Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Front, has been criminally charged with inciting racial hatred in the latest example of the rollback on basic free speech rights in France and other European nations. I have been a critic of the crackdown on free speech in France, including the hypocrisy of the government in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. In this case, Le Pen compared Muslim street prayers to a Nazi-like occupation, a statement that should be clearly protected as political speech in France. Instead, she will be pulled before a tribunal in another example of how free speech is being eviscerated by anti-discrimination and hate speech laws.
Category: Society
University of Missouri associate professor of law Royce de R. Barondes has placed himself at the forefront of the gun rights debate with a lawsuit challenging the ban on guns on campuses in the state. The lawsuit follows the gunning down of history professor Ethan Schmidt on the Delta State University campus. Schmidt was unarmed and Barondes does not intend to go so easily, it appears.
Continue reading “Muzzling Ole Mizzou: Missouri Law Professor Challenges Ban On Guns On Campus”
Turing chief executive Martin Shkreli (shown here) has become an overnight villain after public interest organizations raised alarm over his company buying a long-used medicine, Daraprim, in the treatment of AIDS and immediately raised the price of $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill. When a reporter asked him to explain the increase for a drug that has been on the market for 62 years, Shkreli called him a “moron” and refused to answer the question. The company has now become a target in the presidential election as an example of how companies are still profiteering on these drugs.
Zayde did something evil this week in his class in Oakes Elementary in Okemah, Oklahoma. He wrote with his left-hand. That prompted a teacher to explain that the left hand was “bad” and should not be used. When his mother wrote to inquire, the teacher sent an article explaining how the left hand is associated with the devil and is deemed evil. Of course, a few left handers who seemed to do all right range from Alexander the Great to President Obama.
There is a tragic but interesting criminal case set for trial in San Francisco involving a tenants rights attorney and a claim of self-defense during a robbery. Eviction Defense Collaborative staff attorney Carlos Argueta, 31, and former intern (and Swiss native who lives in London) Pascal Krummenacher, 21, are charged with murder after they alleged were robbed outside a bar where they were celebrating the end of Krummenacher’s internship. Argueta is accused of stabbing to death James Thomas, 61. There is a videotape in the case reviewed by the Examiner.
Continue reading “Lawyer and Intern Charged With Robbery and Murder After Celebration At Bar”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released new data on global warming that, again, the data supports the over-whelming view of scientists that climate change is a dire reality. The world has experienced record-breaking hot weather every month in 2015 and the year is all but guaranteed to be the hottest on record.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
After a internal affairs investigation of several alleged actions of a Seattle Police Officer, Chief Kathleen O’Toole terminated the employment of Officer Cynthia Whitlatch following the detention and arrest of a citizens for Obstructing a Law Enforcement officer stemming from a claim, later ruled to be false, that the citizen swung a golf club at her. The termination, according to SPD, did not rely solely on this incident but was resulting from similar incidents involving citizen contacts and allegations of racially inappropriate statements during the internal affairs investigation.
The incident should serve as a reminder to those in similar positions of Ms. Whitlatch of the importance of proper discretion and of accepting one’s faults and not blaming everyone else for mistakes. Nevertheless the incident elicited an apology to the citizenry and the accused person for an incident that should never have occurred.
Continue reading “Seattle Police Officer Sacked After Questionable Arrest Of Man Carrying Golf Club”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
The BBC presented an engaging and informative report concerning how the unprecedented demand for rare earth elements is leading to environmental degradation, especially in developing countries. It proposes that one of the ironic tragedies of manufacturing green technologies is that it is leading to concentrations of pollution in specific areas. This also brings forth the importance of having a conversation about advanced, consumer societies needing to engage in much self reflection on the causes of the insatiable appetites consumers have for top of the line electronics. Of which are designed with quick obsolescence as a business model.
Continue reading “Rare Earths Mining And Processing Leading To Much Pollution In The East”
We have previously discussed how anti-discrimination laws sometime collide with businesses that strive to maintain a certain look in its employees from newscasters to shop clerks to waitresses. This includes the recent judgment against Abercombie over an employee seeking to wear an Islamic cover over her hair. Now a business has prevailed in New Jersey in claiming the right to enforce appearance standards, including weight limitations, for its waitresses. Twenty-one servers sued Borgata Casino in claiming that they were objectified and demeaned by the casino in being forced to maintain slim figures in their role as “Borgata Babes.” A state appellate court ruled that the casino could impose the requirement so long as it is down fairly and equally. It remanded the case to determine however if there were otherwise acts that constitutes a hostile work place. The appellate opinion is available below.
We have been discussing the controversy over a man from Qatar who went on a dangerous high-speed chase in a yellow Ferrari and then both threatened a reporter and claimed diplomatic immunity. He informed the reporter that he could kill him with utter immunity from prosecution and topped off that threat by saying “F*** America.” It is now confirmed that this disgraceful thug is a member of Qatar’s ruling family: Sheik Khalid bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar’s ruling family. Al-Thani claimed immunity but does not actually have it. However, by some incredible sequence of events, Al-Thani was allowed to flee the country to avoid any accountability.
Continue reading “Qatar Prince Who Claimed Immunity In High-Speed Chase Flees The Country”
When the case of the shooting of a Chicago police officer in 2012 came to the chambers of Cook County Circuit Judge Thaddeus Wilson, the court saw something that it said was obvious to anyone who has done any practice in the criminal law: the statement of the mother of the suspect Paris Sadler was free of any corrections or edits. Since the mother Talaina Cureton said that she had edited and corrected the statement prepared by Assistant Cook County state’s attorney Joseph Lattanzio, it was a curious fact. However, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, long criticized for her policies such as prosecuting citizens who dare to video police in public, fought to block any effort to reexamine the statement and denied that her office omitted critical information. Now, it appears that one of those videotapes that Alvarez hates, existed showing Cureton editing the statement. Lattanzio has been fired. However, once again, without the videotape, Alvarez’s office would have likely succeeded in blocking the challenge and protecting the prosecutorial misconduct.
A University of Kentucky law student, Peyton Wilson, 24, has been charged with wanton endangerment after allegedly flying a drone at Commonwealth Stadium just before the season opener game against Louisiana-Lafayette. It is the latest such case of drones harassing or endangering people on beaches, streets, or stadiums.
Continue reading “University of Kentucky Student Arrested After Crashing Drone At Football Game”
There is a curious case out of Georgetown, Texas, where Williamson County District Judge Rick Kennon has ruled that Williamson County District Attorney Jana Duty intentionally withheld evidence in the murder trial of Crispin Harmel. However, Kennon refused a defense motion to bar a second trial under the double jeopardy clause. There is no indication of any punishment for Ms. Duty for this case. She continues to serve as a lawyer and a prosecutor in Texas. She has however racked up an impressive number of allegations of misconduct and was sent to jail in August for contempt. However, it is odd not to see a direct referral by the court. I can understand the ruling, though the Texas Court of Appeals recently extended double jeopardy protections to a case where prosecutors intentionally forced a mistrial to avoid an acquittal. However, at a minimum, one would expect a court to deal separately with the violation of her core obligations to the court and the bar.
I have been highly critical of the environmental policies of Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott who has led the world in rolling back efforts to deal with climate change and reducing pollution while opening up pristine areas of mining and other industries. In a move that is likely to be celebrated by environmentalists around the world, Abbott is Prime Minister no more. In a remarkable change, ruling conservatives ousted Abbott (right) as party leader in favor of former party leader and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull (left).
Continue reading “Tony Abbott Dumped As Australian Prime Minister”
There are some cases that produce truly Earth shaking ironies. The prosecution of Pennsylvania attorney general Kathleen Kane is one such case. We previously discussed the case where Kane is accused of leaking grand jury information and lying about it to a grand jury. She is accused of using the leaks to attack her opponents or critics. Her team is now objecting to the damage to her case after a leak that confirmed that bar authorities in Pennsylvania are seeking to suspend her law license. They insist that such leaks are clearly designed to hurt Kane.