Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is under fire for continuing her political advocacy while she continues to hear cases in U.S. appellate courts. In a prior column, I criticized the increasingly public and political profiles of current justices. O’Connor was viewed as a justice who, while on the court, maintained a “base” and an active speaking schedule. Various critics have now noted with good-faith concern that O’Connor is lending her name to political causes while sitting as a federal judge.
Continue reading “Former O’Connor Criticized for Political Activities While Continuing To Sit As Judge”
In an extraordinary rejection of parental decision-making over their children’s diets, the administration at Little Village Academy on Chicago’s West Side has banned homemade lunches to protect students from the unhealthy diet choices of their parents.
We previously discussed the extraordinary actions taken against Associate Professor Lawrence J. Connell at Widener University School of Law after he used Dean Linda L. Ammons in hypotheticals in his class. He is now suing for defamatory statements that have harmed his reputation or career that painted him as a racist and sexist.
Continue reading “Lawrence Connell Sues Widener Dean Linda Ammons For Defamation”
Applebee’s is looking at a serious tort action if the Dill-Reese family is sensible. They had to take their 15-month boy to the hospital after someone at Applebee’s allegedly filled his sippy cup with alcohol. The toddler had a blood alcohol level of .10 and has recovered.
Continue reading “Applebee’s Accused of Giving Margarita To Toddler in a Sippy Cup”
We are now officially number one in the wine world. The United States has finally passed France as the top consuming wine nation with 330 million cases to France’s 321 million cases.
Continue reading “Au Revoir, Bon Ami: United States Passes France As Top Wine-Consuming Nation”
I always seem to sit next to this guy on the plane or bus. Police in Argentina arrested a man with 600 snakes and other reptiles, including some endangered species.
Continue reading “Snakes on a Bus: Argentinian Man Caught With 600 Snakes and Reptiles”
Submitted by Mike Appleton, Guest Blogger
John Thompson spent 18 years in prison, 14 of them on death row, following convictions for attempted armed robbery and murder in separate incidents. A scant month before the scheduled execution, an investigator hired by Thompson’s lawyers made a startling discovery in the crime lab archives: a lab report which completely exonerated Thompson on the attempted robbery charge. Continue reading “CONNICK V. THOMPSON AND PROSECUTORIAL IMPUNITY”
Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
Republican governors in Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey, and Florida have been getting a lot of media and press attention lately because of their proposals for drastic budget cuts, big tax breaks for corporations, or for their attacks on public sector workers and their unions. One newly elected Republic governor who has remained pretty much under the radar is Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania. A few weeks ago, a story about Corbett at ProPublica caught my attention. I thought it was a story worth investigating.
Last December, Governor Corbett announced his very first political appointee—a man named C. Alan Walker. Walker, an energy executive, was chosen to head the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. What’s particularly interesting about this appointment is that Corbett also gave Walker supreme authority over environmental permitting in the state of Pennsylvania.
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
I guess it takes a few whacks to get things into the heads of the theocrats in Tennessee. Eighty-six years after the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial” pitted Clarence Darrow, Esq., against William Jennings Bryan, Esq., in a classic cross-examination of opposing counsel that decimated the notion that teaching creationism was anything except the indoctrination of religion by public school officials, Tennessee legislators are at it again with a new version of the Butler Act.
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
During the budget debate, Congressional Republicans have targeted Planned Parenthood because it provides abortion services. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) even took to the Senate floor to claim that well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does is provide abortion services. That is a lie and Kyl couldn’t care less. In what must be some kind of spin setting record, Kyl said his remark was “not intended to be a factual statement.” So he lied intentionally.
Planned Parenthood has received federal funding since 1970 and abortion services are funded exclusively by private donations.
Continue reading “Sen. Jon Kyl’s False Claim About Planned Parenthood”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has signed into law House Bill 2443, named the “Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act of 2011.” I don’t think the name was intended to be humorous. The law makes it a Class 3 felony to:
PERFORM AN ABORTION KNOWING THAT THE ABORTION IS SOUGHT BASED ON THE SEX OR RACE OF THE CHILD OR THE RACE OF A PARENT OF THAT CHILD.
Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty, (rafflaw), Guest Blogger
I know what you might be thinking after reading that title, “Duh”! However, a few days ago, I read an article by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, which proposed that the Wealthy must contribute more revenue to the government through the form of higher taxes. When I first read it, I nodded my head in agreement and moved on to another article. In light of my guest blog last week titled, The Tea Party Versus the Middle Class, and in light of the “deal” that was reached last night to keep the government from shutting down, I think it is imperative to review Mr. Reich’s words. Continue reading “Should The Wealthy Pay More Taxes?”
Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
Fed Lifts Veil of Secrecy (December 1, 2010)
“Almost two years ago I asked Chairman Bernanke to tell the American people which financial institutions and 
corporations received trillions of dollars as part of the Wall Street bailout. He refused. Today, as a result of an audit-the-Fed provision I put into the financial reform bill, we finally learn the truth – and it is astounding.”
— Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), author of Fed disclosure provision
Lifting the Veil of Fed Secrecy
-Submitted by David Durmm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Although Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) had initially received praise for his budget proposal, upon more careful analysis, many, like Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, have found it to be Ludicrous and Cruel. A principal feature of his budget is tax cuts for the wealthy, from 35 percent to 25 percent. But not to worry, remember that tax cuts magically pay for themselves. Phase 1, cut taxes for the wealthy. Phase 2, ? Phase 3, prosperity.
Rep. Ryan’s budget relies on economic forecasts provided by the Heritage Foundation showing an unemployment rate of 2.8% by 2021. This seems like déjà vu all over again.
Continue reading “Rep. Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity (For the Wealthy)””
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
The earliest North American advocate of the separation between church and state was Roger Williams who founded not only the first Baptist Church on the continent, but also the colony of Rhode Island. In his 1644 book, The Bloody Tenent of Persecution, Williams used the phrase “[A] hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world.”
Fortunately, Thomas Jefferson didn’t use “hedge” in his famous letter in reply to the Danbury Baptists. However, “hedge” does fit into Williams’ metaphor that uses garden and wilderness.