Scott Lupien insists that he is the ultimate conservationist. According to the article below, Lupien, an American fluent in Chinese, takes wealthy Chinese to Canada where they can see magnificent Polar bears up close . . . and kill them and turn them into rugs. The , Lupien is a professional hunter who is “teaching the Chinese about conservation” by leading trips to shoot down male polar bears. He insists that his customers respect nature: “Each hunter is allowed to kill one male only. We then turn them into rugs.” On his website, however, Lupien says that the story is false raising an interesting question of potential defamation.
Attorney General Eric Holder was at Northwestern University Law School yesterday explaining President Barack Obama’s claimed authority to kill any American if he unilaterally determines them to be a threat to the nation. The choice of a law school was a curious place for discussion of authoritarian powers. Obama has replaced the constitutional protections afforded to citizens with a “trust me” pledge that Holder repeated yesterday at Northwestern. The good news is that Holder promised not to hunt citizens for sport.
Continue reading “Holder Promises To Kill Citizens With Care”
U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg has struck down Maryland’s handgun law to the extent that it requires residents show a “good and substantial reason” to get a handgun permit. While he is being criticized for the opinion, I believe that Judge Legg is on sound legal ground in light of the Supreme Courts decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) and McDonald v. Chicago (2010). The case does enter into largely unmapped territory on what standard of scrutiny to apply in such cases — a matter that could prove quite important in future cases.
Continue reading “Federal Court Strikes Down Maryland’s Handgun Law”
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has called on Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke to sue Rush Limbaugh for calling her a “slut” and a “prostitute” on his radio show. Hoyer insists that the reprehensible comments are also actionable libel. He is half right.
Continue reading “Bad Advice: Hoyer Encourages Fluke To Sue Limbaugh For Defamation”
China has found its answer to Survivor. Emphasizing a strength, the latest television sensation is Interviews Before Execution where condemned prisoners breakdown in confessions before being led off to be executed.
Continue reading “[Non] Survivor: China’s New Hit Show Features Condemned Prisoners In Last Moments”
A couple of past students went to the debate between Ann Coulter and Lawrence O’Donnell and were surprised b one exchange. Despite being continents apart, I became a point on which Coulter and O’Donnell agreed. While some would say this is a sign of the apocalypse, I say it is merely an expression the great unifying healing force that I send throughout the world.
Continue reading “Coulter and O’Donnell Find A Point Of Agreement And Guess What It Was . . .”
We have been following the disturbing trend of arrests of citizens videotaping police in public — the subject of this prior column. Illinois has been featured prominently in these stories due to its strict law on eavesdropping. Now Cook County Criminal Courts Judge Stanley Sacks ruled that the law unconstitutional due to its vague language, which sweeps “wholly innocent conduct” within its scope.
Continue reading “Illinois Judge Declares State Eavesdropping Law Unconstitutional”
Iranian human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani has been sentenced to 18 years in prison by what the Iranian government refers to as “courts.” To his credit, Soltani refused to defend himself before the Iranian tribunal which blindly carries out the dictates of the religious leaders of the country.
The Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin has reported a theft. Nothing new there. However, the item is not one of the golden chalices or crosses that are often targeted by thieves. Someone stole the preserved heart of St. Laurence O’Toole (also known as Lorcán Ua Tuathail).
Continue reading “Heartless: Thief Steals The Heart of St. Laurence O’Toole”
Japanese researchers can finally claim to have invented a device that has left their colleagues speechless. Kazutaka Kurihara of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, and Koji Tsukada of Ochanomizu University, have created a “SpeechJammer” gun that can silence people by sending back their words to them to confuse their cognitive processes. I really need to get one of these for faculty meetings.
Continue reading “Unspeakable Science: Japanese Scientists Invent Speech-Jamming Device”
A statement that Rick Santorum made recently is attracting more attention this month as the Republican primary continues to drill down on conservative social issues, particularly same-sex marriage. At the end of December, Santorum pledged he will push through an amendment to the Constitution banning same-sex marriage — nothing new there. However, he is also asserting that the amendment would be retroactive and nullify prior same-sex marriages –estimated to be more than 131,000.
Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
There has been a lot of discussion in the media recently about the HHS contraception coverage mandate. Much of the talk has focused on women’s sex lives and the types of birth control that doctors prescribe for women in order to prevent pregnancy—as well as on the separation of church and state and the mandate’s infringement on religious freedom and the Catholic Church’s First Amendment rights. There has been much less talk about women’s health, women’s rights, and the use of birth control pills to treat certain female medical conditions, including polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis. Both of these conditions can cause severe pain and lead to other health problems. According to Bruce Nolan of The Times-Picayune, the Institute of Medicine—which is a non-profit advisory panel—recommended the contraception coverage because “those services are basic to individual health.”
Many Americans—especially women—think that contraceptive coverage and other “female-related” medical services ARE basic to women’s health. Catholic bishops, however, believe that contraceptive coverage and some hospital services are in conflict with the church’s “moral conscience.” The bishops contend that the church has the right to deny certain types of health insurance coverage for women who work for Catholic institutions. It doesn’t matter to the bishops whether the female employees are members of other religions…are atheists or agnostics. The church’s position is that all female employees of Catholic institutions should be denied access to all forms of contraceptives and not be provided medical insurance that would cover the cost of certain medical procedures. The bishops also believe that certain types of treatment and procedures—including tubal ligations—should not be provided to women at Catholic hospitals.
When I was doing research on an earlier post, The National Women’s Law Center Takes a Position on Contraceptive Coverage & “Extreme” Legislation, I came across some information about Catholic hospitals that caused me great concern. The information left me with the belief that Catholic bishops and the Catholic Church do not seem to value the lives of women as much as they value the lives of men and the unborn. In this post, I will look at the “usurpation of female patients’ rights” at Catholic hospitals. I think after reading my post you will understand why I drew the conclusion that I did.
Continue reading “Catholic Bishops and Religious Rights vs. Women’s Rights”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
While we have discussed the fairness of the taxes paid and not paid by large corporations in the past, the alleged high corporate tax rate is once again in the news. It seems that after contraception the Right’s most consistent accusation is that the corporate tax rate is way too high for corporations to compete in the world market. The facts seem to differ from those claims however.
“Corporations are lobbying for lower corporate rates and an exemption for profits they shift offshore. McIntyre, however, says “Our study provides proof that too many corporations are already being coddled by our tax system.” Findings in the report include:
The average effective tax rate for all 280 companies in the study over the three year period was 18.5 percent; for the period 2009-2010 it was 17.3 percent, less than half the statutory rate of 35 percent.
78 of the companies enjoyed at least one year in which their federal income tax was zero or less.
30 companies enjoyed a negative income tax rate over the entire three year period on their combined pre-tax profits of $160 billion.
Total tax subsidies given to all 280 profitable corporations amounted to $222.7 billion from 2008-2010.
Wells Fargo tops the list of 280 U.S. corporations receiving the most in tax subsidies, getting nearly $18 billion in tax breaks from the U.S. treasury in the last three years.
Pepco Holdings had the lowest effective tax rate of all the companies in the study, at negative 57.6 percent over the three year period.” Citizens for Tax Justice Continue reading “Corporate Tax Rate and Reality”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Leading scientists, including evolutionary biologists, geneticists, and anthropologists, can’t agree on the existence of human races, and it’s a fascinating discussion. The human desire to categorize everything is often puzzling, sometimes amusing, and sometimes enlightening. Race is one of the results of our categorization compulsion applied to ourselves.
Submitted by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
Is an opinion defamation? Is it defamation if it is worn on a t-shirt? Is it defamation if you post a picture of yourself wearing said t-shirt on Facebook? Is the manufacturer liable for civil damages a purchaser of their t-shirt incurred since they wrote the content later found defamatory? An unusual case in Spain raises these questions and more.
A woman in Madrid, Spain is certainly perplexed by a court ruling that found her guilty of a “dignitary tort”. She was sentenced and initially ordered to pay 2,000 euros ( ≈ $2640) in damages and a 240 euro-fine ( ≈ $317), but the court later reduced the damages on appeal to 1,000 euros ( ≈ $1320) and eight days of house arrest in lieu of the fine. Adding insult to injury, the claimant – her ex-husband – asked that the damages be paid in installments to supplement his 700 euro per month income ( ≈ $924 per month).
This is a cause of action here is one we do not have an exact analogy for in the United States, but defamation is close. Historically, the primary dignitary torts recognized in English and subsequently American law are battery, assault, and false imprisonment. These torts still exist under modern American tort law, but they also have criminal law counterparts because they contain elements of violence. Under modern jurisprudence, the term dignitary torts is more closely associated with defamation (slander and libel), false light, intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy, and alienation of affections. In some jurisdictions, the use of the phrase “dignitary torts” is limited to those torts which do not require the threat of or actual physical injury. What was required in the present Spanish case was that the statement in question insulted someone’s dignity and effectively damaged that person’s reputation.
What did this woman do to merit this punishment? She posted a picture of herself to Facebook wearing a t-shirt with a slogan on it. Her boyfriend bought it for her while they were on vacation. It’s the kind of “gag t-shirt” commonly sold around the world. What did the shirt say that was so offensive? I’ll tell you below the fold.