California prosecutors have brought a rare manslaughter charged against an architect for the substandard construction and design of a $11 million mansion. Albert Becker, 48, was arrested after a firefighter died in a blaze at the home, which was going to be the backdrop for a reality show called “Germany’s Next Model.”
Continue reading “Architect Charged With Manslaughter Over Poorly Built $11 Million Mansion”
It came without warning. Innocent citizens were going about their lives when Vikings suddenly appeared from nowhere and took everything of value. It is a common tale that was repeated too many times in history, but the most recent raid reportedly comes from last week in Minnesota where citizens learned that they will have to foot the bill for much of a new stadium — despite the belief of most citizens that they had blocked such an effort.
Continue reading “Viking Raid: Minnesota Citizens Balk At Stadium Deal”
Submitted by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
Reasonable people tend to agree there is both a right to privacy and that it is necessary. But what exactly is the right to privacy? Justice Brandeis famously said in Olmstead v. U.S., 277 U.S. 438, 479 (1928), “The makers of our Constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to the pursuit of happiness. They recognized the significance of man’s spiritual nature, of his feelings and of his intellect. They knew that only a part of the pain, pleasure and satisfactions of life are to be found in material things. They sought to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions and their sensations. They conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone-the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men. To protect, that right, every unjustifiable intrusion by the government upon the privacy of the individual, whatever the means employed, must be deemed a violation of the Fourth Amendment. And the use, as evidence in a criminal proceeding, of facts ascertained by such intrusion must be deemed a violation of the Fifth.” Plainly put, at its heart a right to privacy is simply a right to be let alone.
However, do we need to specifically protect it or generally protect it? Is that right absolute? Laws, by definition and the nature of entering a social compact, are restrictions on absolute liberty found in the state of nature. One of the larger disagreements at the Constitutional Convention was about whether enumerated rights would serve to unjustly limit those rights versus a failure to enumerate rights would result in rights not being properly protected. This is a valid question surrounding this issue, especially since some would advocate enumerating the right to privacy by Constitutional amendment. There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. While specifically defining/enumerating a right creates a foundation for arguments surrounding said right, leaving a right’s definition nebulous allows jurisprudence greater leeway to evolve around fact specific instance and questions that in the long run can result in a more nuanced understanding and application of the right without the constraints a foundational definition might impose. In this light, consider the right to privacy.
Continue reading “Privacy Rights – To Enumerate or Not to Enumerate, That is the Question”
Below is my column today in the Washington Post (Sunday) Outlook Section. The column concerns the Alvarez case to be heard on Wednesday before the Supreme Court. I have been a long critic of the Stolen Valor Act — not because I am not highly sympathetic to its purpose but because I am concerned about the means of achieving that purpose. I share the anger over people who falsely claim to be war heroes. However, the government often selects popular causes for expanding its power over speech or conduct of its citizens. The question before the Court is really not about this specific form of lying, but the legal basis for criminalizing lies generally. The Act is different in that it seeks to criminalize lies simply because they are lies as opposed to lies that are used to commit a specific crime like larceny or fraud or perjury. I also spoke to NPR on Talk To The Nation on this subject.
Continue reading “The Better Part of Valor: Should Lying About Medals Be A Crime?”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
I am the last person that should be defending Pat Buchanan and objecting to his recent termination as a political analyst for MSNBC. However, after thinking about it for a while, I have come to the conclusion that Uncle Pat’s firing is an attack on Free Speech and a continuation of the Fox News type mentality on our cable news stations. Let me first make it clear that most of what Buchanan says on the air is offensive and in some cases, outright disgusting. However, if we cannot say what is on our mind without limits, do any of us really have the freedom to speak our minds? Continue reading “The First Amendment Versus Pat Buchanan?”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
“Dr.” Melissa Clouthier (left) isn’t happy with some of the female attendees at CPAC 2012. The Dr. is in quotes because Clouthier is an alternative health “doctor” and part-time chiropractor. That is, a woo-meister, who thinks “Feng Shui makes lots of sense.”
Clouthier has some tips for women who wish to succeed in business or politics.
Arizona Democratic state Rep. Katie Hobbs (shown right in an unairbrushed photo) has tackled what she considers a pressing issue of the day: airbrushing of models to make them look perfect. She wants to require that any advertisers airbrushing models impose the following disclaimer prominently on the ad: “Postproduction techniques were made to alter the appearance in this advertisement. When using this product, similar results may not be achieved.” That is a bit of a buzz kill.
Continue reading “Arizona Legislator Moves To Bar Airbrushing Of Models”
We have followed a disturbing trend of teachers, and other public employees, who have been fired for activities in their private lives, including jobs previously held in the entertainment or sex industries. Now, an elementary teacher in the Bronx, Melissa Petro, has lost her job because she wrote a column in the Huffington Post on her brief stint as a sex worker. Dubbed the “Hooker Teacher,” Petro was shown the door at the demand of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
A man in his 40s this week died of a heart attack while eating a 6,000-calorie Triple Bypass burger at an aptly named chain that serves up massive burgers and allows grossly obese individuals to eat for free. We previously looked at Heart Attack Grill when its overweight spokesman died at 29. The question is whether a restaurant can be sued for knowingly serving food that comes with a higher risk of death or serious bodily injury — a risk that is openly advertised by the restaurant and assumed by the customer.
Below is today’s column, which concerns the subject upon which I will be testifying this morning before the full House Judiciary Committee: recess appointments.
Continue reading “Abuse Of Power: Obama’s Recess Appointments And The Constitution”
Below is my testimony this morning before the full House Judiciary Committee on the constitutionality of the recent recess appointments by President Obama. I also wrote a column this morning on that same subject.
Continue reading “Turley Testimony on the Constitutionality of Recess Appointments”
Nancy Grace has long thrived on the carrion of high-profile murders and disappearances. Sometimes, however, there simply is not time to lose to distort facts into a juicy murderous tale. Thus, when Whitney Houston died, Grace was virtually hyperventilating in fashioning the death as a presumptive murder. Grace demanded to know who pushed Houston under the water in her tub or gave her the lethal dose of drugs or both.
Continue reading “Nancy Grace Demands To Know Who Shoved Houston Under The Water”
The new Libyan government has adopted many of the habits of its previous regime like torture and it can now add homophobic leadership. Libya’s new United Nations delegate to the U.N. Human Rights Council used a resolution to combat violence based on sexual orientation to denounce homosexuals as threatening the survival of the human race.
Continue reading “Libyan U.N. Envoy Denounces Gays and Lesbians As Threatening Humanity”
Many people have complained about a new policy of “American Exceptionalism” in our wars and foreign policy. It appears however that we may have to call it a policy of “American Incoherence” after reading the latest remarks of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — policies that are understandable only to our leaders. Clinton (who supported the armed intervention in Libya because of the threat of citizen deaths) has announced that no troops can be sent to Syria without the consent of the regime. I happen to oppose military intervention in Syria, but we continue to convey to the world that the only guiding principle in our foreign policy is opportunism.
Continue reading “Clinton: No Troops Can Be Sent To Syria Without Assad’s Consent”
One of my former torts students sent me the exchange below from Miss Manners in the Washington Post that takes risk averse lifestyles to a new extreme in the form of waivers for child play dates. I often joke in class that I have students sign waivers when visiting my house for our class party. She probably thought this was one of my neighbors.
Continue reading “Mr. [Legal] Manners Responds To Parents Of Legal Bubble Boy”