Category: Justice

Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Justice, Military, Politics, Society, Things That Tick Me Off

Just Who Gains From Voter ID Laws?

Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger

It seems that almost everywhere you look, some State is trying to reduce the number of early voting days, purging the voting rolls and making it harder for citizens to cast their votes.  The State of Florida has recently attempted to remove legitimate voters off its voter rolls and the State of Georgia recently attempted to restrict the time when a military absentee ballot can be counted as I wrote about earlier on this blog. Georgia  Now, we have some hard evidence of just who is getting removed or impacted by the various State’s attempts to cure the imagined Voter fraud problem! Continue reading “Just Who Gains From Voter ID Laws?” →

Courts, Criminal law, Justice, Lawyering, Politics

Federal Court Rules Against Obama Administration in Black Panther FOIA Case

There has been relatively little attention given a remarkable ruling by United States District Court Judge Reggie Walton. In ruling that the conservative watch dog group Judicial Watch was entitled to attorneys fees, Walton found that Obama political appointees not only influenced the decision in the controversial Black Panther case but withheld documents that should have been turned over under federal law.

Continue reading “Federal Court Rules Against Obama Administration in Black Panther FOIA Case” →

Justice, Religion, Torts

Chick-Fil-A Sued By Employee Who Was Fired So She Could Be ‘Stay Home’ Mom

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

Well, who could have seen this coming? Brenda Honeycutt was an employee at the Duluth, Georgia, Chick-Fil-A, when, according to the complaint,  her supervisor, Jeff Howard, fired her so she could be a “stay home” mother. Honeycutt was promoted to General Manager by the previous management and performed her duties in a satisfactory or above satisfactory manner, according to the complaint filed in the United States District Court, Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division.

Continue reading “Chick-Fil-A Sued By Employee Who Was Fired So She Could Be ‘Stay Home’ Mom” →

Criminal law, Free Speech, Justice, Media

Teenage Victim of Sexual Assault in Kentucky Faces Charges after Tweeting the Names of Her Attackers

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

(Updated below.)

I think the following story out of Kentucky is an interesting one. Savannah Dietrich, a seventeen-year-old, is the victim of a sexual assault. Last August, she was assaulted by two boys she knew after she passed out at a party. It wasn’t until months later that Dietrich learned that pictures of her assault had been taken and shared with other people.

The victim told a newspaper that she cried herself to sleep for months. She added, “I couldn’t go out in public places. You just sit there and wonder, who saw (the pictures), who knows?”

According to the Courier-Journal, Dietrich felt frustrated by what she thought “was a lenient plea bargain for two teens who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting her and circulating pictures of the incident.” She took to Twitter and named her attackers. She also tweeted, “There you go, lock me up. I’m not protecting anyone that made my life a living Hell” and “Protect rapist is more important than getting justice for the victim in Louisville.”

Continue reading “Teenage Victim of Sexual Assault in Kentucky Faces Charges after Tweeting the Names of Her Attackers” →

Academia, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Politics, Religion, Society, Uncategorized

Collateral Damage of the Police

Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger

This past week Professor Turley had two posts regarding the innocent victim of a police shooting: http://jonathanturley.org/2012/07/17/florida-police-pound-on-wrong-door-looking-for-suspect-without-identifying-themselves-thenves-then-shoot-and-kill-innocent-man-who-answers-the-door-with-weapon/#comments  and http://jonathanturley.org/2012/07/20/report-police-allegedly-increased-suspects-alleged-crime-after-shooting-third-person/#more-51907  These can fairly be called the latest installments of an ongoing series that details deaths and injuries sustained by people who are the victims of policing errors. There were a fair number of comments all lamenting yet another example of careless police work, in tandem with a propensity to shoot first and hope for the best. After awhile the comments petered out because this instance is but one of many that have been publicized by Professor Turley. He tries to focus attention on what seems to be blatant disregard for the rights of individual citizens. After all, what does one say after expressing their outrage at egregious behavior and impotently raging against the expected ensuing cover-ups? Emotionally, I personally feel horror and outrage when something like this happens and I desire justice in the form of stiff punishment for the avoidable errors that took an innocent life. Yet this occurs time and again as outrage simmers and yet another story captures our attention. It seems that nothing is ever really done with the macro-cosmic problem, even when on the individual level, though very occasionally, the people responsible are held to account. When I thought about the issue of police killing the wrong person it occurred to me that this is not something that has recently developed in our country, or indeed the rest of the world. In fact it seems to me that such occurrences represent a norm of human history that stems from how the entire concept of policing first came about. Policing had its origins in protecting wealth, property and the status quo of autocratic authority.  Continue reading “Collateral Damage of the Police” →

Academia, Bizarre, Justice, Lawyering, Society, Things That Tick Me Off

Down In The Valley V: Spanier’s Culture of Secrecy And Penn State’s Other Ignored Child Sexual Abuse Scandal

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Author note: This is the fifth in a series about the child sexual abuse scandal at The Pennsylvania State University that helped bring down iconic football coach Joe Paterno and three top officials at the premier public college in Pennsylvania.  

The Magician

Penn State’s ousted president and amateur magician, Graham Spanier, enjoyed a well-deserved reputation for secrecy while leading the state’s flagship public university. In one instance, Spanier became incensed when he learned that the Harrisburg Patriot-News had obtained the salaries of the top PSU officials —  including Joe Paterno  — from the state pension board.  (Paterno had consistently made mention of the fact that he received around $500,000 per year as a coach, donating much of it back to PSU. Many prominent FBS football coaches make up to ten times that amount and it appears Paterno was fudging a bit on his salary.) Spanier embarked on a five-year fight to block publication of the salaries, taking the case through the entire appeals process and up to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Spanier lost at every level. Undaunted and against the odds, he successfully lobbied Pennsylvania state lawmakers to reject closing the loophole which exempted college employees salaries from the state’s “right-to-know” law. With that legislative prestidigitation, he just made the problem disappear.

Continue reading “Down In The Valley V: Spanier’s Culture of Secrecy And Penn State’s Other Ignored Child Sexual Abuse Scandal” →

Justice, Society, Things That Tick Me Off

Down In The Valley IV: King Football

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Around the mid 19th Century, Southern separatists coined a name for the commodity that guaranteed their region’s prosperity and defiantly signaled their immunity from the control of the despised central government controlled by Northern industrialists – “King Cotton.” “King Cotton” became a reason and a battle cry, emboldening the separatists to strike out at Fort Sumter against perceived injustices. The slogan served as a wedge between two regions whose cooperation just two generations earlier had forged a new nation. King Cotton was deposed at Appomattox Courthouse in 1865 and the country was spared his influence for the time being.

A new king arose on those same Southern cotton fields,  now perfectly re-invented as measured, marked, and manicured line-bound rectangles with iron posts commemorating each end.   King Cotton was replaced in the Southern psyche with a sport borrowed from the ivy-covered walls of the Northeast colleges. In places like  Tuscaloosa and Baton Rouge and Knoxville and Athens, a new king was born, and his open-air castles holding 75,000+ subjects spread through the “fly-over states,” into towns with funny names, and even to the tiny central Pennsylvania town of State College. King Football reigns supreme in the minds of  many today — it’s the nation’s most popular and lucrative sport, if combined with the professional ranks, or merely in second place if you’re talking about the game played on the campuses.

Continue reading “Down In The Valley IV: King Football” →

Courts, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Politics

Scranton versus the Courts

Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger

After writing an earlier article about the Pennsylvania Voter ID law, I saw another article about a Pennsylvania issue that seems a little hard to comprehend.  Recently, the City of Scranton, PA decided that it could not afford to continue to honor its contractual obligations with its City Fire, Police and Public union workers.  One problem with Scranton’s decision is that a Federal judge had ordered that the City must honor its obligations to the employees under the terms of a temporary injunction that he granted the employees. Continue reading “Scranton versus the Courts” →

Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Free Speech, Justice, Media, Politics

Et Tu Pennslyvania?

Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger

I guess I should not be surprised when I read of certain states trying to “cleanse” the voting rolls under the guise of voter fraud.  However, I was saddened to read that the State of Pennsylvania was joining the growing list of so-called Red and some not so Red states that are taking steps to disenfranchise voters prior to the November National elections.  The State of Pennsylvania is poised to possibly disenfranchise almost 10 percent of its voting population.  “Pennsylvania’s new voter ID law, which will take effect for the first time this November, may prevent 758,939 otherwise eligible voters, who do not currently have an acceptable ID, from voting.” Think Progress Continue reading “Et Tu Pennslyvania?” →

Bizarre, Criminal law, Justice, Things That Tick Me Off

Down In The Valley III: Justice Is Mine (Updated)

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

One of the most enduring questions of the child rape scandal  at Penn State is what role did head football coach Joe Paterno play in the decision to grant his ex-right-hand man, Jerry Sandusky, carte blanche to prey on children. In a statement immediately after the scandal broke last November, Joe Paterno claimed that he reported what little he knew, did what he could, and that he wasn’t fully aware of the gruesome particulars:

Continue reading “Down In The Valley III: Justice Is Mine (Updated)” →

Academia, Criminal law, Justice, Society, Things That Tick Me Off

Down In The Valley II: What Did They Know And When Did They Know It?

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

The conviction of former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky on 45 counts of child molestation and abuse seemed like the worst storm residents of Happy Valley could have endured. Now it seems that was just the opening gust of the hurricane. A series of emails recently turned over to investigators from a secret file in AD Tim Curley’s office suggests that university president, Graham Spanier, was more involved in the cover-up that previously thought and that former PSU head coach, Joe Paterno, was just as involved as many of us thought. Just 16 days after grad student, Mike McQueary, walked into the showers at the Penn State’s football temple athletic facility to find Sandusky behind a ten-year-old making “slapping noises,” an email issued from university vice president, Gary Shultz, to Spanier setting forth the agreement to report Sandusky’s actions. On February 26, 2001, Shultz wrote the three-part plan was to “talk with the subject [Sandusky]… contact the charitable organization [Second Mile]… and contacting the Department of Welfare.” In Pennsylvania, the Department of Welfare is required to investigate all allegations of child abuse. It works hand-in-glove with the law that requires educators and those working with children to report allegations of child abuse.

Continue reading “Down In The Valley II: What Did They Know And When Did They Know It?” →

Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, International, Justice, Military, Politics, Things That Tick Me Off

Georgia On My Mind

Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger

With apologies to the writers of the famous song by the same title, I came across a small news item that didn’t make the big headlines this past week.  Our friends in Georgia just don’t seem to get the idea that their citizen soldiers deserve the same right to vote that on military members enjoy.  In the upcoming primary elections and general election cycle, Georgia has violated the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) by not providing military members the minimum amount of time between elections in order to assure that their absentee ballots arrive in time to actually be counted in the respective elections.  At least the Justice Department thinks Georgia does not have the military on its mind! Continue reading “Georgia On My Mind” →

Columns, Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Politics, Society, Supreme Court

A Bigger and Better Supreme Court

Below is my column in today’s Guardian newspaper — a further discussion of my proposal to expand the Supreme Court. While overlapping a bit with the column on Sunday in the Washington Post, the piece adds a few new details on the proposal that I first made over ten years ago.

Continue reading “A Bigger and Better Supreme Court” →

Academia, Columns, Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, International, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Politics, Society, Supreme Court

The Nineteen Member Court: The Case For Expanding The United States Supreme Court

Below is today’s column in The Washington Post Sunday Outlook. Due to the normal space restraints, the original article had to be cut down. Given the high number of comments and questions about the proposal (which I first made years ago) for the expansion of the Supreme Court, I have posted the longer, original piece. That longer version addresses some of the questions raised by readers.

Continue reading “The Nineteen Member Court: The Case For Expanding The United States Supreme Court” →

Academia, Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Free Speech, Justice, Media, Military, Politics, Religion, Society, Supreme Court

The Slippery Slope

Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger

My father had a favorite saying with which was to excoriate me on the many occasions when I had misbehaved. “The Road to Hell is paved with Good Intentions”. He used this to chastise me for some bad behavior, but more importantly to give me guidance of the “slippery-slope” that I was on when I behaved badly. Although it’s been 50 years since his death his words have remained with me even though I’ve aged into a man who’s lived far longer than he had. It’s been my observation that there is truth to this cliche, yet it does represent a form of logic, the “slippery-slope”, which can often also be specious. When I read this New York Times Article: “Slippery-Slope Logic, Applied to Health Care” by Economist Richard H. Thaler, Published: May 12, 2012http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/business/economy/slippery-slope-logic-vs-health-care-law-economic-view.html , I was again reminded of my Father’s admonitions and began to think about the use of “slippery-slope” logic. As it relates to SCOTUS and health care Mr. Thaler’s critique of the “slippery-slope” logic being applied by Justice Scalia did ring true:

“Consider these now-famous comments about broccoli from Justice Antonin G. Scalia during the oral arguments. “Everybody has to buy food sooner or later, so you define the market as food,” he said. “Therefore, everybody is in the market. Therefore, you can make people buy broccoli.” ”

 “Justice Scalia is arguing that if the court lets Congress create a mandate to buy health insurance, nothing could stop Congress from passing laws requiring everyone to buy broccoli and to join a gym.”

 “Please stop! The very fact that a slippery slope is being cited as grounds for declaring the law unconstitutional — despite that “significant deference” usually given to laws passed by Congress — tells you all that you need to know about the argument’s validity. Can anyone imagine Congress passing a broccoli mandate law, much less the court allowing it to take effect?”

These are excepts from Mr. Thaler’s article. His short column is well worth reading for his examples of the problem with “slippery-slope” logic. My piece though, is neither about health care, nor SCOTUS. I’d like to explore the question of the validity of “slippery-slope” arguments that have been commonly used in public discourse and whether we would be better off as a society if we ignored them. Continue reading “The Slippery Slope” →