Roger Alvin Henderson appears to have expressed too much in a traffic stop by the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office. Henderson was stopped by an officer on the grounds that his window tint seemed too dark. It wasn’t, but as he waited (and the officer was speaking to his mother), Henderson relieved himself on the cruiser. Upon returning, the officer asked “did you pee on my car?” He did not like the answer.
Category: Society
Joel Brodsky, former counsel for Drew Peterson, has had a tough year. First, he loses the case and then the client. Second, lawyers in a completely separate case cite his alleged grandstanding as harming not just Peterson’s chances for acquittal but all criminal defendants. Now, Peterson himself (through his new counsel) is claiming that Brodsky lied to him about his experience and used him as a virtual prop to try to become a celebrity lawyer.
We are only five days away from the Mayan Apocalypse and many are just realizing that they have not voted for our blog in the ABA competition for top “News/Analysis” blog. IT IS NOT TOO LATE! We are only 30 votes out of second place (and pulling ahead of Above the Law — perhaps the largest legal blog in the world). You do not want to meet your Mayan ancestors before cleansing your soul, do you? Think of the awkward stares and uncomfortable silence in the afterlife. Don’t risk it. Click HERE and vote. It only requires that you put in your email and give a password.
Continue reading “Five Days Before Mayan Apocalypse: Have You Voted For Our Blog?”
It appears that Chicago has emerged wiped crime, the bad economy and the educational crisis. Even a district attorney who seems to spend much of her time stripping rights from citizens as opposed to locking up criminals appears to has appeared as a danger. The only issue left it appears for Ald. James Cappelman (46th) (my old ward in Chicago) is to criminalize feeding pigeons. That’s right, Cappelman wants to make feeding the bird a crime — joining a national movement toward the criminalization of annoying or commonplace acts that I have previously criticized in columns (here and here) and numerous blogs on the criminalization of using artificial turf to growing vegetable gardens to eating french fries in the subway. Politicians like Cappelman are turning America into a nation of felons as everyday acts are regulated through the criminal code.
Continue reading “Bird Brained: Chicago Alderman Moves To Make Feeding Pigeons A Crime”
I have just finished my weekly exercise of self-flagellation in watching my Bears go down to yet another defeat to the Packers. It was a familiar feeling. While Aaron Rodgers is an amazing quarterback, the Bears lost this game again due to their own mistakes from recurring penalties (including one that cost us a touchdown) and continued sacks of Cutler. The question is whether it is time to a change in the head coach of the Chicago Bears at the end of this season. I like Smith and even allow my students to take “a Lovie” to pass on cases if the Bears win that week (a diminishing opportunity to be sure). However, this game shows how long-standing problems, including our porous offensive line, have gone unresolved. It has now gotten so bad that I am hoping for the Mayan apocalypse just to stop the Packers.
Continue reading “Question of the Day: Is It Time To Sack Lovie Smith?”
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
I originally had a guest blog planned for today on a completely different topic, but I ran across an article in Friday’s Huffington Post, that changed my direction. Since I was a youth I have been aghast at the fact that I grew up in a country where such things as homosexuality and abortion were prohibited by law. It seemed like this was too personal an interference by the State into the personal affairs of people and that this interference often ruined people’s lives. Then too, I grew up in New York State, where for so many years divorce was unobtainable leading to such ridiculousness as Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s wife having to establish Nevada residence in order to obtain a divorce from him. It seemed to me then, as it seems to me now, that religious dogma had no business invading our legal system.
Although there were many prior years of a movement building up in support of abolishing Abortion Laws, the decision of Roe vs. Wade in 1973 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_v._Wade was a breathtaking and welcome surprise. Immediately after, however, there started the blow-back against that decision that almost forty years later continues with fervor and intensity. The opposition cites “The Bible” as the source of their angry opposition and claims that their religion, as encoded in “The Bible” describes abortion as murder, with the life of the child beginning at fertilization. When they quote “The Bible” of course they mean the “New Testament” and what they call “The Old Testament”. Jews actually don’t recognize the term “Old Testament”, to us it is called the “Torah”, since Jews believe that their “Torah” was never replaced by a “New Testament”. The anti-Abortionists need to cite the “Torah” for their beliefs, since the Gospels don’t discuss the abortion issue. Like much that exists in Christian Dogma today, there is a need to cite the “Torah” for their beliefs since there is no evidence in the Gospels that Jesus ever spoke on some matters. Christian “Torah” citation though is haphazard in that they choose what portions to recognize and what portions to ignore. The sentiments of those Christians against abortion are based in the “Torah”. What if their citation of this venerable book stemmed from an incorrect translation of it many, many centuries ago? If they cited it incorrectly in the first instance, doesn’t that destroy their whole argument that abortion is murder in God’s eyes, especially if the writers of the “Torah” never understood abortion to be murder? This is what I’d like to discuss. Continue reading “The Specious Roots of the Anti-Abortion Controversy”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Most wartimes presidents are not known for their preservation of civil liberties. Lincoln’s suspension of the writ of habeas corpus and Roosevelt’s internment of Americans of Japanese descent are infamous examples. During the War of 1812, President James Madison, whether through principles or practicality, or a combination of both, set an example that no other president has followed. Biographer Ralph Ketcham deemed Madison the “unimperial president.”
By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
The horrific events in Newtown, Connecticut have left us all with a sense of shock and helplessness. Twenty elementary school children dead, six educators slaughtered, and a place we all like to think of as a safe haven from the misery of the world polluted by horrific violence wrought by weapons more properly used on a battlefield. Politicians from President Obama to New York Mayor Bloomberg have called for “meaningful action” to combat gun violence which is endemic to America.
As we discussed earlier, the Justice Department issued a statement after the passage of state laws legalizing marijuana that they would not affected federal enforcement. Obama officials also stated after the election (after being silent during the campaign) that marijuana policy would not change. Now, President Obama has given an interview that the federal government will not make enforcement a “priority” against recreational users. This is being billed as a major scope on “Obama’s pot problem.” However, there may be less than meets the eye here. He does not address the organizations and distributors of legal marijuana, which his Administration has cracked down on for the last four years. It also raises an interesting contradiction with other fields where Obama had insisted that matters are left to the Justice Department on questions of enforcement.
No, Todd Akin has not joined the California bench. Superior Court Judge Derek Johnson, a judge in Southern California, has been publicly admonished for saying a rape victim “didn’t put up a fight” and that if someone doesn’t want sexual intercourse, the body “will not permit that to happen.” Johnson is a former prosecutor in the Orange County district attorney’s sex crimes unit and said that the 2008 sentencing that he had cases where women’s vaginas were “shredded” by rape. The California Commission on Judicial Performance voted 10-0 to sanction Johnson for his bizarre and offensive comments.
Continue reading “California Judge Sanctioned After Saying Women’s Bodies Can Prevent Rape”
Pope Benedict XVI this week raised an outcry among civil libertarians and gay activists by blessing Rebecca Kadaga, the Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, who has promised to pass the country’s notorious Anti-Homosexuality Bill as a “Christmas gift”. Kadaga’s bill would execute gays who are found to be “repeat offenders.”
Continue reading “Pope Blesses Ugandan Leader Who Wants To Execute Gays”
We have previously discussed the obscene relationship between industry and Congress with staffers and members pushing through key legislation and then being given lucrative positions by industry. The pharmaceutical and telecommunication industries are particularly notoriously for such revolving door arrangements. Other members lobby for these industries after leaving office and current officeholders like President Obama have accepted money from lobbyists (despite his pledge not to). Now the top staffer to Democratic Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus, who drafted Obamacare has reportedly accepted a prime position with Johnson & Johnson’s government affairs and policy group. Her name is Elizabeth Fowler and demonstrates that the Democrats are little better in this revolving door practice. Indeed, the ever revolving Fowler is an amazing example of how industry controls not just the drafting but much of the legislation in Congress.
Continue reading “Crying Fowler: Top Drafter of ObamaCare Returns From Whence She Came”
There is another dog fighting arrest this week, though with an added chilling twist of the involvement of children. Shane Santiago and his wife Laura Acampora are charged with endangering the welfare of children in addition to animal cruelty charges because they were raising five children in the rented home while dogfighting was going on in the basement. The children are with other family members and presumably officials have inquired into whether or how other family members were not aware of this large operation before handing over the children. In a twisted irony, police found a copy of parenting magazine in this house of horrors.
Continue reading “Pennsylvania Couple Charged In Horrific Dog-Fighting and Child Endangerment Case”
Georgia Camden County Probate Judge Shirley Wise has pleaded guilty to three felony charges and resigned her judgeship this week — the state’s eighth jurist to leave office for misconduct. What is astonishing is the decision to allow Wise to avoid any jail time given her confession to theft by taking, theft by deception, and violation of her oath of office.
The University of Kentucky (Lexington) is reportedly investigating an incident that is captured on a YouTube video where police force their way into a student’s dorm room in search of alcohol after a report of alcohol being dumped from the window. The student is told that he could be expelled and that they do not need a warrant to enter the room. Indeed, one officer is heard saying that “there is no fourth amendment.” One officer has been terminated, but notably the university says that it was not due to the entry into the room.