There is an interesting controversy in New York where The New York Times ran an ad calling on Catholics to leave their church, but refused to run a similar ad targeting Muslims. Conservatives have jumped on what they say is a double standard. They may have a point.
Category: Society
Rick Santorum is continuing his faith-based campaign with a pledge to wipe out pornography in his Administration. The problem is that pornography is lawful and now a multi-billion dollar industry. It is obscenity that can be criminalized, but what is obscene remains exceptionally vague and ill-defined. Indeed, many may find parts of this presidential campaign to border on the obscene.
. . . so is the entire actual Jersey shore. A Princeton study has found that global warming is causing a rise in sea levels that is far greater and more accelerated than previously thought. The report predicts that the Jersey shore could be underwater in a matter of decades and low-lying areas thrashed by increasing storm surges.
Continue reading “The Good News Is Jersey Shore Is Set To Be Cancelled, The Bad News Is . . .”
ZZ Top look out. One of my friends at the law school sent me this YouTube video, which appears to be a collection of quotes from me set to music. We do not know who put this together but it is the closest thing I will ever have to a music video. Honestly, I appreciate the gesture though I am not sure on how these particular quotes were selected.
New York lawyer David Anziska has been one of the attorneys pushing litigation against law schools over inflated or erroneous employment figures. He has now released a list of 20 law schools accused of fudging the books. Two top 50 schools — Pepperdine and American University — are listed. No evidence for the inclusion on the list has been given and these schools have not had the opportunity to respond. Some of the schools have been previously accused of such fudging of data in the now hyper-competitive annual rankings.
Continue reading “Twenty Additional Law Schools Accused Of Cheating On Employment Figures”
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, is embroiled in another controversy. King has previously been criticized for anti-Muslim statements and his express support for the IRA, despite its listing as a terrorist organization. Now, King has triggered an investigation after he went along with U.S. Marshals on a raid of a home and gleefully filmed the arrest of a citizen, including what appears footage inside the person’s home. It is the perfect merging of entertainment, politics, and crime. In the land of the blind, the one-cameraed man is King.
Continue reading “Freeze, U.S. Congress! Rep. King Criticized For Video Of Raid Posted On YouTube”
I have previously written about my view of the clear negligence committed by Virginia Tech University in the 2007 campus massacre as well as the gross unfairness created by a state cap on damages for the families of dead students and faculty. I have also criticized the university’s litigation posture and steadfast denial of such negligence. Now a jury has added its collective voice to this criticism — finding Virginia Tech not only negligent but awarding the families of two Virginia Tech students $4 million each in a duty-to-warn case. However, due to the state’s imposition of a cap, these awards are likely to be reduced to a mere $100,000 each for their dead children. For parents like Erin Peterson and Julia Pryde, the cap must be a terrible insult as the calculation of what the state believes their child is worth in the face of lethal negligence by the school.
An online site has released a list of the top 50 law professors on Twitter. I am listed in the top 50 as is one of my colleagues, Dan Solove, at George Washington University. The listing is not ranked but it is an interesting array of academics.
Continue reading “Professors Who Tweet: Educational Site Lists Top 50 Law Professors On Twitter”
Given the recent reports on our latest filings in the World Bank case (Chang v. United States), below are the two most recent filings asking for a resumption of hearings on the alleged destruction of evidence by the government.
The Arizona Senate has overwhelmingly passed the so-called “wrongful birth” bill — a piece of legislation that not only strips citizens of core torts protections but is based on a legal mythology of abusive litigation. The law would prevent lawsuits against doctors who withhold information on health problems of a fetus — even withholding the information intentionally.
We have yet another tragedy in the Arab world where a 16 year old Moroccan girl committed suicide in Morocco after being forced to marry her rapist — a man ten years her senior. The girl’s parents filed charges against the man but the court ruled that rather than punishing the man, he should marry his rape victim.
An assistant basketball coach at a basketball game of sixth graders is accused of biting off part of another coach’s ear at a Catholic Youth Organization game in Springfield, Massachusetts. Timothy Lee Forbes is reportedly the father of one of the players on his team that lost the game at Holy Name School in the Catholic Youth Organization final. He is charged with first punching the opposing coach and then going Mike Tyson on his ear. Jesus
Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Elizabeth have canceled speeches in Toronto, Canada out of concern that they would be set upon by people who oppose torture and want Cheney arrested. While Americans appear reconciled with the torture program, citizens in other countries still demand that Bush officials be arrested according to international law.
Continue reading “Cheney Cancels Meeting in Canada With Spectre To Avoid Attempts To Arrest Him”
We have previously looked at the liability questions surrounding injuries and deaths linked to herpes transmissions from Rabbis during ultra-Orthodox circumcision rituals known as metzizah b’ peh. During the ceremony, the rabbi or mohel removes blood from the wound with his mouth. The latest tragedy occurred with the death of a two-week-old boy in Brooklyn who contracted herpes from the Rabbi. In 2005 another infant died from the same alleged transmission from a rabbi. This could raise a difficult question on defining the “reasonable rabbi.”
Continue reading “The Reasonable Rabbi Standard? Brooklyn Prosecutors Reportedly Investigate Rabbi Who Transmitted Herpes To Baby In Circumcision Ceremony”
I recently wrote a column on how the West is curtailing free speech under blasphemy, hate speech, and anti-discrimination laws. As if on cue, lawyer Gloria Allred has called for the criminal prosecution of Rush Limbaugh for calling law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and “prostitute.” I previously wrote that I believe Limbaugh’s comments were protected speech under the first amendment and constitute opinion for the purposes of any libel action. Such a prosecution would threaten core free speech principles and the law cited by Allred would appear not only inimical to free speech but overtly sexist.