Best wishes to everyone celebrating Christmas. According to the Library of Congress, this is the first known commercial Christmas card. It was the work of Henry Cole, a British civil servant, in 1843. That was same year that Charles Dickens published “A Christmas Carol.” We are celebrating this year at our house in Virginia with our four children and, of course, Luna. Continue reading “Merry Christmas!!!”
We recently discussed how Democratic members and staffers are now repeating the same phrase that they will push through immigration reform, spending bills, and other items “by any means necessary.” That includes packing the Supreme Court and sacking nonpartisan staffers like the Senate Parliamentarian. President Joe Biden has now joined the movement by casting aside prior principles that he long defended to achieve his own agenda. He told ABC anchor David Muir that he is reversing his position on the filibuster and would support its curtailment in order to federalize election rules. It is part of what the President now says is a strategy to muscle through the legislation by “whatever it takes.”
The conviction of former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter for manslaughter brought closure for the family of Duante Wright and many in our society. The fact, however, is that it will not bring closure on the long-standing debate over the criminalization of negligence in weapon confusion cases. Continue reading “The Potter Verdict: Was The Jury Right But the Law Wrong on Culpable Negligence?”
Professor Laurence Tribe has lashed out at conservatives for years, claiming that disinformation is a Republican tool that “prefigures the advent of fascist authoritarianism and the death of liberty.” While Tribe has been repeatedly criticized for false statements and conspiracy theories, newspapers continue to run dubious takes on the law and politics. However, there is a clear line between false and frivolous claims. The latter problem was brought to my attention by readers who noted that Tribe made a false claim about my prior writings. The Tribe column claimed hypocrisy for a column in which I took the very opposite (and consistent) position on the Texas abortion law. Tribe also used the alleged hypocrisy to embrace his own hypocritical position on the laws. It is enough to give you vertigo.
Below is my column in The Hill on the continued FBI investigation into the loss of Ashley Biden’s diary. The use of the FBI in the case raises, again, the question of whether federal officials are being used to address a family scandal.
Here is the column:
There is an astonishing exodus afoot from the office of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, one of the prosecutors who took office on criminal reform platforms in recent years. Krasner has been criticized for his denial of any crime wave in the city despite other Democratic leaders complaining of the rising lawlessness (culminating this week with the carjacking of Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon at gunpoint ). The Philadelphia Inquirer reports Krasner’s office has lost 261 attorneys out of a staff of 340, including 70 prosecutors hired under his tenure. The office is described as in disarray with largely young, recent law school graduates carrying out the priorities and policies of Krasner.
Continue reading “Exodus: Philadelphia Prosecutors Are Leaving Larry Krasner in Droves”
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office has decided that the police officer who slapped at woman at Miami International Airport last year will not be charged. Officer Antonio Clemente Rodriguez slapped Paris Anderson without, in my view, proper justification or cause. This would seem a clear case of battery, but Rodriguez was allowed to retire with back pay after being removed from the force. Continue reading “Miami-Dade Police Officer Will Not Be Charged Over Slapping Woman at Airport”
The Farmington Public School District in Michigan is under fire this week for a direct call for students to join a Black Lives Matter political protest and declaring that calling America “the land of opportunity” is a microaggression. Continue reading “Michigan School District Under Fire For “Equity Challenge” That Includes Joining BLM Protests”
Cook County special prosecutor Dan Webb has issued his report on the Jussie Smollett scandal with scathing findings of misconduct by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. The findings include a determination that Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx lied to the public about her communications and role in the scandal. Despite the highly improper handling of the case (including the dropping of the original charges against Smollett), Chicago voters still reelected Foxx who has an appalling record in office. For a native Chicagoan, it is an all-too-familiar pattern of corrupt or incompetent elected officials continuing in office. The question, however, is whether Foxx will face any bar action for allegedly lying to the public about the handling of the case.
We recently discussed the struggle at all-women schools like Hollins University in stopping the use of gender as a defining characteristic. Mount Holyoke previously ordered faculty to stop referring to students as “women.” It is a difficult transition for schools that remain gender exclusive in avoiding gender references. Now, Boston’s all-girls Winsor School, has adopted a diversity/equity/inclusion (DEI) plan to drop references to gender such as “she, her, hers’’ and “your daughter.” Continue reading “Boston All-Girls School Bans References to Girls”
Madeleine Turley*
Guest columnist
For most teenagers, jacking up your car is usually a matter of adding a huge stereo system or an over-sized pair of fuzzy dice. For Dillon Prestidge, it involved an eleven-foot Christmas tree and enough lights to recreate the aurora borealis. The curious sight of Prestidge’s tree-laden truck has thrilled and confused many in McLean, Virginia. However, it was first and foremost intended for an audience of one: his 80-year-old grandmother who he wanted to cheer up in this pandemic-driven holiday. Continue reading “A Boy, A Grandma, and a Really Big Tree: A Christmas Story”
In the Age of Rage, no institution or process appears inviolate. When the majority of the Supreme Court shifted right, liberal academics and members demanded court packing — a practice long denounced as anathema to the rule of law. When the Supreme Court commission voiced concerns over court packing, it was denounced by liberal groups and two of the few conservative members resigned during the outcry. Academics have been called to “redo” the First Amendment after it became an impediment to social justice efforts. It is not surprising, therefore, that some of the same activists are now calling for the sacking of Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough. Her offense? She rendered a non-partisan judgment that Democrats could not push through the sweeping immigration reform package as part of the budget reconciliation process. Like the Supreme Court, the Parliamentarian was now an impediment to politics so she or her authority (or both) will have to go. Democratic members and staff are repeating the same menacing mantra that is now familiar in Washington of politics “by any means necessary.“
Continue reading “From Packing to Sacking, Democrats Pledge Politics “By Any Means Necessary””
We have been discussing the growing attack on free speech in this country, including a widespread movement in academia to curtail free speech rights. Indeed, this movement largely began on college campuses and spread to social media, politics, and journalism. It is now an article of faith for the left to demand censorship or the regulation of speech in the name of social justice. University of Miami’s Mary Anne Franks has a simple solution, and The Boston Globe wants people to consider it: just gut the First and Second Amendments. That’s right, the problem with the Bill of Rights, according to Franks, is that it is too “aggressively individualistic” so the solution is to “redo” the work of the Framers to be more woke compliant. All of those pesky constitutional rulings in favor of free speech rights will then fall away and society can move on with social justice unimpeded by constitutional niceties. Continue reading ““Aggressively Individualistic”: Miami Law Professor Proposes a “Redo” of the First and Second Amendments” 
The University of Southern California is under fire this week after a student tweeted that she wants “to kill every motherf–king zionist” as well as other postings denounced as anti-Semitic. The student, Yasmeen Mashayekh, is listed as a diversity and inclusion (DEI) senator for the University of Southern California Viterbi Graduate Student Association. The school has refused to take action against Mashayekh, but other students have objected that the school would not have been so circumspect if Mashayekh said that she wanted to kill others like BLM supporters.
Continue reading “USC Under Fire Over Student’s Anti-Zionist Threats on Social Media”
Below is my column in The Hill on New York’s latest gun control measure — and the latest challenge to a New York law. What is most striking in reviewing the line of gun cases coming out of New York is that the Empire State has done more for gun rights than any “pro-gun” state. Indeed, if you look at the cases expanding gun rights, New York is the greater enabler of Second Amendment expansion of any state. The reason is that these legislative measures are propelled by political rather than legal judgment. For gun owners, New York is proof of what “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” The gun nuisance law is the latest in a long line of mistakes by New York.
Here is the column: Continue reading “New York’s Circular Firing Squad: Gun Groups Sue Over Latest Legislative Misfire”