to investigate war crimes as a condition for their votes for confirmation.
U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman has struck down the Illinois Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act as unconstitutional. The decision is based on the Doctrine of Separation of Church and State and constitutes a departure from other rulings around the nation upholding such laws. It is a particularly important ruling for non-believers. 
It was Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.’s version of a 
In a very rare win for a city against a gun manufacturer, the Indiana Supreme Court has ruled that a lawsuit by the City of Gary can proceed to trial. These lawsuits have been uniformly rejected on various grounds, including standing. Yet, Gary with one of the nation’s highest homicide rates will be allowed to sue companies like Smith and Wesson, Beretta and Colt as well as gun dealers for the harm caused by their products. They are proceeding on a nuisance theory.
Controversial lawyer Geoffrey Fieger has lost a critical appeal before the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which reversed a lower court decision in his favor. At issue is a state code requiring “civility for lawyers in their dealings with judges. In a 2-1 decision, the appellate panel ruled that the requirement is not is not unconstitutionally vague.
Washington is electric this morning. It is morning in America as literally billions around the world celebrate the Inauguration of our 44th President.
The Supreme Court has taken the case of Savana Redding, who in 2003 was a 13-year-old student strip searched by the teachers at Safford Middle School in Arizona in a mad search for her hidden drug stash. . . Ibuprofen. It appears that “Ibu-heads” must be a major problem at the school among the fast-living eighth grade clique.
President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to greatly expand President Bush’s faith-based initiative program. He may would to consider a recent lawsuit where the Catholic church is accused of receiving a federal funding to assist sex trafficking victims but allowed to decline to provide contraceptive material or abortion services.
Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. began on a high note this afternoon by acknowledging that waterboarding is torture — an admission that Mukasey refused to make. However, he did not commit to the obvious implication of that statement: he will enforce federal law and international law that makes torture both a crime and a war crime. I discussed the testimony on