Teen Vogue columnist Emily Lindin is under fire this week after writing how she is “not at all concerned about innocent men losing their jobs” over false allegations of sexual assault or harassment. Lindin dismissed the dangers of false claims as low in joining other feminist writers in arguing that women must be believed in such cases. Indeed, Lindin wrote that even raising false claims could be a sign of hostility to women. I wrote recently how this standard was not used during the Clinton presidency where leading feminists not only supported Bill Clinton but continue to flock to events featuring the alleged sexual harasser and assaulter.
Category: Media
In celebration of Thanksgiving, I give you our annual Turkey Torts of civil and criminal cases that add liability to libations on this special day (with past cases at the bottom). Many criminal defense attorneys and torts attorneys give special thanks for a holiday that can involve copious amounts of alcohol, strained family relations, over-the-hill amateur football players, “Black Friday” sale stampedes, and novice cooks. Indeed, this year, the Kellem family started early by bagging a 30-pound wild Turkey in Indiana when it went smashing through their rental car window. Indeed, this year saw repeated warnings of aggressive wild turkeys during mating season causing accidents and injuries. The result is a horn of plenty for litigators.
Of course, some accidents have happy endings. For example, the Macy’s parade (as discussed below) has had its share of balloon accidents but last year’s parade featured Miss Piggy saving singing icon Tony Bennett from a potentially disastrous slip and fall.
Likewise, no one was hurt when a wife reportedly varnished her turkey. Her husband decided earlier to put some varnish in a container in the refrigerator. The wife proceeded to baste the turkey with it. The guests remarked on how picture perfect it looked but then discovered that beauty is only skin deep.
Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving!
Harvard University has been accused of failing to cooperate with an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice on its use of race in admissions. While such lack of cooperation with discrimination investigation was once the signature of universities fighting desegregation, it has now become something of a badge of honor for academics who are obstructing efforts to determine if students are being turned down based on their race, particularly Asian students.
Continue reading “Harvard Faces Federal Investigation Over Racial Discrimination In Admissions”
We have hit another milestone today with over 33,000,000 views. We are also expected to reach 35,000 followers on Twitter. That hardly makes us competition for the largest sites but it is still an impressive collection of people seeking a place for civil but passionate discourse on legal and policy issues of our time (and perhaps a few wacky stories). We often use these milestones to look at the current profile of the blog and its supporters around the world.
As always, I want to offer special thanks for our weekend contributors: Mike Appleton, Larry Rafferty, Darren Smith, Kimberly Dienes, and Cara Gallagher (particularly Darren who continues help up with periodic technical problems etc).
I particularly want to thank our regular commentators and readers. We try to keep this blog as an open forum with as little interference or monitoring of the comments as possible. Given our free speech orientation, we try not to delete comments and, for that reason, we are deeply appreciative of how most people avoid personal or offensive comments in debating these issues. We have had to delete a handful of comments with personal attacks or profanity but the number remains quite low for a blog of this size. The success of this blog is due to the fact that we offer something more than the all-too-common troll-driven, angry, and insulting commentary of the Internet. Thank you for voluntarily assuming restraint over the tenor and content of your comments. Continue reading “RES IPSA HITS 33,000,000”
I have been critical of the representation afforded by Gloria Allred and her daughter Lisa Bloom in past cases, including the rapid calling of press conferences at the height of news cycles. Bloom has had public squabbles with clients including Harvey Weinstein and Kathy Griffin. While media management is part of zealous representation, there are times when I am left uncertain as to the legal strategy behind press conferences. In the case of Allred’s representation of Roy Moore accuser Beverly Nelson, the press conference has not only resulted in her being nationally ridiculed but she is now accused of falsifying Moore’s signature on a yearbook. Allred’s defense of her client on the charge has been so anemic and uncertain that many have taken it as a concession. As a result, Allred has given Moore just the issue to paint all of these women as liars and made the failure to turn over the yearbook the element of doubt that he was so desperately searching for in this scandal. Just as I was critical of Moore’s counsel, this situation could not be worse for Allred’s client. This was a predictable attack that Allred should have anticipated and had a response (other than we will turn over the yearbook in time) to blunt the attack on her client . . . better parading her in front of cameras.
Below is my column in USA Today on the plan to bar Roy Moore from taking his Senate seat, if he is elected in Alabama. For once in his checkered career, Moore would actually have the constitution on his side in challenging such efforts. Like the Kübler–Ross model of the stages of grief, the Senate may have to move from exclusion to expulsion to acceptance of a Senator Moore.
The unfolding disaster surrounding Roy Moore truly gets worse the day. In the last 24 hours, two more women with highly compelling accounts described the same conduct of Moore pursuing very young girls while a prosecutors in his 30s. This includes a girl who Moore allegedly pulled out of her trig class in high school to ask out. She said that she later avoided him after one date where she felt he forced himself on her against her will. Moore has made the situation worse with conflicting and unconvincing statements about his alleged penchant for very young girls. However, if Moore’s self-defense has been wanting, the defense by two of his lawyers has been even worse.
Just when you thought allegations could not get worse for GOP Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, it does. New allegations have surfaced that Moore was not only widely known to be someone who hit on young girls in Gadsden, Alabama but he was allegedly put on a watch list for the local mall to be kept away from young girls due to predatory behavior. Despite virtually universal calls in Washington and the GOP for Moore to withdraw, he is refusing to do so even as his campaign is buried in allegations from an ever widening array of alleged victims, neighbors, former colleagues, and now mall workers. Even with the Senate majority at stake, the GOP majority leader Michael McConnell has said that he would prefer to lose the seat and possibly the Senate rather than have to seat the likes of Roy Moore. In the meantime, Moore went to a Baptist revival to reaffirm yesterday that he is not dropping out and that this is a “spiritual” battle for all faithful Alabamans.Continue reading “Mall Menace? Moore Allegations Mount As GOP Tries To Force His Withdrawal”
Former Alabama Chief Justice and U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore is facing new allegations today from yet another women who says that he pursued her as a young teenage girl. Beverly Young Nelson was 16 when she says that Moore tried to rape her after offering her a car ride home. Moore says that he does not know Nelson but the yearbook page above contains a personal message from him reading “To a sweeter girl I could not say Merry Christmas” — signed “Roy Moore D.A.” The pattern of allegations from so many women have made Moore’s continuance in the campaign untenable. Not only have GOP senators demanded his withdrawal but some are discussing an expulsion vote if he were to be elected. In the meantime, Moore is now threatening a lawsuit against the Washington Post for defamation, but the threat is curious in both its sole target and the specific fact being claimed defamatory. Notably, his wife has now said that she will also sue. There is not however an actual lawsuit at this time and the Moores are unclear on when a complaint will be filed.Continue reading “Moore Charges As The Alabama Candidate Threatens To Sue Washington Post”
Donna Brazile’s disclosure of an agreement between the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton Campaign has recreated a firestorm in confirming widely held views that the primary was rigged to guaranty Clinton the nomination. Even before the disclosure, many of us had reached that conclusion after debates schedules and other conditions during the primary seemed to uniformly favor Clinton. Brazile however is now insisting that she never said the primary was “rigged,” though she stands by her disclosure of the agreement as well as her statement that the Clinton campaign was “cult-like.” It was a classic Brazile moment — reminiscent of her prior false statements to the media about leaking questions to Clinton before the debate and even suggesting that her emails were altered. Now Brazile is caught in her own Clintonian “meaning of is” distinction on what she wrote in her book.
Two universities this month were embroiled in alleged racist incidents that led to campus alerts and national controversy. It turns out however that the “victims” at both the Air Force Academy and Kent State were actually the aggressors in the creation of racist hoaxes. The incident at the Air Force Academy led to an angry speech by Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria, who ordered all 4000 cadets to stand at attention as he railed on the racist or racists in their ranks.
Much of the negative media directed toward President Donald Trump is clearly self-inflicted. However, as we have previously discussed, there has been a pronounced anti-trump media bias. Indeed, former Jimmy Carter has observed that the media has treated Trump usually harshly. An example of this bias was evident is the odd fish story that was aired this week by CNN and other outlets about Trump overfeeding the famed Koi pond at Alaska Palace in TokyoAs many on this blog are aware, I testified in favor of the confirmation of Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch at his Senate hearing. I believe him to be a jurist with a deep commitment to first principles of constitutional interpretation. It was for that reason that I was taken aback the the dismissive and careless comments on Gorsuch by National Public Radio Legal Affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg. Totenberg used the Supreme Court podcast “First Mondays” to launch into Gorsuch for what Totenberg described as pedantic and annoying conduct in conferences and oral arguments. Gorsuch’s colleagues on the Tenth Circuit as well as the broader appellate bench uniformly described him as a collegial, civil, and respectful colleague.
Continue reading “Totenberg: Kagan Appears Smarter and Tougher Than Gorsuch”
Below is my column in the Hill Newspaper on the Manafort indictment. Details continue to unfold in the Mueller investigation, particularly after the plea agreement with George Papadopoulos, 30. While Papadopoulos is clearly cooperating and could spell bad news for the the White House, the Manafort indictment was conspicuously removed from the Trump campaign. Mueller appears to have bagged a former high-ranking Trump campaign official, but the center of gravity of the criminal complaint remains far afield from the White House.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “THE MANAFORT INDICTMENT AND INVESTIGATING WHERE THE LIGHT IS”
An official at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has posted a help wanted ad for its technology department that seeks the best candidates unless they are heterosexual white males. The alleged email from Data Services manager Madeleine Leader was express and open about her prejudice against straight white males but neither the DNC nor Leader felt obligated to respond to the controversy. The story was reported from the Daily Wire.
I have written to the DNC to try to get a comment but have not received a response. I will update with any response from the DNC.