I recently wrote about how public schools and boards are making the case for school choice advocates with failing scores and rising controversies. The latest shocking statistic was released this week that 23 schools in Baltimore City had zero students who tested proficient in math. Those schools include 10 high schools, eight elementary schools, three Middle/High schools and two Elementary/Middle schools. The state found that 2,000 students who took the state test could not do math at grade level. Continue reading “Report: 23 Baltimore Schools Had Zero Students Proficient in Math”
Category: Society
For months, media has been relishing the investor lawsuit against Elon Musk, who became persona non grata when he moved to restore free speech protections on Twitter. Coverage spoke of Musk losing billions in the lawsuit while others speculated that Musk might be “setting himself up to lose Tesla.” Not yet. Not only are stock prices up for Tesla, but Musk just won a unanimous verdict in the investor trial. The reaction to the trial has been a shrug from critics as they continue to try to hammer Musk into submission. It does not appear to be working.
Continue reading “Buzz Kill: Critics Shrug as Musk Wins Major Victory in Court”
A Stony Brook University professor is under fire this week after she called two police officers “murderers” for shooting dead a suspect. Social Welfare professor Anna Hayward denounced the officers despite the fact that the officers suffered “serious stab wounds” from the suspects before shooting him. I understand the anger of those who have called for Hayward to be fired. The attack on the officers was unwarranted and seems part of long-standing anti-police views. However, as will come as little surprise for many on this blog, I believe that adverse actions would violate core free speech rights. Continue reading “Stony Brook Professor Under Fire For Denouncing Officers Who Shot Suspect …Who Was Stabbing Them” 
On December 30, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit handed down a major opinion in in Adams v. School Board of St. Johns County, Florida. The court ruled 7-4 against a statutory and constitutional challenge of a transgender student to a district policy requiring students to use bathrooms corresponding to their biological sex. Given the countervailing decision of the Fourth Circuit in G.G. v. Gloucester County, there is now a conflict in the circuits that could prompt a Supreme Court review. The Court expressly stated that it was not ruling on this question in its 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, 140 S. Ct. 1731 (2020).
Continue reading “Eleventh Circuit Rejects Transgender Student’s Challenge to Bathroom Policy”
Below is my column in the Hill on the lawsuits against Tom Brady and other celebrities over commercials for the now bankrupt crypto-currency company FTX. Apparently, what football tore asunder, FTX has joined again. Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen are now co-defendants . . . and this time neither should be legally at fault.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “Victims or Chumps? Tom Brady Lawsuits Raise Questions Over Celebrity Endorsements”
There is an interesting new filing out of Washington state where a nonbinary flight attendant, Justin Wetherell, is suing Alaska Airlines. Wetherell alleges the airline’s uniform and presentation requirements discriminate against nonbinary and gender-fluid employees. Continue reading “Nonbinary Alaska Airlines Flight Attendant Sues Over Uniform Rules”
Below is my column in The Hill on what is shaping up to be a major Supreme Court term on the issues of parody and satire under the First Amendment. The Court could reframe the constitutional limits for criminal and civil liability in two cases currently on the docket, including one recently granted review. Continue reading “No Joke: Supreme Court Case Could Take a Big Bite Out of the First Amendment”
Recently, the fashion company Balenciaga actively sought public recognition for its severing of ties with Twitter. The move came early in the campaign against Elon Musk for attempting to restore free speech protections on the site. Now, Balenciaga is under fire for an advertising campaign featuring children with Teddy Bears in BDSM outfits. As part of its effort to deflect claims of sexualizing children, the company is filing a $25 million lawsuit against the producers of the ad campaign. The filing is particularly interesting because it focuses not as much on the BDSM or bondage bears being marketed by Balenciaga, but the inclusion the image of a child pornography court ruling. The company, however, could face some significant legal challenges over its own role in the campaign. Continue reading “Balenciaga’s Bondage Bears: Company Sues Over the Inclusion of Supreme Court Opinion in Ad Campaign”
National Public Radio yesterday posted an article titled “Twitter has lost 50 of its top 100 advertisers since Elon Musk took over, report says.” The article relies on a report from the liberal site Media Matters for America founded by Democratic operative David Brock. The report lists companies that have publicly pulled their advertising and the article strongly suggests that it is due to the pledge of Elon Musk to restore free speech protections on the social media site. These companies are well within their free speech rights to boycott the company or suspend their support in light of possible changes on content. However, customers also have the right not to support companies that do not support their free speech rights. Continue reading “Companies Join Call to Suspend Advertising with Twitter”
As families gather this year for our annual holiday feast, there remain many things for all of us to give pause and thanks for in our lives. Our friends, family, and faith remain central to this holiday. So is our freedom. Despite economic, political, and social problems, we remain a free and prosperous nation committed to core values of individual rights and self-determination. Indeed, more than any year, there is particular reason to give thanks to the most besieged and resilient part of our constitutional system: the courts. Despite attacks from the left and right, our court system remains a bulwark against political impulse and excess. The Supreme Court in particular has faced unrelenting attacks ranging from a reprehensible leak to an attempted assassination of a justice to calls for court packing. It has stood its ground just as James Madison and other Framers had hoped in their original design of our constitutional system.
I have previously written about how New York has proven time and time again as the gift that keeps on giving for the National Rifle Association (NRA) and gun-rights groups. New York Democrats continue to pass laws that are virtually guaranteed to be struck down and further reinforce Second Amendment rights. The latest provision involves the possible criminal prosecution for possessing a gun on private property if the owner has not approved such possession on the premises.
Continue reading “Federal Court Strikes Down Another Provision of New York’s New Gun Control Law”
A painting from the renowned contemporary Dutch painter Rein Dool has been removed from a wall at Leiden University in the Netherlands after the objection that it depicts only white men. Political Science PHD candidate Elina Zonina said that the painting of white men smoking cigars made her feel uncomfortable. According to Dutch News, Zonina insisted that the school needed to add an “ironic or critical” note with such a painting. In the meantime, it is now turned toward the wall to avoid harming or offending anyone else at the school.
On the eve of the midterm elections with Pennsylvania’s Senate race viewed as a dead heat, a debate has continued to rage over whether Democratic candidate John Fetterman is fit after suffering a serious stroke that impaired his communication and processing skills. However, as we previously discussed, many on the left have swatted back questions concerning Fetterman’s fitness as “ableism.” Now, the Washington Post has run a long column from University of Delaware Professor Jaipreet Virdi declaring that it is not just embracing ableism but eugenics to question Fetterman’s fitness. Continue reading “Washington Post Columnist: Doubting Fetterman’s Fitness is Embracing Eugenics”
A panel on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit seemed to be channeling the lyrics of the musical Hamilton in noting that “Everything is legal in New Jersey.” The panel ruled against a transgender woman who brought a discrimination claim against a beauty pageant that allowed only “natural-born females” to compete. In a prior 2016 column, I discussed the racially discriminatory consideration of only “non-Whites” for the cast of the much-celebrated production. The majority opinion written by Judge Lawrence VanDyke noted the policy in upholding a policy that excluded trans women from the Miss United States of America pageant in Oregon. Continue reading “Ninth Circuit Rules Against Transgender Woman in Beauty Pageant Competition . . . Citing the Musical Hamilton”
Here is my annual list of Halloween torts and crimes. Halloween of course remains a holiday seemingly designed for personal injury lawyers around the world and this year’s additions show why. Halloween has everything for a torts-filled holiday: battery, trespass, defamation, nuisance, product liability and more. Particularly with the recent tragedy in South Korea, our annual listing is not intended to belittle or ignore the serious losses that can occur on this and other holidays. However, my students and I often discuss the remarkably wide range of torts that comes with All Hallow’s Eve.
So, with no further ado, here is this year’s updated list of actual cases related to Halloween. Continue reading “Spooky Torts: The 2022 List of Litigation Horrors”