Here’s why he did it: Ordinance defied common sense, allowing men to use women’s bathroom/locker room for instance. That’s why I signed bipartisan bill to stop it — Pat McCrory (@PatMcCroryNC) March 24, 2016 … which kind of reminds me of when Edith Bunker of “All in The Family” couldn’t understand how a man could be in love with another … Read More
North Carolina General Assembly’s Horrible LGBT Discrimination Bill
A draft version of the bill that the legislature is set to consider during the special session confirmed the worst fears of the LGBT community and anyone remotely interested in civil liberties, or even municipal governance, in North Carolina: Speaker Tim Moore and the Republicans are going to destroy the ability of local governments to govern themselves. First reported by … Read More
Garland
Is it hard to do cartwheels over President Obama’s choice of Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland today. Professor Epstein seems to think he’s a good liberal… … but you always have to question the methodology of these things. Merrick Garland is 63 years old and currently serves as chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of … Read More
Apple And The FBI Order
Interesting little development going on in the tech/privacy world and, depending on who you believe, a possible turning point for the better/worse. After the San Bernardino shootings, the FBI seized the iPhone used by shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. The FBI has a warrant to search the phone’s contents, and because it was Farook’s work phone, the FBI also has permission … Read More
The Scalia Gambit
Without question, the death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia has set all sides of the political spectrum into a frenzy. Everybody is weighing, but the stupidest comments are coming from Republicans who say that Obama shouldn’t nominate a justice at all because there is an election coming up. Rand Paul, who supposedly loves the Constitution, says that Obama has a … Read More
Activist Supreme Court Rules On Climate Change
Crazy: In a major setback for President Obama’s climate change agenda, the Supreme Court on Tuesday temporarily blocked the administration’s effort to combat global warming by regulating emissions from coal-fired power plants. The brief order was not the last word on the case, which is most likely to return to the Supreme Court after an appeals court considers an expedited … Read More
Original Intent
From The New Yorker: December 5, 1791 James Madison House of Representatives Dear James, How is it almost 1792?! Quick question on the right to bear arms thing in your “Bill of Rights”—the wording and punctuation are slightly confusing. Did you mean that the right of the people serving in the militia to keep and bear arms shall not be … Read More
Domestic Terrorism Update
Busy day today, so I have little commentary. I recommend an article in The New Yorker for a slightly different, but valuable, perspective than mine: American vigilantism is never racially innocent. Its two parents are self-mobilization on the frontier, usually against Native Americans at a time when homesteading was reserved to whites, and the racial terror of the Ku Klux … Read More
Armed Terrorists Seize Federal Property
You would think this would be 24/7 headline news, but it isn’t. The terrorist takeover began Sunday morning, but the regular news outlets barely covered it. Only on Twitter was it discussed at any length, thanks to the hashtag #OregonUnderAttack. Now that it is a regular non-holiday workday, the media is starting to report it. Before then, the only real … Read More
How Conservatives Plan To Redistrict In Their Favor
There is a case before the Supreme Court right now called Evenwel v. Abbott, and it is the most important voting rights case since the Court’s conservative majority gutted the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in 2013. The case deals with redistricting — how you draw the lines to determine who votes in what congressional district. What the conservatives want to do … Read More
Trump May Have Hit The Ceiling
Donald Trump has defied political pundits for months now. When he first attacked John McCain, the thought was that it would kill him in the polls, but then he went up. And that’s been the story for over four months now. He keeps on appealing to the worst-of-the-worst conservative base and his numbers go up. But many are now saying … Read More
Florida Can No Longer Lock Mentally Disabled People And Forget About Them
Fifteen years ago, J.R. — an intellectually disabled man who “functions as a seven-year old.” — was charged with sexual battery, but he was never tried because a court found him incompetent to stand trial. Instead, J.R. was involuntarily committed to a residential mental facility by a court order that contains no end date. End of story. You see, under … Read More
The Back End Of The Kentucky Court Clerk
It looks like Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis doesn’t want to go back to jail after all. Kim Davis, the embattled Kentucky county clerk, at the center of the dispute over gay marriage and religious liberty, appeared to back down from the threat of more jail time Monday, saying while she still refuses to authorize marriage licenses, she will not … Read More
Breaking: Kim Davis Released
Details coming. UPDATE – 1:00 pm: The contempt order was lifted by a US district court judge. Unclear if it was the same judge who gave the contempt order or if it was lifted on appeal. UPDATE – 1:15 pm: It was the same judge: A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a Kentucky clerk who has refused to issue marriage … Read More
Huckabee Needs To Attend Just One College Level Course On The Law
As far as conservative Christians candidates go, I always thought that Mike Huckabee was a slight cut above the rest. He doesn’t seem dogmatic, and he was governor at one time. So you would think that he would have some sense, while also being true to his conservative principles. But this past week he has proved to be either a … Read More