A Florida jury has handed down a massive privacy violation award in favor of professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea. The jury of four women and two men voted to give Hogan $115 million in damages against Gawker Media, Gawker founder Nick Denton and former editor Albert Daulerio for violating his privacy by publishing an excerpt of a sex tape. It is a shockingly large award when one considers that the jury could still add punitive damages on top of the award. Notably, Hogan was seeking $100 million in the lawsuit.
Category: Media
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor.
I guess I will defer to Pete Seeger’s lyrical talent to explain through verse the disappearance of our friends pejoratively referred to as “birthers”: that is, those who assert President Obama was born in Kenya and as such is ineligible for office due to not being a “natural born citizen” as required by the US Constitution.
Now that Mr. Obama is in the final year of his presidency, one would think that Birthers would be legions to storm forward and attack presidential hopeful Ted Cruz, who by his own admission and clearly established facts, was–are you ready for this–born outside the USA!
It begs of course the question…Where have all the Birthers gone?
Continue reading “Where Have All The Birthers Gone? Cruz Is Running”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
I recently acquired an Asahel Curtis photographic negative and ask your help in determining where it was taken and possibly who are the persons depicted.
Asahel Curtis was a prolific photographer who captured numerous cultural and scenic aspects of Washington, Oregon and Alaska during his career spanning from the early 1890s until 1941.
Continue reading “Crowdsource Request: Help Identify This Asahel Curtis Photo”
Turkey continues its plunge into authoritarianism under President Tayyip Erdogan. So as to leave no doubt about his tyrannical aspirations, our close ally Erdogan is seeking to change the definition of a terrorist to include anyone he deems to be “supporters” of opponents or listed groups, including members of parliament, civil liberties activists and of course journalists. In in a televised speech this week he declared “democracy,, freedom, and the rule of law have absolutely no value any longer.”
Continue reading ““Democracy, Freedom, and the Rule of Law Have Absolutely No Value Any Longer”: Turkish President Seeks To Declare Journalists and Others “Terrorists” Under Proposed Law”
Florida congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has been widely accused of being a key architect of “rigging” the primary in favor of Hillary Clinton. Among the various controversies surrounding Wasserman Schultz was her blocking Bernie Sanders’ campaign from accessing the DNC’s voter data files, which contain email addresses and telephone numbers for constituents. Now Tim Canova, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University who is running against Wasserman Schultz for her seat in Congress, has revealed that found out that he too is blocked from accessing Democratic voter data. Mind you he is a Democrat but the state Democrats confirmed that only incumbents can gain access to the valuable resource in what critics have said is a blatant effort to favor such candidates. Canova has made the denial to the VAN system part of his campaign while various groups and individuals have campaigned for her to be removed as DNC head.
Continue reading ““We Stand With Our Incumbent Members”: Opponent of Wasserman Schultz in Florida Denied Access To Democratic Voter Data”
President Barack Obama today surprised many by nominating the moderate Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Merrick Garland. Garland is unlikely to thrill liberals. He is fairly conservative on criminal cases and tends to favor government interests. Conservatives are not going to like his vote to move to reconsider the case that became the historic Heller decision that recognized the individual right to bear arms under the Second Amendment. However, Garland moves virtually everything off the table for the Republicans. While a moderate, he is as far right as a Democratic president could go.
Continue reading “PRESIDENT OBAMA NOMINATES MERRICK GARLAND”
I will be testifying Tuesday afternoon before the Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law of the Committee on the Judiciary
in the United States House of Representatives. The hearing is entitled “The Chevron Doctrine: Constitutional and Statutory Questions in Judicial Deference to Agencies”. The hearing will be held in Room 2141 (Rayburn House Office Building) and begin at 1:30 PM. My written testimony is below
Continue reading “TURLEY TESTIFIES ON THE CHEVRON DOCTRINE IN HOUSE HEARING”
We have another abusive case out of Egypt under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. President al-Sisi has destroyed guarantees of free speech and the free press in country, which once seemed on the road to becoming an exception in the Muslim world as a nation embracing basic civil liberties. In the latest case, an Egyptian court sentenced blogger Taymour el-Sobki to three years in jail with hard labor for “spreading false news.” The “false news”? He simply opined that 45 percent of married Egyptian women have the readiness for “immorality” and to cheat on their husbands. That now gets you three years in Egypt.
Continue reading “Blogger Given Three Years In Jail For Discussing Infidelity in Egypt”
This election just seems to get weirder and weirder. On the heels of her praise and then unpraise for Nancy Reagan on AIDS, Hillary Clinton is again being charged with rewriting history in attacking Bernie Sanders for his absence on the health care fight back in 1993-94. New York Times reporter Amy Chozick quoted Hillary Clinton in a tweet saying, “I don’t know where he was when I was trying to get health care in 93 and 94.” The Sanders campaign quickly responded with a picture showing Sanders standing right next to her and then released another signed picture where she commended him for his work in seeking such national health care coverage at the time. CNN and other media outfits already called out Clinton for the “cheap shot” in falsely suggesting that Sanders did not support the auto bailout. This is not going to help those low trustworthiness numbers plaguing Clinton.
I watched last night’s debate with great interest. I thought both Sanders and Clinton had some very strong moments. However, I tend to watch these debates for the legal issues and I was most struck by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s discussion of the email scandal. First, she declared that she will never be indicted — a statement that may irritate federal investigations looking into possible crimes. She certainly has defenses and the odds may indeed favor her. However, defense attorneys usually discourage such statements from potential targets which can enrage prosecutors as presumptuous or suggesting some level of immunity. Second, she insisted that her “predecessors did the same thing” that she did on emails — a statement that is demonstrably untrue but again was left unchallenged by the journalists.
Filmmaking has always been treated as an art form that expresses the vision of actors and directors in the same unique way as painters or authors. Departing from that traditional view, the National Film Board of Canada has committed itself to a quota system that will require half of its publicly funded movies to be directed by women. The policy should raise serious artistic objections as being detached from the art form and artistic vision.
Continue reading “Canadian Film Board Adopts Gender Quota System For Directors”
There is a troubling case out of New York where U.S. District Judge Mae D’Agostino of Albany threw out a lawsuit alleging the denial of free speech after the government banned a food truck from a vendor program because its name was an Italian slur. The slur is “dago.” It appeared on the food truck “Wandering Dago” owned by Andrew Loguidice and Brandon Snooks. I am half Sicilian and I may share that heritage with Judge D’Agostino. However, while we may both view the slur in the same way, we may see free speech protections differently. Judge D’Agostino wrote a comprehensive and interesting opinion that carefully looked at the governing precedent over forums and free speech. Moreover, it is important to note that Judge D’agostina was applying cases that she felt compelled this result as a lower court judge. She ultimately found no protection for barring a truck based on the sensibilities of others. The case is Wandering Dago, Inc. v. Destito, 1:13-cv-1053 (MAD/DJS), UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26046.
Below is my Sunday column yesterday in the Washington Post on reforming our political system. We are certainly, as the Chinese curse says, “living in interesting times.” We seem to be in the midst of an American revolution where citizens have arisen in collective disgust of the establishment and the status quo. For years, citizens have objected to a political system that is dysfunctional and detached. The two parties have largely ignored these objections and many have objected to this “doupoly” on power. For many, answer of the two parties to the American people seems to be the same as Henry Ford to customers of the Model T Ford: “you can have any color so long as it is black.” In the United States, you can have any party so long as it is red or blue; Republican or Democrat. Yet, in 2016, the public has responded with a deafening rejection of the establishment. The most obvious is Donald Trump who is the perfect personification of an angry electorate. On the democratic side, a 74-year-old Democratic Socialist has rocked the Democratic party, which overtly rigged a primary system to guarantee the selection of the ultimate establishment figure: Hillary Clinton. However, we seem to go this cathartic exercise every four years rather than seek some changes to break down the insularity of government. There is another way. Instead of just choosing some personality that matches our angry politics, we can really change the system . . . for the better. The Framers gave the public the power to solve our own problems, including the ability to circumvent Congress with a constitutional convention. We have the anger. The question is whether we have the answer.
Below is the column. There are a host of other changes that can be made to improve the system, including many that can be down without a constitutional amendment. However, there is a value in focusing on a few basics that could have a transformative effect on the respective branches of government.
Continue reading “Voters Want A Revolution. Here’s What It Would Take.”
As China continues its crackdown on dissidents and journalists and lawyers, it appears to be slipping back into its old habits from the cultural revolution. Chinese censors have issued new regulations banning all depictions of gay people on television. Other depictions banned as “vulgar, immoral and unhealthy content include content showing extramarital affairs, one night stands and underage relationships as illegal on screen. The new censorship regulation also extends to “smoking, drinking, adultery, sexually suggestive clothing, even reincarnation.”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
While I am usually in agreement with Professor Turley’s views on free speech, I must disagree in large part with his opinion as he states in his article concerning England moving to bar support of local governments to boycott Israel and by extension other governments.
I do agree with his concern and objection of governments jailing individual citizens for engaging in boycotts of various entities. Allowing local governments to enact legislation calling for boycotts themselves is however problematic.
Continue reading “A Dissenting View On Our Host’s Article “England Moves To Bar Support For Israeli Boycott Movement””