Category: Courts

Constitutional Law, Courts, Free Speech, Politics, Society

Perry: First Amendment Does Not Protect You From Religion

perrythumb_christmas_santa_fakePoliticians love popularly named bills like the PATRIOT Act and DREAM ACT, an art in itself to name the most compelling acronyms and names. Texas Gov. Rick Perry and state Senator Robert Nichols (R-Jacksonville) therefore can be credited with coming up with the “Merry Christmas Bill” — just try voting against that in Texas. However, the purpose of the bill is far from benign if you are a secularist, atheist, or agnostic. Perry explained the purpose of the bill in a way that put anyone on the other side of a Merry Christmas: “I’m proud we are standing up for religious freedom in our state.” He then added this legal interpretation of the First Amendment: “Freedom of religion doesn’t mean freedom from religion.”

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Academia, Constitutional Law, Courts, Science, Society

Supreme Court Rules Against Patenting Of Human Genes

220px-Clarence_ThomasDNA_orbit_animated_static_thumbI previously wrote a column opposing the claim of Myriad Genetics over patenting human genes in the case of Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, No. 12-398. The Supreme Court appears to have the same concerns. The Court unanimously ruled this afternoon against the Utah company and by extension of the Federal Circuit in claiming such property rights.

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Courts, Criminal law, Lawyering

Former Georgia Judge Sued By Woman Who Says Drugs Were Planted On Her After Accusing The Judge Of Sexual Wrongdoing

imagesThere is an extraordinary story coming out of Georgia this week where two Murray County sheriff’s deputies pleaded guilty in federal court for their part in a scheme to frame a woman, Angela Garmley (left), after she accused Chief Magistrate Judge Bryant Cochran of soliciting sex from her in return to favorable treatment in her pending divorce case. Three other women have accused Cochran of such abuse.

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Columns, Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Media, Politics, Society

OBAMA AND THE FINAL MEASURE OF DEVOTION

President_Barack_ObamaBelow is today’s column in USA Today (the print version is a bit shorter). The column looks at the effort of President Barack Obama and his congressional allies to get citizens to give up privacy as they did protections of the free press, due process, and international legal principles on earlier scandals. It is truly the final measure of devotion demanded in what has become a virtual cult of personality.

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Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Free Speech, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Society

What Is a Worse Crime, Rape or Publishing Evidence of the Rape?

Anonymous_at_Scientology_in_Los_Angeles

Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger

You may recall an article that I wrote back in January discussing the Steubenville, Ohio rape case.  It was a case where members of the town’s high school football team were charged with repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting an unconscious young girl and it also exposed the community support these alleged rapists had.  In that case a local unit of the Hacktivist group, Anonymous, published tweets and pictures of the alleged rapists.  One of the citations or links that I provided in the article has since been taken down and now the local Anonymous activist had his home raided by a FBI SWAT team and may be charged with hacking into the high school website and could face a potential 10 year sentence for the alleged crimes!  You may ask what are the sentences that the now convicted rapists are facing?  Since they were minors at the time of the alleged serial rape, they are facing 2 year sentences.   Continue reading “What Is a Worse Crime, Rape or Publishing Evidence of the Rape?” →

Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Free Speech, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Politics, Society, Supreme Court

Don’t “Annoy” Your Local Police Or Else

Submitted by Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger

220px-Badge_1012There is a new bill passed by the New York State Senate that relates to many of the blogs and discussions we have had here through the years. This bill would make it a felony to “annoy” a police officer acting in the course of his duties. While I can understand that directly interfering with a  police officer in the middle of his duties should not be done, we have seen through the years that the police broadly interpret what is “interference” to include what is obviously a person exercising their First Amendment rights, such as responding negatively to a police officers actions or videotaping them. I find this law another distressing example of how far we are going in the direction of a police state, since as we have seen in our many blogs and discussions here it will be abused time and again. I will have several links at the bottom to illustrate some of the issues dealing with purported “police interference on the Jonathan Turley Blog alone. Continue reading “Don’t “Annoy” Your Local Police Or Else” →

Courts, Environment, Free Speech, International, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Politics, Society, Supreme Court, Uncategorized

The First Amendment and Catch 22

Submitted by: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger

220px-Anthony_Kennedy_official_SCOTUS_portraitIt’s been so long that I can’t really remember when I first started thinking about and supporting freedom of speech. Perhaps it was when I was eight and went to the local library to borrow Sir Walter Scott’s “Ivanhoe”. I was told I could only borrow books from the children’s section. At the time I didn’t see that as a First Amendment Issue, because I still hadn’t learned about the Constitution. However, as the “Fifties” progressed and the issue of banning books and movies heated up, my social studies education caught up with my natural predilections and I became a full supporter of the idea of the rights of free speech, free press and everyone’s right to access information. During the “Fifties” movies were regularly cut down so as not to offend groups such as The Catholic League. The novels of some of the great authors of the Twentieth Century, such as James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, William Burroughs and Henry Miller were banned in the U.S. as pornography and their shipments confiscated at our borders. Those of us, like myself, who are old enough to have lived through those times understand that the meaning we give to the First Amendment now, was not the same as it was for the first 160 years (or so) of our country. The lesson of this is that in the courts and with the ever changing political scene , we must ever be vigilant to protect our right as a people to say, read and write what we please, providing it doesn’t cause real danger to others. The catch of course in my last sentence, is what exactly “real danger” is and then what too should be the limits of using freedom of speech as a defense? Continue reading “The First Amendment and Catch 22” →

Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Courts, Lawyering, Society

Fast Food Justice: Ohio Judge Sentences Man To 90 Days After He Fails To Carry A Sign That She Personally Made

carr_pinkeyI have repeatedly written against the use of shaming and novel sentencing by judges around the country (here and here and here). Judges often thrill the public by imposing their own forms of justices — departing from conventional criminal sentences to force people to clean courtrooms with toothbrushes, wear demeaning placards, or carry out publicly humiliating tasks. These judges often develop a taste for such power and the public acclaim that unfortunately comes from humiliating people. Cleveland Municipal Judge Pinkey Carr is a case in point. Carr garnered clearly welcomed public attention by requiring a woman to wear a sign to punish her for reckless driving near a school bus. Now, Carr has taken to making such placards herself and, when citizens do not comply as marionettes, throwing them in jail. Such is the case with Richard Dameron who refused to carry an “idiot” sign hand crafted by Carr. In the hearing, Carr appropriately compared herself to the Burger King of the justice system.

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Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Media, Politics, Society

Learning To Love The Matrix: Feinstein Defends Warrantless Surveillance of All Citizens

225px-dianne_feinstein_official_senate_photoAs expected, in facing yet another attack on civil liberties by the Obama Administration, Democratic members are choosing personality over principle. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D., CA) has come out to assure the public that it is a good thing that the Administration is spying on them and encourage them to accept such surveillance as the new normal. In the meantime, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R, Ga), insists that the surveillance must be fine because “to my knowledge we have not had any citizen who has registered a complaint relative to the gathering of this information.” Of course, it has been secret and just last February the Administration succeeded in blocking an effort of dozens of citizens and groups challenging such surveillance programs before the Supreme Court.
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Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Media, Politics, Society, Supreme Court

Obama Administration Confirms Massive Surveillance Program Of U.S. Citizens

President_Barack_ObamaWhile the media in the United States (with some notable exceptions) have been criticized for relatively soft coverage of attacks on civil liberties by the Obama Administration, the British press appears to be filling the gap. The Guardian is reporting on a massive surveillance program by the Obama Administration where the government has ordered Verizon (and presumably other carriers) to turn over all calls made within the United States and calls between the United States and other countries. The surveillance was conducted under an order from our controversial secret court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and demanded by the Justice Department and the FBI. The Administration has confirmed the existence of the program — another blow to civil liberties under Attorney General Eric Holder and this president. It also adds another area where Obama officials appear less than candid with Congress. [Update: USA Today first revealed aspects of this program in 2006]

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Academia, Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Courts, Politics, Society

Judge Edith Jones Subject To Ethics Complaint Over Alleged Bizarre Comments At Federalist Society Meeting And Judicial Bias

Edith-Jones-Judge-Edith-H-Jones-Edith-Hollan-JonesThere have long been complaints about the temperament and civility of Judge Edith Jones of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Indeed, when I clerked on that court, Jones was rather infamous for her run-ins with colleagues and others.  Jones has been criticized for her extremely conservative views and, more importantly, her perceived intolerance (and hostility) for opposing views and colleagues.  This includes telling another judge to “shut up” in oral argument. Now, she is facing a formal complaint over a Federalist Society speech given at the University of Pennsylvania where she allegedly said that certain racial groups are predisposed to crime and that defenses like mental competence and actual innocence are “red herrings” among other bizarre claims.

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Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Society

Supreme Court Approves Involuntary DNA Samples From Suspects And Opens The Door To A Massive DNA Databank

225px-Anthony_Kennedy_Official220px-DNA_OverviewIn a blow to civil liberties, the Supreme Court yesterday voted 5-4 to allow police to collect DNA from suspects arrested in serious crime cases. The decision by Justice Anthony Kennedy opens the door for the collection and retention of a massive DNA databank by the states and federal government. The decision produced a strange lineup with Justice Antonin Scalia writing a dissent (with Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan) and normally liberal Justice Stephen Breyer joining Kennedy, Thomas, Alito, and Roberts. It is a disastrous case for Breyer to lose his bearings. His switch denied the creation of a bright line rule protecting privacy and forestalling such a databank.

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Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Courts, Free Speech, Politics, Society

New Jersey Man Appears In Court In A Full Nazi Uniform To Reclaim Visitation Rights

article-2335367-1A21B5DB000005DC-470_634x582We previously discussed the bizarre case of Heath Campbell, who ran into a bit of trouble when he tried to get a store to prepare a birthday cake for his son Adolph Hitler Campbell. It turns out that the parents gave all of their kids Nazi-related names. After the “mein cake” controversy, the state appears to have placed the couple under investigation and then took away their children. The New Jersey neo-Nazi is now fighting to get back his kids. He did it however in a curious way — he and his new fascist Frau showed up in full Nazi uniforms to court. This raises a significant free speech issue. Most of us view this Nazi obsession to be weird and unbalanced. However, it is also a form of political expression. While the state insists that there is a history of violence in the family (including an “anonymous complaint”), there have been no details of the extent of this history. Should this bizarre conduct and hateful belief system be considered on the custody question.

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Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Media, Politics

The One-Eyed Man In the Land Of The Blind: James Comey Set To Be Next FBI Director Despite Past Civil Liberties Controversies

Jcomey-100The Obama Administration has once again reaffirmed the new relativism controlling Washington in the nomination of James Comey as the next director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, even as it struggles to put out the controversy over its attack on free press principles. Comey was a critical player in the abuse warrantless surveillance program of the Bush Administration and will now be put in charge of the people carrying out such surveillance. The Administration has been spinning the nomination by pointing out that it was Comey who opposed efforts of the Bush White House in a famous confrontation by the hospital bed of the Attorney General John Ashcroft. However, while that was admirable, Comey did what all officials in his position are duty bound to do (though few in the Bush Administration fulfilled that obligation). Comey however also was critical in other abuses of warrantless surveillance as well as the abusive treatment of Jose Padilla and Plamegate. He is no hero for civil libertarians by any measure.
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Courts, Politics, Society

ALEC in Wonderland, An Act In Two Plays (Part 2)

By Mike Appleton, Guest Blogger

“The United States is the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers any paid vacation time and is one of only a few rich countries that do not require employers to offer at least some paid holidays.”

-Rebecca Ray, Mila Sanes and John Schmidt, No Vacation Nation (Center for Economic and Policy Research, May, 2013)

The leisure and hospitality industry in Central Florida employs over 216,000 people, more than 20% of the entire Metro Orlando workforce.  These are primarily low-wage jobs, with few benefits. Hotel maids, for example, earn a median wage of $9.20 per hour.  It is estimated that 81% of the lowest-wage workers have no ability to earn paid sick time.  Nationally, a study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research concluded that 37% of working women (some 13,000,000) in companies with more than 15 employees cannot take a paid sick day if they or a family member are ill.  Among employed Latinos (a quickly growing demographic in Orange County, Florida), 49% lack access to any paid sick leave.

The combined effect of low wages and no benefits means that on any given day tens of thousands of Metro Orlando workers must decide whether to go to work sick, send a sick child to school, or stay home without pay and even risk termination of their employment.  In May of 2012, a coalition of Orlando activists began a citizen’s initiative to mandate that private employers in Orange County with 15 or more employees provide workers with up to 7 days of paid sick leave each year.  That effort has generated two lawsuits to date and the quick adoption of an ALEC-inspired state law preempting the Orange County initiative. Continue reading “ALEC in Wonderland, An Act In Two Plays (Part 2)” →