There is a curious belief among progressives that they are not merely smarter, righter and better than others, but the majority, because how could any decent person be anything  other than a progressive? This arrogance led a couple of law profs to propose a monumentally disruptive concept: Ignore the Supreme Court.

For American progressives, the Supreme Court has become a maddening institution. The comforting notion of the court as umpire lies in tatters. It is Justice Samuel Alito’s court now: methodologically flexible but ideologically rigid.

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Over the past couple of days, some kids threw tomato soup on a Van Gogh (yes, it was covered in glass, but that doesn’t make this better) and glued their hands to a wall, while other kids poured milk over the floor at Marks and Spencer. The former was to “protest” climate change, while the latter had something to do with animals. There are videos floating around of both, but to the extent promoting themselves as the heroes of the woke is the purpose, I decline to post them here. Continue reading →

To tell you that cops lie is like telling you the sun rises in the east. A generation ago, people wouldn’t have believed, but today it’s so well known that it wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. Then again, it’s so well known that many now believe that a cop couldn’t tell you the time of day without lying, just as ridiculously wrong as pretending cops don’t lie.

And to explain, yet again, that there are false accusations of sexual assault and rape seems too obvious for words. The reason for “believe women” started to blunt the assumption that when a woman accused a man, she was not to be taken seriously. Over time, it’s become that she can’t be doubted. So here we are, pretending women don’t lie. Continue reading →

Pennsylvania Lt. Governor and Democratic senatorial candidate John Fetterman, who is running against New Jersey’s favorite TV snake oil salesman, Mehmet Oz, gave an interview to NBC News that created a shitstorm.

This week, John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for the Senate from Pennsylvania, appeared in what NBC News billed as his first on-camera, one-on-one interview since he had a stroke in May. The interview went well and was conducted with Mr. Fetterman and the reporter, Dasha Burns, sitting in the same room, as Mr. Fetterman used a captioning system on a computer screen to assist him with his auditory processing, something he has needed help with since the stroke. Continue reading →

Whether its purpose is to shine a light on the untenability of the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision or it’s just another example of district court judges trying their best to apply the Supreme Court’s rejection of the means-end test when it comes to Second Amendment gun cases, Judge Joseph Goodwin was left in the odd position of having to address whether 18 U.S.C. § 922(k) is constitutional. As Mark Joseph Stern points out at Slate, this has become something of a cottage industry for district judges.

Thomas’ test has already wreaked havoc in the lower courts. One judge has struck down a Texas law that prohibits 18 to 20-year-olds from carrying a handgun outside the home. People under 21 are significantly more likely to commit gun homicides—but in Bruen, Thomas announced that courts may never consider the real-world, life-saving impact of gun safety laws when gauging their constitutionality. A different Texas judge invalidated a federal law barring individuals from purchasing a handgun while they’re under indictment, even for a violent felony offense. Just last week, another judge struck down New York’s ban on concealed carry in airports, train stations, domestic violence shelters, summer camps, the subway, and other “sensitive locations.” Now Goodwin, who sits in West Virginia, has joined the chorus of lower court judges who feel that Bruen obliges them to strike down longstanding, widely accepted firearm laws.

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My reaction to Fifth Circuit Judge Ho’s announcement that he would not consider hiring students from Yale Law School as clerks, and his call to other judges to do the same, in reaction to the school’s embrace of “cancel culture,” was that it was misguided. This wasn’t because YLS hasn’t done enough to deserve to be called out for its failure to protect speech, as it hasn’t. It’s been a disgrace.

Occupying the lofty position of one of the top law schools in the nation and a primary feeder to clerkships and judgeships, the impact of sending law graduates into the legal ecosystem who believe they are entitled to silence and destroy anyone who fails to adhere to progressive ideology means that we face a future where free speech, along with a host of other rights like due process and presumption of innocence, is at extreme risk. Continue reading →

In a column about some entertainer holding no interest for me, the New York Times’ Michelle Goldberg begins with a curious reference.

In a sketch on the German comedy show “Browser Ballett,” a man in a Nazi uniform, replete with jackboots and a red swastika armband, is marching down a street in 1933 when another man hisses, “Nazi.” The Nazi, aghast at the insult, confronts him.

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At the Heterodox Academy, Rebekah Wanic and Nina Powell stare down the face of student happiness and success by saying the obvious but unsayable.

Student-centered learning is intended to promote a more inclusive environment and to democratize the classroom. It is a broad philosophy, but its fundamental principle is the belief that education should involve a partnership between student and educator. Further, it advocates that education should be personalized to meet students where they are, with curricula design and course structure based on their individualized learning preferences.

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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 →