Below is today’s column on the first day of the October Term for the Supreme Court. It specifically explores the first amendment cases on the docket. There are four major such cases thus far on the docket and, most importantly, two free speech cases that will be strong indicators of the views of Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Continue reading “Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s Free-Speech Tests”
Elliot Madison, 41, is the subject of an intriguing — and in my view compelling — constitutional fight with both federal and state authorities. A self-described anarchist, Madison was arrested for using Twitter to send messages on the location of police during the G20 protests. Pittsburgh has been accused of excessive measures and this case appears to be one such case.
Continue reading “Criminal Tweets: Man Arrested for Twitter Messages During G20 Protests”
Alabama Supreme Court has joined the debate over morality being the sole basis for legislative restrictions on citizens. The court upheld the state ban on the sale of sex toys purely on the basis that such toys are viewed as immoral. Since Lawrence v. Texas, such morality based laws have been questioned on constitutional grounds. For a prior column, click here.
Continue reading “Love Stuff in Alabama: Supreme Court Rules Morality Can Be Constitutional Basis for Product Bans”
There is a disturbing and important ruling out of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. In the prisoner case below, Nelson v. Correctional Medical Services, the court examined whether a prisoner guard is entitled to qualified immunity when she shackles a female prisoner during labor despite the objections of the medical staff. Arkansas corrections officer Patricia Turensky was found not to be entitled to such protection for her actions in shackling inmate Shawanna Nelson. The decision was handed down on October 2, 2009.
There are reports this week detailing a 1993 agreement of Roman Polanski to pay Samantha Geimer $500,000 in damages for raping her when she was thirteen. It is an interesting twist in the case because Geimer later said that she forgave Polanski and advocated that charges be dropped. The agreement came 16 years after the rape when Polanski was living as a fugitive and trying to come home.
Continue reading “Polanski Agreed to Pay Victim $500,000 in 1993 Despite Professing His Love for Young Girls”
It appears that there is an app for quick incarceration. Donald Goodrich, 38, was arrested after making threats against the operating life of his iPhone in an Apple store in Cincinnati.
Continue reading “iJail: Mr. Goodrich Goes to Jail After Threatening to Shoot His IPhone”
The Iranians have faced rape charges recently in cases of women facing execution as well as the rape of protesters. Now, two protesters have come forward to publicly allege that they were raped as a form of extrajudicial punishment while in Iranian jails following the demonstrations over of the disputed presidential election.
Continue reading “Two Iranian Protesters Go Public With Allegations of Rape While in Custody”
There is a fascinating case in Ontario, Canada this week. Levi Shaeffer, 30, was shot dead by Peterborough police officers when he was camping near Pickle lake. He had not committed any crimes and was simply camping on an island. However, an investigation was terminated because the officers involved in the shooting did not write down contemporary accounts of the shooting after meeting with counsel. Chief Murray Rodd, however, insists on the department website that “[w]e are truly dedicated to our core values to be the best Police Service, providing the highest standard of professionalism in partnership with our community.” They might want to start with writing down accounts of shooting campers.
Dorothy Richardson, 76, has been sentenced to 80 hours of community service after being arrested for beating a baby deer to death in her garden in Euclid, Ohio — just outside of Cleveland. She will also pay a $500 fine and have to watch the movie Bambi 1000 times (OK, just the community service and the fine).
Continue reading “Beating Bambi: Ohio Woman Sentenced For Beating Fawn To Death With Shovel”
The Vatican appears in need of a serious media consultant. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s permanent observer to the UN, has issued a defense that boils down to insisting that implicated priests were not pedophiles but homosexuals who liked young boys — and besides no more than five percent of priests had sex with children . . . and Jews and Protestants do it more.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has taken an perfectly Nixonian step of gutting a commission just days before it was to hear expert testimony indicating that Texas executed an innocent man, Cameron Todd Willingham. There is growing evidence that Texas not only convicted an innocent man but fought to prevent him from presenting evidence to prove his innocence. Just days before the hearing before the Texas Forensic Science Commission, Perry dumped the Chairman and declined to reappoint two commission members. The move may block the ability of Craig Beyler, an arson investigation expert, to prove that Willingham was innocent of setting a fire in his home in Corsicana, Texas, that killed his three daughters.
We often chronicle the abuses of judges, lawyers, and police officers on this blog. Occasionally, however, we can celebrate acts of restraint (here) as in the case of the police in Huntley Illinois. Peter J. Reilly, 85, walked into a police station and pulled a gun on the police sergeant. The sergeant did not shoot Reilly or taser him. He ordered him to drop the weapon and then walked around and grabbed the gun, which turned out to be a BB gun.
The high-end supporters of filmmaker Roman Polanski have been relying more on a documentary than documents in claiming his innocence, citing the film “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” as showing that Polanski was railroaded. The film features former prosecutor David F. Wells confirming improper communications by the judge. He has now admitted that it was a lie and he was grandstanding in the film.
Continue reading “Ex-Prosecutor Admits He Lied in Polanski Movie”
Police in Pasadena, Texas say that a Houston-area woman had a curious way of convincing her ex-husband to return her jewelry. She took his seven pet goldfish, fried them, and ate three of them. The other four were found fried and laid out on a plate. I can’t imagine how this man let this woman go.
Continue reading “A Fish Called Wanda (Texas Edition): Woman Accused of Frying and Eating Ex-Husband’s Goldfish”
Dr. Cleveland James Enmon of St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Stockton, California is accused of an astonishing crime and act of malpractice. The family of Jerry Keith Kubena, Sr. allege in a lawsuit that Enmon was resuscitating Kubena when he noticed the expensive Presidential Rolex watch on his wrist. He then allegedly abandoned any serious effort to revive the man and instead stole the wristwatch. This is why I wear a $90 camping watch from REI.
Continue reading “A Watch To Die For: California Doctor Accused of Abandoning Effort to Resuscitate Man In Order to Steal His Rolex”