Recently, we saw the filing of a hilarious brief by the Onion in Novak v. City of Pharm in which an Ohio man was prosecuted for posting a parody of his local police department. Now the Court has accepted a different parody case involving Jack Daniels where the company is suing the maker of dog chew toys. The case is Jack Daniel’s Properties Inc. v. VIP Products LLC. Continue reading “Supreme Court Takes Jack Daniels Trademark Case with Major Free Speech Implications”
We have been discussing how attacking free speech has become an article of faith for many on the left. That includes embracing corporate censorship and recently even good old-fashioned state censorship. It includes banning books and preventing opposing voices to be heard on campuses. Now, MSNBC national security analyst Frank Figliuzzi has called for Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Fox News host Tucker Carlson to face civil liability for their commentary on transgender policies or controversies after the recent tragic shooting in Colorado. It is part of a growing movement in the media in favor of imposing criminal or civil liability on opposing viewpoints — a call that is tantamount to sawing the very branch upon which journalists and analysts sit. Continue reading “MSNBC Analyst Calls for Liability for Boebert and Carlson … for the Colorado Shootings”
We have followed a long line of false claims by President Joe Biden, some of which recently earned him a “bottomless Pinocchio” from the Washington Post. Some of these claims raise serious concerns over their use to change policies or law about election law, border agents, Second Amendment, gun capacity. Others are more trivial but bizarre like accounts of his Amtrak conductor, truck driving past, and other stories have long been the subject of jokes in Washington. Yesterday, added to the latter category with odd claims about poultry in Delaware. Continue reading “Fowl Facts: Biden Uses Pardon Ceremony as Platform to Talk Turkey with Some Curious “Facts””
Below is my column in The Hill on the appointment of a special counsel to investigate former President Donald Trump. All of the three main players — Trump, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Special Counsel Jack Smith — will face immediate challenges in the legal arms race unfolding in Washington.
Here is the column: Continue reading “The Lords of War: The Perils Facing Trump, Garland, and Smith in Washington’s Legal Arms Race”
We have come a long way since the heady days of Professor James Moriarty.
In Missouri, Michael Conley Loyd, 30, pleaded guilty last week to bank robbery. That is not particularly notable, but Loyd wrote his demand note to the teller on the back of his birth certificate and robbed the bank while wearing an ankle monitor. It only got more bizarre from there.
For those of us who have written about the Hunter Biden scandal and the family’s influence-peddling operation for years, it is routine to read media stories denying the facts or dismissing calls to investigate the foreign dealings. However, this weekend, the Associated Press made a whopper of a claim that there is no evidence even suggesting that President Joe Biden ever spoke to his son about his foreign dealings. I previously discussed how the Bidens have succeeded in a Houdini-like trick in making this elephant of a scandal disappear from the public stage. They did so by enlisting the media in the illusion. However, this level of audience participation in the trick truly defies belief.
We previously discussed the case of two New York attorneys (Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman) who joined in violent protests in New York, including firebombing a police vehicle. The Biden Justice Department later gave the two lawyers an astonishingly generous plea deal that avoided long prison sentences. Now Rahman has been sentenced to 15 months after asking for no jail time for throwing the Molotov cocktail.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas A. Cox Jr. has ruled in favor of a filing by the Democratic Party and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s campaign to allow early voting to begin on Saturday in Georgia’s Senate runoff election. I previously criticized this filing as an invitation for the court to act as a super legislature in the face of clear statutory language. In fairness to Judge Cox, the opinion below makes a creative case for such a construction. Yet, despite this well-written decision, I still believe that the court is wrong to ignore the plain meaning of the statute.
Auburn University has lost a major case involving free speech after a jury ruled in favor of Prof. Michael Stern, a tenured economics professor. The jury ruled that Auburn retaliated against Stern for his public criticism of the school’s treatment of student athletes, particularly their alleged favored treatment in the College of Liberal Arts. Notably, the jury awarded punitive damages against the university, a relative rarity for juries but well deserved in this case. Continue reading “Stern Rebuke: Auburn University Hit With Punitive Damages in Free Speech Case”
There is a potentially important lawsuit pending in Kentucky on academic freedom and free speech. The University of Louisville is accused of retaliating against Professor Allan Josephson for his participation at a Heritage Foundation event on transgenderism. Continue reading “Professor Sues University of Louisville for Alleged Termination Due to his Transgender Views” 
In the shift of the left against free speech principles, there is no figure more actively or openly pushing for censorship than Hillary Clinton. Now, reports indicate that Clinton has unleashed her allies in the corporate world to coerce Musk to restore censorship policies or face bankruptcy. The effort of the Clinton-linked “Accountable Tech” reveals the level of panic in Democratic circles that free speech could be restored on one social media platform. The group was open about how losing control over Twitter could result in a loss of control over social media generally. For Clinton, it is an “all-hands on deck” call for censorship. She previously called upon foreign governments to crackdown on the free speech of Americans on Twitter.
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.
Well, we asked for bipartisanship. It seems to have arrived with a vengeance. It is rare to see Donald Trump, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez all campaigning on the same issue, but last night the former president added his voice to the call for a lifetime ban on former lawmakers (and cabinet members) working as lobbyists. This alliance is notable not only because it is uncommon but because it is pushing a reform that is likely unconstitutional. Continue reading “The Trump-Warren Alliance? A Curious Front Forms Over Banning Former Lawmakers from Lobbying”
Clovis Community College in California lost a major ruling in its effort to quash a free speech lawsuit by students censored by the school. U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston granted a preliminary injunction against the college, which requires a finding of a substantial likelihood of prevailing on the merits. The college ordered the removal of flyers promoting Freedom Week in November 2021, a week in which student groups oppose socialism and support conservative causes. Continue reading “Clovis Community College Loses Critical Decision over Free Speech”
This morning, Res Ipsa passed the 64,000,000 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. So let’s get at it. Continue reading “Res Ipsa Hits 64,000,000”