Bizarre, Congress, Criminal law, Politics

The Gaetz Scandal Is Long On Speculation And Short On Facts

The scandal involving Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) continues to rage in Washington as Gaetz alleges a conspiracy to extort $25 million and the New York Times has reported an investigation into his traveling across state lines with a minor for sex. Both are serious allegations and someone is clearly lying. The question is why, after a year of reported investigation, the underlying facts appear unresolved.  Either this girl was 17 or she was not. Either Gaetz traveled with her or he did not. Then there is a taped call that could prove the veracity of key witnesses.  In other words, there is raging speculation over facts that should be easily and already established. Why?

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Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Media, Politics

He Who Must Not Be Heard: Facebook Removes Interview By Lara Trump For Including The “Voice Of Donald Trump”

Recently, Sen. Bernie Sanders raised concerns over the banning of Donald Trump from Twitter as an attack on free speech by corporate censors. It apparently had no impact on Big Tech.  Facebook has removed a video of an interview by Lara Trump of her father-in-law and former president. The company declared that it would censor  any content “in the voice of Donald Trump.” It appears that Trump has achieved Voldemort status on social media and is now “he who must not be heard.” Continue reading “He Who Must Not Be Heard: Facebook Removes Interview By Lara Trump For Including The “Voice Of Donald Trump”” →

Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Society

GoFundMe Shuts Down Fundraiser Of Parents Opposing Critical Race Theory In Loudoun County

There is a new controversy at GoFundMe which has been repeatedly criticized for yielding to campaigns to cancel conservative causes on the fundraising site. This controversy involved the decision to deactivate the fundraising ability of Parents Against Critical Theory, a group opposing the teaching of critical race theory in Loudoun County Public Schools. Loudoun county school employees supported a campaign to cancel the fundraiser and GoFundMe quickly informed the group that it had violated the site’s policies. However, there is no explanation of the specific violations that I could find. There may well be valid grounds for such termination but the failure to be clear and transparent on those grounds is deeply concerning from a free speech perspective.

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Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Free Speech, Lawyering, Politics, Torts

Two Capitol Police Officers Sue Trump Over Capitol Riot

I recently wrote about the lawsuit by Rep. Eric Swalwell against former President Donald Trump as a serious miscalculation that could result in a legal vindication for Trump either on the trial or appellate levels. In my view, the lawsuit contravenes free speech as well as controlling case law from the Supreme Court. Now two Capitol Police officers injured during the riot, James Blassingame and Sidney Hemby, have sued on similar grounds with many of the same inherent flaws. The 40-page lawsuit was written by D.C. attorney Patrick Malone, who previously filed ethics complaints against lawyers representing the Trump campaign or the Republican party.  Trump lawyers may view this lawsuit as a greater opportunity than a liability for their client.

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Animals, Bizarre, Torts

Major Liability? Biden’s Dog Bites Another Employee After Returning From Delaware Seclusion
Courtesy White House

I previously wrote about the historical and legal perspectives of a biting incident involving one of the presidential pets, Major.  Both Biden German Shepherds (Major and Champ) were previously whisked out of town.  They were then quietly brought back.  Now Major has bitten another person who reportedly required medical attention. In the prior column, I noted that under tort law a dog is afforded (at most) “one free bite” before strict liability applies. Major could now be treated as a known vicious animal for liability purposes.

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Media, Politics

The Washington Post Gives Biden “Four Pinocchios” For Statement on New Georgia Election Law

The Washington Post has issued a rare rebuke to President Joe Biden over his statement about the new Georgia election law.  As noted earlier, Biden’s statistical claims about the crisis on the Southern border have also been challenged by news organizations as false or misleading. However, one statement on the Georgia law stood out for many when Biden declared “What I’m worried about is how un-American this whole initiative is. It’s sick. It’s sick … deciding that you’re going to end voting at five o’clock when working people are just getting off work.” The statement was repeated in an official White House release from the President. The is untrue and the Post awarded Four Pinocchios.  However, one other statement in the article was equally surprising.

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Criminal law

Elderly Asian Woman Attacked On New York Street . . . Security Guard Responds By Closing Door

New York City Police are searching for this man who attacked a 65-year-old Asian woman in broad daylight in Midtown on the sidewalk on West 43rd Street near Ninth Avenue . The video below shows a man inside a building just a few feet away watching the attack. Like others, he does nothing. One person who did act was a security guard who walks over and closes the door.[Update: The NYPD has arrested Brandon Elliott for the crime].

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Academia, Society

From Sheets To Skulls: Universities Facing Calls For Fundamental Changes In Academic Disciplines

There are new calls for fundamental changes in academic disciplines this month to address systemic racism.  At Oxford, music department staff is calling for the removal of sheet music from the school’s curriculum as a relic of the “colonial past.” In a leading anthropology journal, two professors have criticized forensic anthropology and the traditional study of skulls to determine ancestry as inherently racist.  The calls are indicative of fundamental changes demanded in many of our academic disciplines. Such debates are good for academic institutions, but only if faculty and students feel comfortable in challenging such claims. On many of our campuses, there is a palpable fear about speaking out at the risk of being labelled racist or insensitive on such issues.

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Media, Politics

Situational Ethics: Allegations Facing Anti-Trump Figures Dampen Demands For Disbarments

After the 2020 election, activists launched scorched earth campaigns against conservative figures that included calls for the disbarment or delicensing of Trump lawyers, doctors, and even U.S. senators. Hundreds of righteous lawyers and professionals signed petitions and letters, insisting that they cannot stand idly by in the face of professional misconduct. Those outraged voices however have become muted as Trump critics themselves have faced ethical challenges. In today’s political environment, actions often seem unethical only if they are unpopular. Consider the controversies surrounding anti-Trump figures former Yale Professor Bandy Lee and Clinton lawyer Marc Elias – and how the righteous have become reticent in the face of allegedly unethical practices. Continue reading “Situational Ethics: Allegations Facing Anti-Trump Figures Dampen Demands For Disbarments” →

Criminal law, Society

The Chauvin Defense? New Research Shows Alarming Increase In Fentanyl Abuse and Deaths

As the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin starts in Minneapolis, much of the trial will focus on the role of fentanyl in the body of George Floyd as the possible cause for his death. Notably, a new study in the last week reinforces prior research showing an alarming increase in the abuse of this powerful drug and deaths associated from it.  In some counties, there was an almost 75% increase in the first half of 2020 in fatal drug overdoses with fentanyl as the main culprit.

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Columns, Congress, Constitutional Law, Politics

Democrats Cannot Erase The History Or Hypocrisy Of The Filibuster

Below is my column on the ongoing Democratic effort to get rid of the Senate filibuster. There are good-faith arguments against filibusters but there is a new campaign to declare the rule as racist. Once again, many in the media are ignoring both the history and hypocrisy surrounding the filibuster, including in the press conference last week with President Joe Biden. Biden was not asked in multiple questions on the filibuster about his defense of a rule that he now dismisses as a racist relic. In 2005 he stated:

The Senate ought not act rashly by changing its rules to satisfy a strong-willed majority acting in the heat of the moment…Proponents of the ‘nuclear option’ argue that their proposal is simply the latest iteration of a growing trend towards majoritarianism in the Senate. God save us from that fate, if it is true…Adopting the ‘nuclear option’ would change this fundamental understanding and unbroken practice of what the Senate is all about. Senators would start thinking about changing other rules when they became “inconvenient.” …Altering Senate rules to help in one political fight or another could become standard operating procedure, which, in my view, would be disastrous.”

Here is the column:
Academia, Free Speech, Media, Politics

Former Yale Professor Bandy Lee Sues University Over Termination
I have long been an out-spoken critic of Dr. Bandy Lee, a former faculty member in the School of Medicine and Yale Law School, who has made bizarre and unprofessional statements about the mental fitness of not just former president Donald Trump but his supporters. A favorite expert of MSNBC, Lee never disappointed hosts in declaring that Trump and his supporters are mentally ill and dangerous.  I was one of the first to call out Lee for violating the “Goldwater Rule” in such public diagnosis as she and others laid the foundation for a 25th Amendment removal of Trump within a year of his taking office. After numerous columns denouncing her, I should be relieved by the termination of Lee at Yale, as detailing in her recent  complaint, but free speech and academic freedom tend to make all such controversies more difficult. I actually have serious concerns about the termination.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Media

Turkey Prosecutes French Journalists For Cartoon Mocking Erdogan
In 2015, I wrote a Washington Post column criticizing the world leaders who marched for free speech and the free press after the massacre of editors with from the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, particularly the vehemently anti-free speech and anti-free press president of Turkey Recep Tavyip Erdogan. The editors were murdered because the magazine published a cartoon of Mohammad. Seeing the authoritarian Erdogan at the front of the march was the ultimate mocking of these deaths and proof that world leaders cared little for these rights or the 12 dead. Not only did Erdogan’s government follow the march by prosecuting a cartoonist, but now it is seeking long prison sentences for four Hebdo journalists for a cartoon mocking Erdogan.

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Bizarre, Criminal law

“Enticing The Crowd With Music”: Miami Police Charge Rapper With Rioting Offenses
There was rioting in Miami Beach over the last week as spring breakers vandalized property, blocked streets, and attacked police. At least five officers were injured. One of those charged was Javon Washington, 30, faces an array of charges due to his role in playing music and encouraging defiance of the police. I have serious reservations about some of those charges, including resisting arrest without violence (which I have criticized in the past as dangerously ill-defined as a criminal provision). Continue reading ““Enticing The Crowd With Music”: Miami Police Charge Rapper With Rioting Offenses” →
Res ipsa loquitur – The thing itself speaks