An assistant law professor Jason Huber of the Charlotte School of Law in North Carolina has filed an ethics complaint against four Crowell & Moring lawyers in a rather novel case. He accuses the lawyers of suggesting that inbreeding could be responsible for Appalachian birth defects found in a study of mountaintop mining.
Continue reading “Law Professor Files Ethics Complaint Against Crowell & Moring Lawyers For Inbreeding Remark”
I wanted to thank the faculty and students at the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service for the honor of receiving the Dr. Mary Ann Quaranta Elder Justice Award this weekend in New York. This is the first year of the award, which is named after one of the great public interest figures and academics of our age.
Continue reading “Fordham and the 2011 Quaranta Award”
Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
From Climate Science Watch (March 18, 2010): To the libertarians, the widely-shared scientific assessment that human-caused climate change will likely produce major harmful consequences — and the communication of this evidence to the public by the leading climate scientists — poses a particularly serious threat. An informed public concerned about the likelihood of harmful impacts of unchecked global climatic disruption is more likely to call for significant government action to curb greenhouse gas emissions. In order to block proactive government policymaking and keep corporate interests unregulated, libertarian groups have focused a significant part of their efforts on climate change on distorting the science to confuse public opinion, denying the seriousness of the problem, and, most recently, impugning the integrity of the climate science community. The Koch brothers have stepped forward with deep pockets to bankroll such efforts.
Continue reading “The Mercatus Center: A Tentacle of the Deregulation-Loving Kochtopus Helping in the Effort to Deny Climate Change and Eviscerate the EPA”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
In a desperate attempt to distract the media away from the “Niggerhead” story, the Perry campaign used Rev. Robert Jeffress to claim that Mormonism is a cult. Jeffress, pastor of Dallas’ First Baptist Church, introduced Perry at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. Perry hasn’t been doing too well recently and his latest problem was the revelation that his family’s secluded West Texas hunting camp was known by the name painted on a flat rock near its gated entrance: Niggerhead.
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
The Smoot can be found on Google Earth and Google Calculator. It’s a unit of distance named after Oliver R. Smoot, the five-foot-seven-inch Chairman of the American National Standards Institute and President of the International Organization for Standardization.
Here is our picture of the week from our erstwhile colleague in the City of Light, Eric Tenin.
Continue reading “Sunday in Paris with Eric”
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
“There is no gambling like politics,” Benjamin Disraeli used to say, and this week’s Values Voters Summit inWashington was the biggest poker game in town with all 7 Republican candidates at the gaming table.
Submitted by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
How many of you know the difference between a right and a privilege? As most of the audience for Res Ipsa Loquitur have an interest in law and/or politics, I’m going to hazard the guess that most of you have at least a rudimentary understanding of the difference in terms although it is a deceptively complicated subject on a philosophical level. However, just so there is no mistake in fundamental terms, we’ll start with basic relevant definitions.
rights, n.,
1) plural of right, which is the collection of entitlements which a person may have and which are protected by the government and the courts or under an agreement (contract).
privileges and immunities, n.,
the fundamental rights that people enjoy in free governments, protected by the U.S. Constitution in Article IV: “The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities in the several States,” and specifically to be protected against state action by the Constitution’s 14th Amendment (1868): “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” The definition of “privileges and immunities” was first spelled out by Supreme Court Justice Bushrod Washington in 1823: “protection by the government, with the right to acquire and possess property of every kind, and to pursue and obtain happiness and safety, subject, nevertheless, to such restraints as the government may prescribe for the general good of the whole.” However, the exact nature of privileges and immunities which the state governments could limit has long been in dispute, with the U.S. Supreme Court gradually tipping toward protecting the individual rights of citizens against state statutes that might impinge on constitutional rights. [emphasis added]
rights given or reserved to the people by the U.S. Constitution, and in particular, the Bill of Rights (first ten amendments). These rights include: writ of habeas corpus, no bill of attainder, no duties or taxes on transporting goods from one state to another (Article I, Section 9); jury trials (Article III, Section 1); freedom of religion, speech, press (which includes all media), assembly and petition (First Amendment); state militia to bear arms (Second Amendment); no quartering of troops in homes (Third Amendment); no unreasonable search and seizure (Fourth Amendment); major (“capital and infamous”) crimes require indictment, no double jeopardy (more than one prosecution) for the same crime, no self-incrimination, right to due process, right to just compensation for property taken by eminent domain (Fifth Amendment); in criminal law, right to a speedy trial, to confront witnesses against one, and to counsel (Sixth Amendment); trial by jury (Seventh Amendment); right to bail, no excessive fines, and no cruel and unusual punishments (Eighth Amendment); unenumerated rights are reserved to the people (Ninth Amendment); equal protection of the laws (14th Amendment); no racial bars to voting (15th Amendment); no sex bar to voting (19th Amendment); and no poll tax (24th Amendment). Constitutional interpretation has expanded and added nuances to these rights. [emphasis added]
Now what would you say if you knew that state senators were proposing legislation that would convert Freedom of Speech from a right to a privilege? This is not a theoretical question. Four state senators from New York are currently considering proposing such legislation. Fortunately, the 1st Amendment gives us the right to discuss what a bad and scary idea it is that they propose.
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth is ranked alongside Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy as one of the nation’s civil rights leaders. He was 89 when he died on Oct. 5 in Birmingham, Alabama. Shuttlesworth survived bombings, beatings, and the business end of a fire hose that left him chest injuries. Shuttlesworth was often on the front lines of civil rights protests.
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Two California teens tipped police off to a cache of child pornography allegedly owned by 54-year-old Kraig Stockard. Nothing too novel about that, except that the teens learned of the illicit material after burgling Stockard’s barn. Breaking into the Dehli, California property was easy enough and the pair thought they were taking 50 blank CDs as part of the loot. When they got home to divvy up the booty, they noticed about 30 of the CDs had pornographic images, many of them of children. The two thieves, age 19 and 15, contacted Merced County Sheriff”s deputies and fessed up.
U.S. airlines lost a critical fight this week to avoid paying the costs of pollution caused by their aircraft in Europe. Foreign airlines are required to pay for their carbon pollution by the European Union, but American airlines insisted that they should not be required to pay for their share of pollution. It is the type of argument that received rapturous applause in Congress and immediate waivers of liability. However, American executives were shocked when the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg actually ruled that the companies should pay their environmental tax. The Obama Administration has supported the companies in fighting the pollution tax.
Continue reading “U.S. Airlines Lose Effort To Avoid Paying European Pollution Tax”
The Eighth Amendment clearly states “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” Bridgett Nickerson Boyd found a new meaning to that prohibition after Deputy Sheriff Mark Goad pulled her over on a Texas highway. After she had to go to the hospital with a racing heart, she was handcuffed and, she alleges, required to listen to Rush Limbaugh on the radio. By any measure, that would shock the conscience as cruel and unusual punishment.
Continue reading “Cruel and Unusual Punishment? Woman Sues Over Arrest and Being Forced To Listen To Rush Limbaugh”
Florida may be facing rising unemployment, funding cuts of major social programs, and environmental threats, but Rep. Ritch Workman (R-Melbourne) has stepped forward to tackle an issue that few have even acknowledged, let alone addressed, in the halls of power: dwarf-tossing. Workman is seeking to lift the ban on dwarf-tossing and to return Florida to a competitive position in the sport.
Continue reading “Florida Legislator Seeks To Legalize Dwarf-Tossing”
Call it Survivor: Bettandorf. There is an interesting employment case out of Bettandorf, Iowa where a former convenience clerk was able to secure unemployment benefits after quitting an owner called “the boss from hell.” William Ernst, the owner of a Bettandorf, Iowa-based chain of QC Marts, created a contest where employees would guess which one of them will be the next one fired. The prize was $10. Misty Shelsky of Davenport, Iowa, quit rather than play along and recently won a ruling from an administrative judge to secure unemployment benefits.
Continue reading “Convenience Store Loses Employment Case After Boss Asks Workers To Bet On Who Will Be Fired Next”
Today, our country passes an important anniversary, which (unlike the 9-11 anniversary) will be largely ignored by politicians and the White House. We have now been in Afghanistan for ten years. That’s right, ten years. We have had 2 million troops in the country and lost roughly 1,700 lives. We have spent hundreds of billions of dollars. Yet, the President and other politicians would prefer to have the anniversary pass without much notice for good reason. It has been a disaster and it is not improving. In the meantime, the public is heavily opposed to our presence in the country. In the meantime, a general has used the anniversary to assure the American people we are now halfway to meeting our goals.
Continue reading “Ten Years in Afghanistan: America’s Marks A Milestone With a Shrug and a Shutter”