Pennsylvania Teacher Falls Off Hotel Roof In Mexico After Laughing Too Hard

1503079519729While people often chide the United States for our torts system and personal liability laws, occasional stories from other countries remind us of how important liability can be to influence accident avoidance.  Sharon Regoli Ciferno, 50, a teacher at Charles A. Huston Middle School in western Pennsylvania, was vacationing in Mexico when she fell off a hotel roof that used a deck ledge as a bench.  Ciferno laughed so hard that she lost her balance in throwing her head back and fell off the roof.

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A Picture Frozen In Time: California Man Killed In Spanish Terror Attack

1503110024263Every terrorist attack brings a myriad of tragic stories of lives cut short by extremists who believe that mowing down innocent people will please God and guarantee them a place in paradise.  I had to share this picture on one such tragedy in the death of American Jared Tucker, 42, who took this picture one hour with his wife Heidi Nunes before being murdered in the streets of Barcelona Spain.  They were celebrating their one-year anniversary. Continue reading “A Picture Frozen In Time: California Man Killed In Spanish Terror Attack”

Tenth Circuit Strips Qualified Immunity After Sheriff’s Office Raids Home Of Tea Growers

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

There are some cases where probable cause is questioned and there are a few others that leave me shaking my head in disbelief of how ridiculous some officers can be.

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals recently handed down a stinging rebuke of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and its deputies some of whom, Plaintiffs claim, lied about a field test of a suspected Marijuana product, finding evidence of marijuana grow derived from purchasing tools at a gardening retailer somehow established probable cause sufficient to send in a SWAT team to execute a search warrant and detain a couple for several hours.

The leafy green vegetable matter in question was not marijuana but tea leaves.

It is a classic example of department officials promising to make a publicity garnering drug sweep and when arrests are not made, someone must be sent to jail at all costs. And as can often be the case with such maligned efforts the end result was a civil rights lawsuit in federal court.

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Court Spokesman Fired After He Butt Dials A Reporter And Leaves A Four-Minute Message About His High-Salary, No Work Job

The spokesman for the New York State Court system has been fired after a disastrous butt-call to a reporter in which he admitted barely working to earn his $172,000 job.  David Bookstaver, 59, was previously stripped of his duties but he remained as “communications director” with his high salary and virtually no work.  That is when the spokesman was undone by the accidental dialing of a reporter and a four-minute tirade in which he laughed about this sweet job.

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DisruptJ20: The Justice Department Demands 1.3 Million IP Addresses and Other Information On Trump Critics

YC_kStF9US-DeptOfJustice-Seal_svgBelow is my column in USA Today on a troubling warrant issued by the Justice Department to force the disclosure of visitors to an anti-Trump site.  The DisruptJ20 case raises very serious questions regarding political speech and associational rights.

Here is the column:

 

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Pronoun Prison? California Moves Toward Criminalizing The Refusal To Use The Correct Pronoun For Transgender People

California flagThe California State Senate is considering a bill that would make it a crime to  “willfully and repeatedly” refuse “to use a transgender resident’s preferred name or pronouns” in a public health, retirement or housing institution.  State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) has introduced  SB 219  with a variety of transgender protections but the pronoun controversy is likely to get the most attention.  Violators face a year in jail and a potential $1000 fine.  The criminalization of pronoun misuse however could raise serious free speech and other constitutional concerns.

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Ryerson University Cancels Free Speech Panel As A Threat To Public Safety

Ryerson_University_CrestI have previously written about how cities and universities are now cancelling conservative speakers in order to protect public safety. I recently discussed this rising rationale for barring speakers, a way for officials to claim that they are still being content neutral while achieving the same result of censoring speakers. The latest such example occurred in Canada at Ryerson University where the school canceled a free speech panel after some groups criticized the appearance of conservative speakers.   The school gave them what they demanded in the name of protecting public safety.

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New York Times Column Calls For End To “Color-Blind Logic” In Defense of Free Speech

Freedom_of_SpeechI have been writing for years about the rising wave of intolerance for free speech that has swept over Europe and is now reaching our own shores in the United States.  Attacks on free speech are increasing from the left which has cracked down on speech deemed offensive or intimidating to any group.  Thus far, the United States has been a bulwark against this trend, but an editorial in the New York Times this week is a chilling example of how voices against free speech are now becoming mainstream. The editorial was written by K-Sue Park is a housing attorney and the Critical Race Studies fellow at the U.C.L.A. School of Law.  Park criticizes the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for what she views as blind fealty to free speech and suggests that it is time to stop defending Nazis because sometimes standing on the wrong side of history in defense of a cause you think is right is still just standing on the wrong side of history.  Of course, many of us believe that the wrong side of history is the side where free speech depends on what you want to say — and whether people like Park agree with it.

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High School Teen Charged With Manslaughter After Strangling His Mother’s Abusive Ex-Boyfriend To Death

choke16n-1-webThere is a tragedy unfolding in the Bronx where Luis Moux, 18, a football high school player is facing manslaughter charges.  He allegedly choked his mother’s ex-boyfriend to death Monday after discovering his mother’s abusive ex-boyfriend beating her. It is the prototypical heat of passion case and the prosecutor elected to charge for manslaughter rather than a high class of homicide. However, there remains the question of whether he should be convicted for killing the man and whether this might be a case of jury nullification where jurors simply refuse to convict on these facts.

 

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Four Arrested In Destruction Of Confederate Statue In North Carolina

Cfakepathmugshots212_20170816_180608There are now four protesters arrested for the destruction of a roughly century-old statue of a Confederate soldier in North Carolina.  The bold act of property destruction was carried out in front of news cameras in broad daylight.  As a history nut, it is painful to see old works of art destroyed in this fashion. The arrested include Takiyah Thompson, 22, Dante Strobino, 35, Ngoc Loan Tran, 24, and Peter Gilbert, 39.

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Charlottesville Protest Leads To Call For Expansion of Hate Crime and Terrorism Laws

james-alex-fields-jr-f77d1f9e078c37aeBelow is my column in The Hill on the calls for hate crime and terrorism charges against James Fields and possibly others.  The response is understandable, but the expansion of these laws raise serious free speech concerns that should be considered before prosecutors move beyond the current murder charge.

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Pelosi Calls For Permit To Be Revoked For Rally Of Pro-Trump Prayer Group In San Francisco

220px-nancy_pelosiHouse Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has always displayed a rather fluid view of constitutional rights (though in fairness, that is not a major distinction from other politicians).  However, this week Pelosi appeared to embrace content based discrimination in the area of free speech.  Pelosi is demanding that the National Park Service reconsider a permit for what she called a “white supremacist rally” in San Francisco.  In light of the violence in Charlottesville, Pelosi insists that “The NPS should reevaluate its decision and its capacity to protect the public during such a toxic rally.” The problem is leaving it to the government to declare what groups are toxic from Pelosi’s list of constructive banned viewpoints.  I felt ill watching the torch march of neo-Nazis in Charlottesville as white supremacists yelled disgusting anti-Semitic and racist chants.  It reminded me of the Nazi rallies before World War II — before my father and so many others went off to fight fascism.  However, despite that revulsion, I remain committed to the right of everyone to speak and protest regardless of the content of their views.

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Trump Administration Demands Information On Over A Million Visitors To Anti-Trump Website

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Train Wreck: Trump Reposts Another Image Attacking CNN

trump-retweet-train-killing-reporter-cnn-deleted_gi5iqhdonald_trump_president-elect_portrait_croppedI previously was highly critical of President Donald Trump for his reposting a video from his appearance at a professional wrestling bout that was altered to look like he was beating down CNN.  With the rising anger and attacks directed at the media, the posting was irresponsible and inflammatory.  While I have criticized some in the media for open bias in its attacks on Trump, I have been alarmed by his attacks on the press.  Undeterred, Trump again reposted an item this morning that featured a cartoon of CNN being hit by a train.  Some people have said that this is outrageous after the car attack in Charlottesville.  I think the objection should be directed at the pattern of images of press being beaten or run down by this President. The free press has helped guarantee civil liberties and good government in this country for over two hundred years.  Unlike much of the world, we have an independent media that is a constant check on the abuses and corruptions of government.  Trump’s open antagonism for the press is alarming and at times reckless.

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Trump Down To 34 Percent Popularity

donald_trump_president-elect_portrait_croppedstock-149421_128045 is now at 34.  President Donald Trump has hit a new low in popularity according to the Gallup poll.  Gallup’s latest poll is 34 percent with a disapproval rate at a staggering 61 percent.  Yet, there is no indication of any change in the President’s continued use of Twitter or his unscripted comments like the damaging comments on Venezuela that led Maduro critics to denounce the United States.  The concern among GOP members and operatives is that Trump is being given tailored news in a daily positive portfolio.  Yet, he is also an avid news watcher so he clearly can see the continued decline in support not just among the public but GOP members.

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