I am still in Utah for a speech and I have spoken to many people here about the current presidential campaign. Many locals here have expressed dismay over the missteps of the Romney campaign. However, David Twede, 47, a scientist and managing editor of the online magazine MormonThink.com, says that his criticism of Mitt Romney has led to his being called to account — and possible excommunication — from the Church of Latter Day Saints. The fifth-generation Mormon says that Church elders demanded names of other Mormons with which he was working on the site. He says he was told “Cease and desist, Brother Twede.” The controversy has now been reported on the Washington Post, Huffington Post and a number of other sites – though primarily as a political story. From a legal standpoint, the case raises a classic conflict between free speech and free exercise that we have discussed in other areas.
Category: Society
There is an interesting case out of Michigan concerning medical marijuana — and the basic requirements of drafting a medical marijuana law. We previously discussed the case of Joseph Casias. The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled (in the opinion below) that Wal-Mart was allowed to allegedly fire an employee for using medical marijuana. That would seem a curious ruling given state law protecting people in the use of medical marijuana. However, the court found that the drafting of a key line left workers without protection for termination.
Cindy Lee Garcia, the actress in the anti-Muslim film “Innocence of Muslims,’ has failed in her attempt to get Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Luis Lavin to order YouTube to remove the film. Garcia insists that she was not told of the real nature of the film and said that she has lived in fear since the protests erupted over the trailer of the film.
Continue reading “California Judge Refuses To Order YouTube To Remove “Innocence of Muslims””
In the last decade, the United States has increasingly become a symbol of hypocrisy as a nation that has violated many international principles that it helped create after 9-11. That record was reinforced this week after the Afghan government (not exactly the paragon of civil liberties) refused to adopt indefinite detention rules pushed by the Obama Administration. Of course, President Obama has continued the indefinite detention of the Bush Administration and the operation of the Guantanamo Bay facility over the objections of civil libertarians. We recently saw the death of a detainee who was found years ago not to be a national security risk and never proven to be guilty of a single crime. Yet, in its effort to create a “new Democracy” in the Afghanistan, the Obama Administration was insisting that it replicate our own indefinite detention rules. In the meantime, a federal court has stayed a prior court order that enjoined the provision on indefinite detention under the Obama Administration’s 2012 National Defense Authorization Act.
I am in Utah today to give a keynote address at the opening of the new Center for Constitutional Studies at the Utah Valley University. I am honored to follow Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough who gave the opening keynote yesterday. It was an ironic pairing since they will open with a devotee of John Adams and close with a Madisonian scholar. They were able to keep us separate to avoid any fights in the halls. Despite our disagreement over the legacy of John Adams (McCullough seems to blow through that whole Alien and Sedition Act business pretty quickly in his extraordinary book on Adams), I was pleased to read how McCullough warned the audience about the rising dangers posed by citizens who are increasingly passive and detached from their government.
Navy Cmdr. Michael P. Ward II has ended his career as the captain of a nuclear submarine with something of a crash dive. Ward reportedly first had an affair in violation of Navy rules and then tried to end his affair by sending a fake email from a friend informing the mistress that Ward, 43, had died. When the woman went to his house to give her condolences, she learned that he had moved with his family to Connecticut to assume control over the USS Pittsburgh.
There is a growing controversy involving a community college professor who claims to have been placed under investigation after he publicly questioned his school’s decision to begin a gay studies program. Professor Jay Rubin wrote a letter to the editor at Alameda Journal that challenged the fiscal basis for the creation of a new program. While he did not sign the letter with his academic title, Rubin was reportedly subjected to a charge of sexual harassment based on that letter by a colleague. I have been pursuing this story for days because of the lack of details and documents in the media. I was able to secure some of this information from Matthew McReynolds, his counsel, with the Pacific Justice Institute.
This week I spoke at the Lou Frey Institute on Constitutional Day at the University of Central Florida and students were particularly interested in the controversy surrounding Professor Sharon Sweet at Brevard Community College (BCC) in Florida. Sweet, 58, is now on leave after she allegedly told students to sign a pledge that reads: “I pledge to vote for President Obama and Democrats up and down the ticket.”
New York City won the trifecta this week in a survey by Travel & Leisure magazine as the dirtiest, loudest, and rudest city in the country. The poll of 50,000 cited rats, trash piles, and strong odors as securing the triple crown for the Big Apple.
Continue reading “New York City Ranked As Dirtiest, Loudest, and Rudest City In Country”
We have long discussed the serious rollback on free speech in the West as countries like France and England profess support for free speech and the free press while prosecuting or investigating people for anti-religious speech. That conflicted message was evident today after French magazine Charlie Hebdo ran cartoons featuring Mohammad in its coverage over the deadly protests following the release of an anti-Muslim film in the United States. Mohammed Moussaoui, president of the French Council of Muslim Faith, described the cartoons as a “new Islamophobic act” while French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (left) warned “[t]here must be freedom of speech, but I am absolutely opposed to any provocation.”
In a bizarre (and some would say poetic) twist on the recent violent protests against the United States, a Pakistani protester, Abdullah Ismail, died after reportedly inhaling smoke from a burning American flag in Lahore.
This video shows a clearly obnoxious and possibly unstable individual who hounds court security with a series of nonsensical statements about not being a person. The court staff shows considerable restraint and professionalism until the man is tasered for trying to get into a court area with a camera.
Continue reading “Court Staff Tasers Obnoxious Man Insisting On Entering Area With Camera”
Rep. Peter King (R, N.Y.) seemed to be rehearsing a new version of the scene from Treasure of Sierra Madre when “Gold Hat” proclaims “Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ badges!” In the new version King says that he doesn’t need facts in claiming that President Obama went on an “apology tour” in the Middle East despite the conclusion by independent fact checkers that he never apologized or said I am sorry on the tour. King barked “I don’t care what fact check says.” It appears that, according to Santorum below, the GOP has also decided to give up on trying to attract “smart people.”
We have received a lot of requests for the briefing just filed in the Sister Wives case in Salt Lake City. As lead counsel, I am limited in what I can say about the case publicly. However, here is the final brief on the merits of the case, which is limited to 25 pages of argument under the local rules.
Continue reading “Brown Family Files Final Brief On Summary Judgment”
This is why I have long refused to play rock paper scissors with robots. They are a bunch of lousy cheaters. Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a robot hand that win 100%of the time by using a high-speed camera and recognizes within one millisecond which shape the human hand is making. It then gives the corresponding winning shape.
Continue reading “Japanese Mad Scientists Develop Robot That Cannot Be Beat In Rock Paper Scissors”