Are we all part of a big social conversation, where each of us gets to express our views on whatever issue arises, strikes our fancy or about which we have an opinion? Are we not paying the taxes that pay for the programs that pay for the solutions demanded of government for social ills?

Well, no, apparently. At least when it comes to issues raised by people who claim a different “lived experience,” we not only have no right to speak, but are to shut up so as not to talk over others who claim to be marginalized or ignored, to detract from their message and make it about us. And that gave rise to two distinct problems with the reaction to the grievance by Chaedria, who curated a Basquiat exhibit at the Guggenheim which turned into her worst racist nightmare ever. Continue reading →

The outrage on the twitters was palpable. Imagine docs performing non-consensual hysterectomies on immigration detainees? It had to be true, because all the woke activists on twitter were going nuts over it, so one more activist decided he would join in the frenzy.

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Scanning the home page of the paper of record, I wondered how it would remember 9/11. My expectations were low, but not low enough. There was nothing. No mention. A day that will live in infamy? Obviously not.

It’s like it never happened, which might be better than the alternative, which is where it’s trivialized as no big deal, the number of deaths following a terrorist attack on American soil is barely a fraction of those who died of COVID-19 because they refused to wear masks or get vaccinated. This version of reality shows how the progressive left has transcended the petty deaths of barely 3000 Americans compared to the millions who died during the pandemic because they loved Trump. Continue reading →

In the definitional statute at 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(3), it states “The term ‘alien’ means any person not a citizen or national of the United States,” which would seem to suggest two things, that the statutory word “alien” is, well, the statutory word, and that replacing it with “non-citizen” isn’t too far a stretch. Then again, the definition is for application of the Title 8, Chapter 12, immigration and nationality, so there is a contextual overlay as well. But is it really an issue?

This opinion uses the term noncitizen unless quoting language from the immigration statutes or past opinions containing the term alien. There are two reasons behind this choice. First, use of the term noncitizen has become a common practice of the Supreme Court, see Patel v. Garland (2022) (Barrett, J.); United States v. Palomar-Santiago (2021) (Sotomayor, J.); Barton v. Barr (2020) (Kavanaugh, J.) (“This opinion uses the term ‘noncitizen’ as equivalent to the statutory term ‘alien.'”), whose lead on matters of style we ordinarily follow, and of the Board of Immigration Appeals, e.g., Matter of Dang (BIA 2022), whose decisions we review. Continue reading →

It’s been there for as long as anyone can remember and it’s about as intrusive as it gets. But is it right? Is it lawful? Is it useful? It’s Question 26 of the New York Bar Exam.

Have you ever, either as an adult or a juvenile, been cited, ticketed, arrested, taken into custody, charged with, indicted, convicted or tried for, or pleaded guilty to, the commission of any felony or misdemeanor or the violation of any law, or been the subject of any juvenile delinquency or youthful offender proceeding?  Traffic violations that occurred more than ten years before the filing of this application need not be reported, except alcohol or drug-related traffic violations, which must be reported in all cases, irrespective of when they occurred.  Do not report parking violations.

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It was somewhat understandable, if very wrong, that the outraged villagers with Michelle Dauber holding the pitchfork and leading the mob would persist in their obsessive need to demonize Brock Turner, to do what they could to destroy him. This isn’t because he’s such a swell guy, or that his conduct was insignificant, but because he’s become a target of women suffering from some bizarre compulsion. Call it the Turner Syndrome.

[W]omen in the Dayton, Ohio area have revived the story in a sort of “whisper network” using TikTok and Facebook to warn each other about Turner, who is now 27. Continue reading →

There’s some issue with overtaxing the grid in California, but that’s not the only electricity problem facing the Riverside police, who are scouring PG&E’s electrical customer billings for the clearly criminal under-user.

In their lawsuit filed in March, Chen-Chen Hwang, 67, and her husband Jiun-Tsong Wu, 75, alleged that deputies from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department raided their two homes on Aug. 5, 2021. The couple’s lawyer, Alex Coolman, said the deputies suspected they were “stealing power to grow marijuana because their power consumption was low,” as per the Southern California News Group. Continue reading →

New Jersey’s favorite son, Dr. Mehmet Oz, demanded that his senatorial rival, Pennsylvania Lt. Governor John Fetterman, fire two staffers from his campaign, ironically named “Horton.”

In 1993, Lee and Dennis Horton were accused of providing a ride to a friend who killed a man at a Philadelphia bar. The brothers, who insisted they were innocent, declined plea bargains that would have seen them released from prison in 5 to 10 years, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported, and received life sentences instead.

They were ultimately released in 2021 after the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, which Fetterman chairs, unanimously recommended that their sentences be commuted.

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There was once a time when a shake of the hands was good enough for a contract to be formed that people felt obligated to honor. In some instances, it was a valid contract. In others, it wasn’t. But either way, one’s word was one’s bond, and honoring one’s word was what one did. The point isn’t that people never found themselves unable to keep their word, but that when they didn’t, they felt shame for their failure to do so.

Is this still the case? Will this be how people feel going forward? Or is shame for failure to honor one’s obligation the latest “stigma” to fall out of favor? Continue reading →

There was no question that the old constitution from Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who seized power from socialist Salvador Allende, had to go, and who better than former student activist, 36-year-old leftist president Gabriel Boric, to create a glorious new Constitution that would change everything.

Chilean voters rejected a 170-page, 388-article proposal that would have legalized abortion, mandated universal health care, required gender parity in government, given Indigenous groups greater autonomy, empowered labor unions, strengthened regulations on mining and granted rights to nature and animals. Continue reading →