For an old school drug warrior, back when being a drug warrior was necessary for a Democrat to get elected, Joe Biden’s announcement that he was issuing a pardon for all citizens and lawful residents for simple possession of marijuana sent a signal.

He said the blanket pardon would help “thousands of people who were previously convicted of simple possession” and “who may be denied employment, housing, or educational opportunities as a result.” While “white and Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates,” he noted, “Black and brown people have been arrested, prosecuted, and convicted at disproportionate rates.”

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An interesting excerpt from Chelsea Manning’s upcoming memoir appears in the New York Times, offering an explanation of how and why she ended up violating her oath and revealing secret military information to wikileaks.

I knew the official version of why these secrets had to be kept secret. We were protecting sources. We were protecting troop movements. We were protecting national security. Those things made sense. But it also seemed, to me, that we were protecting ourselves. Continue reading →

Like many names associated with colleges for generations, if not centuries, the University of Califorinia’s public law school, Hastings College of Law, bore the name of Califorinia’s first Chief Justice of its Supreme Court, who gave the state $100,000 in gold coins to found the school. In return, the law school was to be named after its benefactor, who would be its first dean, and his heirs would have a seat on the school’s board “forever.”

The University of California, Hastings College of the Law (“College”)—often referred to simply as “Hastings” by the legal community—has operated successfully in its current form since it was founded in 1878. Among the oldest law schools west of the Mississippi River, the College was founded by the first Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, Serranus Clinton Hastings (“S.C. Hastings”), pursuant to his written agreement with the State of California, enshrined by State law (the “Act”). (Cal. Educ. Code, § 92200, et seq.) Continue reading →

Can’t one feel badly for a homeless person, a mentally ill person, whom one comes across in a public park? Of course one can. And when that person is black, it immediately dredges up the litany of reasons why the situation for black people might be very different than a white person, particularly if you’re inclined to make stereotypical assumptions about black people based upon these generic reasons. But what if that person strikes you and kills your dog in the uber-progressive white enclave of Park Slope, Brooklyn?

On Aug. 3, Jessica Chrustic, 40, a professional beekeeper, was walking her dog in Prospect Park a little after 6 a.m. when she saw a man rifling through the garbage outside the Picnic House. She had seen the man before — tall, with dreadlocks wrapped in a turban, carrying a long staff and often muttering to himself or cursing — and she usually kept her distance. But this morning there was no room to avoid him. Continue reading →

[Note: Since the subject of today’s piece lacks any sense of humor and I’m not trying to get arrested, today’s content is brought to you by the word “Parody.” P-A-R-O-D-Y is the defens—I mean the excuse for today’s jokes. Parody. Back to it—CLS]

Good day to all the Simple Justice readers out there. I am Sergeant Bruce D. Cthunts, Public Information Officer for the Parma, Ohio Police Department. I want to take a moment to thank Chris Seaton and Scott Greenfield, two fine men of American letters, great public intellectuals, and snappy dressers to boot, for giving me the space today to address the incident that has our Department’s name in national news again. Continue reading →

A mere 82 out of 350 students signed a petition that Maitland Jones, renowned, esteemed and now former contingent professor of organic chemistry at NYU.

Dr. Jones, 84, is known for changing the way the subject is taught. In addition to writing the 1,300-page textbook “Organic Chemistry,” now in its fifth edition, he pioneered a new method of instruction that relied less on rote memorization and more on problem solving. Continue reading →

As Eugene Volokh notes, the Title IX accuser suing Liberty University for being indifferent to her accusation that another student raped her, retaliation, and the now-former student who she accused. Plaintiff sought to sue pseudonymously. Under most circumstances, this would be a gimme motion, but not this time.

This decision concerns Plaintiff’s request to proceed anonymously as “Jane Doe,” at the same time she has repeatedly, publicly identified the accused student-defendant—whom she alleges is a “rapist.” Thus, on account of Plaintiff’s drafting of her complaint, the student-defendant cannot be afforded privacy in defending against this suit. Continue reading →

A running “joke” in crim law is that when cops need to manufacture suspicion, any conduct, no matter how benign, can be twisted into suspicious conduct. Walk too fast? Suspicious. Too slow? Suspicious. Walk the “right” speed? Very suspicious. It’s just a matter of surrounding the conduct with words to create the specter of some connection to crime. After all, it’s just sus.*

They tried this in South Carolina, after prolonging a stop for a broken third tail light (people, fix your damn broken tail lights!). and oral argument put it to the test. Continue reading →

A fascinating exchange between the Alabama solicitor general, Edmund LaCour, and the newest associate justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, occurred during oral argument in a challenge to the Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in Merrill v. Milligan. After LaCour argued that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment compelled racial neutrality, Justice Jackson took issue.*

Justice Jackson tells the Alabama solicitor general that the Framers of the 14th Amendment did NOT intend it to be “race neutral or race blind,” so taking race into account to protect minority voting rights is perfectly constitutional. Progressive originalism at work. pic.twitter.com/aCXAq2CnJu

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) October 4, 2022

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Online payment processors like Paypal are private companies and thus have the choice to do business with whomever they choose, provided it doesn’t discriminate against a protected class. But what happens when the choice is exercised in a way to disfavor unpopular political views or enterprises that do icky things?

In the past, it might never have occurred to a company to wield its business availability in such a way, but given the concerns about political correctness, does allowing a company engaged in evil enterprise not make the payment processor complicit? Sure, companies want to make money, but they’re similarly afraid of being blown up as a pariah for allowing their services to be used by the enemy of shriekers. This is particularly true for digital business, which relies to some extent on being cool enough to be acceptable to digital natives. Continue reading →