Category: Politics

Bizarre, Criminal law, Free Speech, Politics, Religion, Society

Tehran Announces Creation Of Undercover “Morality Police” Force

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

125px-Flag_of_Iran.svgTehran Iran’s police chief, Hossein Sajedinia announced and defended a controversial decision to form a seven thousand strong undercover police service charged with enforcing morality codes and, reportedly, assisting regular police forces with criminal matters.

Domestic and international civil libertarians project an Orwellian abuse about to unfold in that a largely unseen monitoring system will encompass the Iranian capital and generate the continual worry of being arrested for ordinary acts the government deems objectionable.

I suspect that if the powers to be view this program to be successful, other municipalities throughout the Islamic Republic of Iran will soon follow, further repressing whatever freedom currently remains in their country.
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Constitutional Law, Free Speech, International, Media, Politics, Society

German Chancellor Merkel Continues To Lose Credibility On Free Speech Issues

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

Angela MerkelGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel keeps digging herself deeper with her latest statement regarding her government’s prosecution of satirist Jan Böhmermann at the behest of Turkish President. Now, the chancellor expresses her regrets for offering support to President Erdoğan at the expense of her countryman, claiming it was a “mistake”.
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Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Media, Politics

Public Health Expert in Georgia Sues Over Job Termination Allegedly Due To His Sermons As A Lay Minister

Unknown-1We have been discussing the increasing monitoring and punishment of public employees for statements made during their personal time, including speech normally protected as free speech. The latest example of this trend is Dr. Eric Walsh, a public health expert who also serves as a lay minister. Walsh was fired for sermons on issues ranging from homosexuality to evolution. He has now filled a lawsuit and could prove important in exploring the protection for public employees with regard to political and religious speech outside of work. There remains an uncertain line as to the right of public employees to engage in free speech outside of work that may be offensive or insulting to particular groups or faiths. As a general rule, free speech demands bright-line rules to avoid the chilling effects that come with such uncertainty.

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Academia, Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Politics, Society

Turley to Testify On The “Administrative State” In Senate Hearing

senate_large_sealJonathan-Turley-e1416865770538I will be testifying this morning at 10 am before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in SD-342, Dirksen Senate Office Building . The hearing, entitled “The Administrative State: An Examination of Federal Rulemaking” will look at the role of agencies in rulemaking in the federal system.

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Academia, Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Free Speech, International, Politics, Society

A Tun Of Trouble: Chinese Academic In Australia Forced To Resign After Calling Chinese Students “Pigs” In Anonymous Postings

1460976566392There is another controversy over the punishment of a teacher for statements made on his private time on social media. In this case, University of Sydney tutor Wu Wei, the business school’s head corporate finance tutor, used the pseudonym Pekojima and did not speak at a faculty member. However, his students found him out and exposed such statements like Wu calling Chinese students “pigs” (using the symbol “tun”) and accusing them of cheating “due to low IQs.” The comments appeared on the Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo and caused a firestorm.

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Bizarre, Politics, Science

British Minister Scuttles Boaty McBoatface

15583117-1458567987-640x360It appears that Americans are not the only voters aggrieved what is viewed as a rigged political system. We recently discussed the groundswell of support for the naming of Britain’s new $300 million research ship. The English voted overwhelmingly for “Boaty McBoatface,” which I also viewed as brilliant. The tee-shirt sales alone could fund another sister ship. However, those stodgy, killjoys in the English government have scuttled “Boaty McBoatface” — showing both a lack of democratic values as well as any cognizable sense of humor.

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Bizarre, Politics

Voters Face Broken Machines And Closed Polling Places In New York

uncle_sam_vote_0Time and time again, it has been the same story. Primary elections long expected to produce record turnouts quickly ground to a halt by malfunctioning machines and a lack of ballots. Every national election, politicians express outrage only to have the same cycle repeated. New Yorkers are saying that they are facing the same barriers to voting from long lines to broken machines.

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Bizarre, Media, Politics

POLL: Over Half Of Voters Will Not Support Trump, Cruz, or Clinton


495px-Donald_Trump_by_Gage_Skidmore225px-Hillary_Clinton_official_Secretary_of_State_portrait_cropA new poll captures just how dysfunctional our elections have become under the duopoly exercised by the two parties. Over half of the public say that they cannot support Trump, Cruz, or Clinton in the general election. Indeed, the two frontrunners, Trump and Clinton, have the highest negatives in their respective parties.  The system has produced frontrunners that 6 out of 10 voters say they cannot support.  If that is not an indictment of our current system, I am not sure what it takes to push toward reforms.

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Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Media, Politics, Society

Merkel Offers Erdoğan The Head of German Comedian In Final Surrender Of Free Speech

220px-Recep_Tayyip_ErdoganAngela MerkelChancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to first apologize to authoritarian Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for a satirical poem and then approve the prosecution of the comedian is a shocking and chilling disgrace. Merkel, who hails from the former Communist East Germany, has never been a reliable ally to free speech but the crackdown on comedian Jan Boehmermann has shocked the West. Even with the recent rollback of free speech rights in Europe, Merkel’s actions (and the cringing response of ZDF television) has been wake up call for all civil libertarians.

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Bizarre, Congress, International, Media, Politics, Society

Saudi Arabia Threatens To Sell Off $750 Billion In U.S. Assets If Congress Allows 9-11 Families To Sue

Abdullah_of_Saudi_ArabiaPresident_Barack_ObamaWhile the level of protection afforded Saudi Arabia in Washington is hardly a secret, the level of that support was on display this month when officials pushed the Obama Administration to release long-withheld pages from the 9-11 report, as we previously discussed. Those pages reportedly implicate Saudi Arabia in the 9-11 attacks. Saudi Arabia response with an express threat to sell off hundreds of billions of dollars of assets if Congress were to pass a bill allowing the Kingdom to be held liable for the attacks. One would think that the response would be outrage at the threat. After all, the bill would only allow citizens to sue and a bipartisan group of Senators have joined to support the 9-11 families. Saudi Arabia could still defend itself (and according to its government, vindicate itself) in a court of law. Of course, the United States has a real court system as opposed to the government controlled, Sharia “courts” used in the Kingdom to mete out medieval justice.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Media, Politics, Religion

Berkeley Student Removed From Plane After Speaking Arabic

Southwest_Air_LogoWe have another shocking case involving a passenger who was removed from a flight because his presence made other passengers nervous.
The student, Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, a senior at the University of California, Berkeley, was merely speaking in Arabic to his uncle in Iraq and recounting an exciting speech that he attended by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. After his call, he was told that he was making passengers nervous by speaking in Arabic and removed from the flight.

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Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, Justice, Media, Politics, Society

Scapegoats Of The Ottoman Empire: Merkel Sacrifices German Satirist To Placate Turkey’s Erdoğan

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

220px-Angela_Merkel_(2008)Free speech rights in Germany took another worrying turn for the worse when German Chancellor Angela Merkel personally approved an investigation of a German citizen accused of insulting Turkey’s President Recep Erdoğan, a world leader personally responsible for the erosion of free speech in this NATO member state.

The timing and enthusiasm, despite proffers to the contrary, of the German government’s persecution of satirist Jan Böhmermann for his broadcast of a poem critical of President Erdoğan coincides directly with the German Government trying to reach a re-settlement agreement with Turkey to address the refugee crisis besieging many European nations–a situation politically damaging to Merkel’s image.

We featured numerous articles relating to President Erdoğan’s attacks on newspapers, individuals, internationals, and any critics of him who are within reach of this grasp, citing a bizarre form of Lèse majesté laws as justification. Now, Merkel is demonstrating a willingness to use a rather dusty remnant of such a statute in Germany as a tool to preserve the ego of a foreign head of state, to accomplish a domestic political goal.

For his part, Mr Böhmermann risks five years incarceration for the act of reciting poetry. In several day’s time, he became a convenient scapegoat to placate a foreign leader bent on resurrecting a Neo-Ottoman-Empire, with Erdoğan as its sultan.
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Academia, Free Speech, Politics, Society

Tulane Frat Constructs Wall With “Trump” and “Make America Great Again” Written On It . . . Other Students Tear Down Wall And University Criticizes Fraternity

Cf9kh48UEAEyAz8There is an intense controversy at Tulane University (where I began my teaching career) in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Kappa Alpha fraternity members built a wall made of sandbags with the message “Make America Great Again” and “Trump” plastered across it on their off-campus house. What is astonishing is that university groups and members have rallied to support alleged members of the football team who tore down the wall in a denial of free speech and an act of trespass.

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Academia, Media, Politics

University of California at Davis Hired Consultants To Remove References To Pepper-Spraying Protesters and To Improve Chancellor’s Image

175px-The_University_of_California_Davis.svg220px-Linda_Katehi_Head_Shot_2015There is a surprising report out of California that UC Davis contracted with consultants for at least $175,000 to”scrub the Internet of negative online postings following the November 2011 pepper-spraying of students. Equally disconcerting is that UC Davis paid to have these consultants improve the reputation of Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi (right). I consider giving state money to consultants to improve your image as Chancellor to be a shocking misuse of money that should go to educational programs and expenses.

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Criminal law, International, Politics, Religion

Saudi Religious Police Stripped Of Power To Arrest

125px-Coat_of_arms_of_Saudi_Arabia.svgWe regularly discuss horrific reports from Saudi Arabia of beheadings and floggings under its medieval Islamic Sharia law system. Finally, there is a chance to report on a positive development out of the Kingdom. The Saudi cabinet has approved a major change related to the infamous religious police, or Mutawaa. The religious police will now longer have the power to arrest citizens and must report all alleged crimes to the police instead. Of course, the reform falls short of the obvious and most meaningful reform: getting rid of the roaming religious police entirely.

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