I am delighted to announce the addition of another weekend contributors, Cara Gallagher, to our crew. Cara teaches government, politics, and law to high school students at The Latin School of Chicago. She is a wonderful writer will bring a new and fresh perspective to RIL. We have benefited from writers — both as contributors and commenters — from wide social, demographic, and professional spectrum. One of the most interesting aspects of this blog is to see how differently people view the same issues or images. While our discussions are often passionate, we strive to maintain a civil and diverse discussion. I believe Cara will be an exciting new voice as a commentator.
Category: Media
We have yet another crackdown on free speech in the name of religion. A New Zealand bar manager in Myanmar was arrested with two Myanmar employees for “insulting Buddha” by posting an advertisement showing a psychedelic image of Buddha wearing headphones. Philip Blackwood was arrested with the bar’s owner, Tun Thurein, and an employee. The men could be sent to prison for two years because the image insulted Buddhists.
U.S. District Judge John Tharp Jr. has cleared the way for the blog Above the Law to stand trial for defamation and invasion of privacy in an action brought by Illinois attorney, Meanith Huon. Huon brought suit over coverage of her criminal trial for an alleged aggravated assault against a woman who responded to a Craigslist ad seeking promotional models. ATL is a popular blog for legal gossip and stories that was founded by David Lat. Lat is the Managing Editor and Elie Mystal the Editor on the website. Both are named defendants in the lawsuit (with a long list of other defendants).
Continue reading “[Not] Above The Law: Federal Court Clears Defamation Suit Against ATL For Trial”
The Rolling Stone Magazine and it writer, Sabrina Rubin Erdely (right), are facing yet another story detailing the astonishing lapses in journalistic ethics and practices related to its article about a rape on the University of Virginia campus. Among the most starting is a statement by Erdely that a key student would not speak with her about the rape out of loyalty to his fraternity. That student says that Erdely never contacted him and that he would have been more than willing to speak to her. As for the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, it confirmed that it did not host any registered social event the weekend of Sept. 28, 2012.
Below is my column today in USA Today on the torture report. This is the slightly longer version that ran on the Internet.
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Continue reading “TRUTH WILL OUT: THE SENATE REPORT CONTAINS SOME INCONVENIENT TRUTHS”
Last November, questions were raised over a decision of prosecutors to drop all charges against 13th Court Justice of Appeals Nora Longoria for alleged drunk driving. There were concerns of special treatment but prosecutors insisted that they simply lacked sufficient evidence. Now it appears that there was a dash cam video that clearly shows Longoria unable to complete sobriety tests. It would seems a fairly easy case for prosecution.
Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw) Weekend Contributor
The Banksters are at it again. You may recall an article that I wrote in March of 2013 which detailed a plan agreed to by the Bank of England and the FDIC which would allow banks to grab depositors funds in order to avoid a bank failure. The prime example given in that article was a similar plan that was put into action in Cyprus. Similar plans were on the books elsewhere, but the Cyprus grab had actually been activated.
Now it seems that the joint FDIC-Bank of England agreement from December of 2012 was not enough to make the Banksters whole in the event that their derivative gambling went south. The idea has gone global and it puts all of our deposits, and even our pension investments at risk! Continue reading “Bail-Ins and Empty Pockets”
Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson indicated this week that they are “pursuing” an investigation into whether comments made by Michael Brown’s stepfather Louis Head (shown here in the white cap) should be charged for his inciting a riot for his response to the news that there would be no indictment of Officer Darren White. While I certainly do not condone the language, I have long been a critic of such “violent speech” prosecutions and I believe that such charges would violate his free speech rights and ignore the mitigating factor of a family member in a highly emotional position that night. Warning: profane words are contained in the story below and the videotape.
Continue reading “Should Michael Brown’s Stepfather Be Criminally Charged For Inciting A Riot?”
Last September, we passed the 23,000,000 mark and today we hit 24,000,000. We have used these moments to give thanks for our many regular readers around the world and give you an idea of the current profile of readers on the blog. We continue to rank in the top legal blogs in the world and I am particularly gladdened by the growing international readership. As always, I want to offer special thanks for our weekend contributors: Mike Appleton, Larry Rafferty, Charlton Stanley, Darren Smith, and Kimberly Dienes. The increasing traffic on the site is gratifying and reaffirms that there are many people looking for mature and civil debate. Even among the top ten sites, I believe that we offer a unique forum of different views and backgrounds in the discussion of law and politics (and a few quirky items).
The Washington Post has published a hard-hitting editorial that not only accuses the Obama Administration of fudging the figures on its unilateral immigration changes but calls the action “unprecedented” and “indefensible.” The stinging editorial from a generally favorable newspaper amplifies the criticism of others, including myself, that President Obama is doing considerable damage to the separation of powers and, more generally, our constitutional system in these actions.
Continue reading “Washington Post: Obama’s Unilateral Immigration Action Is “Unprecedented””
The debate in the United States continues over whether Edward Snowden is a whistleblower or a traitor. I previously wrote a column on that question. There appears to be less debate in Sweden where Snowden received standing ovations in the Swedish parliament after being given the Right Livelihood award for his disclosure of sweeping surveillance programs of the United States. The award honors Snowden “for his courage and skill in revealing the unprecedented extent of state surveillance violating basic democratic processes and constitutional rights”. This week, the new movie on Snowden also captured two more awards and critical acclaim.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) made headlines yesterday with public statements that passing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (or Obamacare) was a mistake and “blew” the opportunity of the party to pass meaningful legislation that appealed to the middle class. As the third-ranking member of the Senate Democratic leadership, the statement was a rare public rebuke of the strategy of the Obama Administration and the Democratic leadership. Schumer stated that at the time “Americans were crying out for an end to the recession, for better wages and more jobs; not for changes in their healthcare.”
Scientists and environmentalists might be a bit alarmed by a bill introduced in the House that references a scientific theory that they were entirely (and perhaps blissfully) ignorant of before last week: the “Stockman Effect.” The Stockman Effect Act mandates that the director of the National Science Foundation must commission a study on the extent to which changes in the weather can be attributed to natural shifts in the Earth’s magnetic fields. That may have led many scrambling for their textbooks and scientific journals. They would have been better off looking up the names of the sponsors. Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) clearly is looking for a legacy as he completes his final term in office after losing his seat in the last election. He wants a federal law that orders that a federal study of his own theory. Stockman, as you might imagine, is a sceptic of man-made climate change theories but he is an advocate of . . . well . . . Stockman science.
The Grand Jury in Missouri appears to have rendered its decision in the shooting investigation Michael Brown. It is expected to be announced shortly. Below is my column in USA Today.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
In another example of the diminishing freedom of the press in Turkey, Yurt newspaper reporter Meriç Şenyüz and Ulusal Kanal reporter Özer Sürmeli received sentences of six and five months respectively for their reporting of a December seventeenth corruption probe involving, among others, then Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son Bilal Erdoğan.
Turkey has an unfortunate history of repression of media critical of government, though in the last year an estimated forty imprisoned journalists have been released. According to BIA Media Monitoring Reports, the number of jailed journalists in Turkey fell from 104 in 2010 to 59 last year and to 19 by November 2014. However the underlying trend of jailing journalists in Turkey and many other nations of the world continues.
Continue reading “Journalists In Turkey Sentenced To Prison For Reporting Corruption In Government”