Some readers have noticed the interruption in new postings on this blog and social media. Due to the passing of his mother, Angela Piazza Turley, 97, in Chicago, Professor Turley has been spending this time with his family. He expects to resume writing sometime this week. Continue reading “The Passing of Professor Turley’s Mother”
Happy Independence Day!
Despite the planned protests, most Americans will join today in celebrating our common article of faith in the Declaration of Independence. This country remains the greatest hope for freedom in the world, and these protests reaffirm those rights. We celebrate the ideals of the people we strive to be — and the millions who came before us. We will be watching the fireworks tonight at home with family and setting off our own after grilling up burgers, brats, corn, and other items for our Independence Day celebration.
As we continue to await the Supreme Court’s ruling on the national or universal injunction question, the Trump administration has filed another request to block a district court order that prevents it from implementing a “reduction-in-force” policy. The request in Trump v. American Federation of Government Employees could have major implications for other such orders even without the ruling in the birthright citizenship case. Continue reading “RIF Rift: Trump Administration Asks Court to Enjoin San Francisco Judge”
In Running to Stand Still, Bono sang that you should “cry without weeping. Talk without speaking.” He can add “condemn without counting.” Recently, the U2 frontman declared that 300,000 have died as a result of USAID funding cuts. The source for this widely cited figure is an example of how some facts are simply too good to check in the media. Continue reading “Bono Fide? U2 Frontman Claims 300,000 Have Died Due to USAID Cuts”
We previously discussed how schools were making students remove sweatshirts reading “Let’s Go Brandon.” I have argued that the shirts should be treated as protected speech. However, United States District Court Judge Christopher Boyko just delivered another blow to free speech in rejecting a claim for such protection, at least as the basis for injunctive relief, in Conrad v. Madison Local School Dist—Bd. of Ed. Continue reading “Federal Judge Rules Against Student Who Wore a “Let’s Go Brandon” Shirt”
We often use the end of the year to do a quick review of the state of the blog. We will soon pass our 87,000,000 view mark and our community continues to grow rapidly around the world. As a mark of that growth, we are now staggering our periodic updates that used to occur with each new millionth marker since we are now surpassing a million such views on average in less than a month. Continue reading “State of the Blog: The Record Year of 2024 on Res Ipsa”
Happy New Year to everyone on our blog! We rang in 2025 at home in Virginia. The kids went to parties after dinner with us this year, so it was just Leslie and me. That was appropriate since New Year’s Eve is also our wedding anniversary. Twenty-seven years ago, Leslie and I eloped in Old Town Alexandria. (We used my high school ring for the wedding ring.) Continue reading “HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!”
Best wishes to everyone celebrating Christmas. This year, we are celebrating in North Carolina for the first time. My four children and Luna drove down with us two days ago.
I will be tied up today in the Harvard debate over free speech, but I wanted to share our current traffic figures. This morning, Res Ipsa passed the 85,000,000 mark in views on the blog. We have used these moments to give thanks for our many regular readers around the world and share our traffic data to give you an idea of the current profile of readers around the world. We do not have a running data page so these periodic postings allow our community to see the traffic profile of our blog. Because of the growth of the blog, we have gone from million to five million view markers. So let’s get at it. Continue reading “RES IPSA HITS 85,000,000”
In a new sign of the intolerance of our Age of Rage, liberal activists in D.C. have forced a politics-themed bar in Washington, D.C., “Political Pattie’s,” to remove the GOP political symbol from its building. The GOP pachyderm will be packed away to protect the sensibilities of Democrats. The appearance of the elephant was too triggering for liberals and boycotts were being threatened. Continue reading ““Hurtful to the Community”: Critics Force Removal of Republican Symbol from “Political Pattie’s””
Today I was addressing federal and state judges in Ohio on the Supreme Court, including the threatening environment faced by the justices. In the middle of the speech, the media reported that an Alaska man was arrested for threatening to assassinate six members of the Supreme Court and harm two family members. While the government has not confirmed the identities of the justices, some media outlets are reporting, that Panos Anastasiou, 76, threatened the six conservative justices. Continue reading “Alaskan Man Arrested for Reportedly Threatening the Six Conservative Justices”
Below is my column in The Hill on the curious claim of executive privilege over the audiotape from President Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur. It is the first time that I know of where the content of a presidential conversation was treated as unprivileged but the audio of the conversation claimed as privileged. It is also an invocation on answering questions about alleged criminal acts committed while a private citizen. It is, in my view, entirely without merit but Attorney General Merrick Garland appears more interested in running out the clock than prevailing on the claim.
Here is the column: Continue reading “Biden’s Voldemortian Theory of Privilege: The President Whose Voice Must Not Be Heard”
The backlash over the settlement of Northwestern University with pro-Palestinian protesters continues to mount. In a letter acquired by The Daily Northwestern, seven out of 11 members of the “President’s Advisory Committee on Preventing Antisemitism and Hate” resigned this week in protest. Continue reading “Majority of Northwestern’s Anti-Semitism Task Force Members Resign Over Deal With Protesters”
I will confess that there are at times a level of contempt expressed in my columns. However, today will be the first time that a column becomes a legal matter for contempt. Among the ten postings by former president Donald Trump being raised by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in his contempt sanction is the use of a quotation from one of my columns. Continue reading “Court to Decide Trump Contempt Sanction Including Objection to Use of Turley Quotation”
We have previously discussed the growing anti-free speech movement in Scotland with the expanding criminalization of political and religious speech. The new Scottish law is a perfect nightmare for free speech, expanding the potential of a jail sentence for merely insulting language. In response, author JK Rowling has taken a stand and dared the Scottish police to come and arrest her for criticizing transgender status. Continue reading ““#arrestme”: JK Rowling Dares Scotland to Enforce Anti-Free Speech Law”