Constitutional Law, Politics, Society

Rick Santorum: Will Anti-Romney Voters Embrace Anti-Privacy Values?

The close second place victory of Rick Santorum in Iowa has elevated the latest choice of Republican for the anti-Romney candidate. Civil libertarians, of course, are well acquainted with Santorum who lost his Pennsylvania seat due to his extremist views. Santorum has outdone his opponents in appealing to evangelical voters by not just virtually promising to go to war upon being elected but is opposed to the Griswold decision.

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Animals, Bizarre, Criminal law, International, Media

Chinese Official Arrested In Suspected Murder Of Tycoon By Poisoning His Cat Stew

This story has it all from culinary, cultural, legal and political angles. Chinese police have arrested a local Communist party official from Guangdong for poisoning the boiled cat stew of a billionaire, Long Liyuan, 49. The accused, Huang Guang, is deputy director of agriculture in Guangdong’s Bajia township and was in a business dispute with Long.
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Bizarre, Society, Torts

efelony: Illinois Police Officer Uses Ticket To Ask Woman On Date

Who needs eharmony? Evangelina Paredes found a match in a handwritten note on her windshield. It was from Stickney police officer Chris Collins who used the information that he recorded on a $132 speeding ticket to track her down and ask her out. Collins pointed out “I did cost you $132 — least I can do is buy you dinner.” It is a police version of the slogan “fall in love for the right reasons.”

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Politics, Religion, Society

Saudi Morality Police Set To Crackdown On Lingerie Stores and Bette Davis Eyes

We previously discussed how the Saudi government has ordered that men can no longer work in women’s lingerie or cosmetic departments or stores. Such work is viewed as an insult to Islam and, on Thursday, the infamous Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Haia) will be sweeping through stores looking for any male workers. The religious police also recently announced that they will be cracking down on women with “sexy eyes.” So covering up in a burka is not enough if you have Bette Davis eyes. Sheikh Motlab al Nabet, spokesman of Saudi Arabia’s religious police, declared that “[t]he men of the committee will interfere to force women to cover their eyes, especially the tempting ones.”

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Academia, Science

It Came From Outer Space: Scientists Believe They Have Found New Quasicrystal in 4.5 Billion Year Old Meteorite Fragment

This rather attractive rock fragment has a lot of scientists talking this week. According to their tests, it is a previously unidentified natural quasicrystal that came to Earth riding on a meteorite some 4.5 billion years ago. They believe it is composed of the original material from the formation of our planetary system. For creationists who believe the Earth is only 5000 years old, it is a shiny rock in the office of a professor who can’t do math.
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Bizarre, Religion, Society

Scientology Embroiled In Internal Dispute Over The Amassing of Wealth Under Miscavige

The ultra-secret world of the Church of Scientology has been rocked by a rare internal dissent — gone public by an even more rare decision to leak internal communications to the media. The dispute focuses on an email by long-standing Scientologist Debbie Cook calling on 12,000 fellow members to withhold contributions to the church as violative of the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard.
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Bizarre, Criminal law

Massachusetts Police Nab Five-Year-Old Fugitive Bibliophile

Charlton (Mass.) police have finally tracked down Hailey Benoit after months of fugitive hiding. This week the five-year-old went to the door and found justice waiting in the form of a police sergeant demanding to know where are the two library books that have been overdue for two months. I expect the prosecutor will take the next natural step and throw the book at her.

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Bizarre, Society, Torts

“It’ll Tickle Your Innards”: Mountain Dew’s Mouse Dissolving Defense

Just when you thought litigation could not get more gruesome after the Illinois flying body part case. I just came across articles in this 2009 case where the lawyers for Pepsi came up with a novel defense against a product liability claim of an Illinois man who alleged that he found a dead mouse in his Mountain Dew. Impossible, they insist, because our product would have dissolved any mouse in a can. It is the type of legal argument that wins a case and loses a market. It certainly was consistent with the original slogan of the company: “It’ll Tickle Yore Innards!”
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Constitutional Law, Politics, Society

Obama Given Low Marks In Annual ACLU Report For Civil Liberties — Ranked Lower Than Paul

While this is unlikely to surprise many civil libertarians, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has issued its annual report card called “Liberty Watch 2012” and gave President Obama a failing report (earning the full four “torches” only on the issue of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy). The Republican candidates were equally dismal but it is rare for the Democratic candidate to be on par or lower than his GOP counterparts on civil liberties. Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson secured the top civil liberties spot while Republican Ron Paul came in second ahead of Obama.
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Constitutional Law, Politics, Society

Final Curtain: Obama Signs Indefinite Detention of Citizens Into Law As Final Act of 2011

President Barack Obama rang in the New Year by signing the NDAA law with its provision allowing him to indefinitely detain citizens. It was a symbolic moment to say the least. With Americans distracted with drinking and celebrating, Obama signed one of the greatest rollbacks of civil liberties in the history of our country . . . and citizens partied only blissfully into the New Year.
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Bizarre, Torts

Illinois Court Rules Pedestrian Can Sue Estate of Train Accident Victim Over Flying Body Part

One of my torts colleagues sent along an article on a rather bizarre case out of Illinois where an appellate court ruled that a bystander could sue the estate of the victim of a train accident after part of the victim’s body struck the bystander. For those who read the Palsgraf case in first-year torts on proximate causation, the case offers an interesting — if gory — twist.

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