I have previously written about the continued use of blasphemy laws in the West, including Spain and Ireland. The continued enforcement of medieval concepts of blasphemy as evidenced by the detention of Willy Toledo, who was accused of ridiculing God and the Virgin Mary in court. Toledo is being targeted due to comments made on social media in support of three women who are being prosecuted for blasphemy. It is chilling to think that an actual judge would hold such a hearing in modern times. The nation that gave us the Spanish Inquisition still claims the right to imprison people for insulting God.
We have previously discussed the alarming rollback on free speech rights in the West, particularly in France (here and here and here and here and here and here) and England (here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). Much of this trend is tied to the expansion of hate speech and non-discrimination laws as well as blasphemy laws. Continue reading “The Spanish Inquisition: Actor Becomes Latest Blasphemy Target In The West”
George Washington University has found itself in the eye of the storm over Hurricane Maria after President Donald 
Hillary Clinton surprisingly tweeted a clearly false allegation against Judge Brett Kavanaugh on Wednesday that had already been widely disproven. Clinton told followers that Kavanaugh referred to birth control pills as “abortion-inducing drugs.” He didn’t but that does not appear to matter to many spreading this false story, including Clinton. Clinton said that she wanted to be
College of Southern Nevada Sociology Professor Mark Bird allegedly had a curious way of protesting President Trump: he shot himself in the arm. According to the 
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the rising pressure on Sen. Susan Collins over her vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. There is considerable anger over Collins maintaining that she would never vote for a nominee hostile to Roe v. Wade but refusing to acknowledge the widespread view of Kavanaugh as not only hostile to the reasoning of Roe but appointed by a president who promised only to nominate an anti-Roe justice. As with Neil Gorsuch, Collins appears inclined to vote for Kavanaugh despite her oft-repeated pledge. She insists that she is comfortable after Kavanaugh told her that Roe is “settled” law. However, many have put Collins’ position as falling somewhere between hopeful thinking and willful blindness. As discussed below, the unsettling thing about settled law is that only five votes make anything truly settled on the Court.
I will have the pleasure of participating in the annual Supreme Court review today previewing the upcoming October term. The other panelists will be former Solicitor General Gregory Garre, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund President and Director-Counsel Sherrilyn Ifill. Associate Dean (and Supreme Court litigator) Alan Morrison will moderate the panel.
Yesterday, we 
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the controversial declaration of Sen. Cory Booker (D, NJ) that he was taking his “Spartacus” stand in releasing a restricted, non-public document regardless of the consequences. Well, it was not quite a dramatic as suggested since the document was in fact already public. As should come as no surprise to many of you who know my love for military history, I did however appreciate the reference.
We
The opening day has finally arrived for many of us who are football fans. However, if there was hope to have a season without the highly divisive anthem controversy, those hopes were dashed as the 
Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos was sentenced Friday to just 14 days in prison for lying to the FBI despite the position of Special Counsel Robert Mueller that he should spend at least six months in jail. The position of Mueller appeared to reflect a view that Papadopoulos was not as cooperative (or perhaps productive) as a witness. In the end, Papadopoulos appeared in an almost hostile position vis-a-vis Mueller. 
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing and the opening statement of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse attacking the conservatives on the Supreme Court as a virtual ideological cabal. I have always found Whitehouse an articulate and insightful member of the Congress. He was not alone in these attacks. However, I found the attack on the current justices to be unwarranted and distorted. There is a tendency when you disagree with a decision like Hobby Lobby to conclude that the motivations of the justices must therefore be raw politics. The possibility that the justices, including Justice Kennedy, are following a coherent jurisprudential view is dismissed in favor of partisanship.
In an 
Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore has long been an perpetual litigation machine. Indeed, Moore and his wife appear to have created a cottage industry out of being themselves — getting people to give them huge amounts of money to fight their enemies. 
The hysteria and hypocrisy that characterizes modern American politics seems to be worse by the day on both sides of the political aisle. One of the latest examples of distemper is an attack on the woman who was placed behind Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh for his hearings. Handlers will often put someone over the shoulder of a nominee for the right optics to reflect his supporters. With attacks over his view of Roe v. Wade, it is not surprising that the White House chose a young former female clerk of Kavanaugh named Zina Gelman Bash. Bash however found herself being called a white supremacist for flashing an “OK” gesture associated with the “white power” movement. It seems clearly to be just the arbitrary positioning of her hands but liberal bloggers like Amy Siskind, president and co-founder of the feminist advocacy group New Agenda, went into full riot over the alleged reveal of Bash’s white power links. The problem is that Bash has Jewish roots and Mexican heritage and has absolutely no ties or association with such groups. She simply crossed her arms and fingers during the long hearing. It is the ultimate sign of our times in how we have lost all decency and decorum in our politics.