It’s not as if Florida is the first state to believe that it can exercise its authority to tell the internet how to behave. California was there long before Governor Ron DeSantis even thought he had the power to proclaim himself the ruler of the web. But he’s on top of it now.

.@GovRonDeSantis: "Under our proposal, if a technology company de-platforms a candidate for elected office in Florida during an election that company will face a daily fine of $100k until the candidate's access to the platform is restored." 3/ pic.twitter.com/jCceBB8zsk

— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) February 2, 2021

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I’m woke. I can say that because the word “woke,” like so many words these days, has no parameters, no definition. Those who believe in it believe there’s a definition, filled with fuzzy words of goodness and even fuzzier words of badness. After all, i’m against racism and sexism, even if those words, too, no longer have a cognizable meaning. But then, I’m for equality rather than equity, so maybe I’m not woke. Oh no, does that make me . . . anti-woke?

Anti-woke is the new characterization of people to be demonized. To the extent it means anything, it appears to be a play off Ibram Kendi’s anti-racist, which separates the world into two camps, those who adhere to critical race theory, believe everything is about race and that one either dedicates one’s life to fighting “systemic racism” or is a racist. You’re either with them or against them, and if you’re not with them, you’re racist. Continue reading →

The news was all about a Rochester police officer pepper spraying a 9-year-old for refusing to get into the RMP, which is entirely understandable given the climate and that news focuses on that which distinguishes an otherwise commonplace police interaction.

During the incident, which occurred Friday afternoon, officers restrained the girl, pushing her into the snow in order to handcuff her, while she screamed repeatedly for her father, the footage showed.

At one point, an officer said, “You’re acting like a child.” She responded, “I am a child.” Continue reading →

At Sentencing Law and Policy, Doug Berman does a recap of statistics of the former positions held by federal judicial nominees. The question posed was whether President Biden will make the changes to the bench that he’s rumored, and anticipated, to make by nominating criminal defense lawyers and civil rights lawyers in robes.

There is a long-standing concern, especially among criminal justice reform advocates and civil rights groups, that the federal judiciary is badly skewed because of the disproportionate number of judges who are former prosecutors or former government lawyers or have only private practice experience.

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Nobody argues in favor of racist cops. What that means, of course, isn’t exactly clear, and depends largely on how one defines “racist.” If it’s Ibram Kendi, then they’re all racist if they’re not dedicated to his personal flavor of anti-racism. But if it’s anyone more moderate, even rational, it might be more focused on cops who are either anti-black or white supremacist.

This, too, might be an inadequate definition of racism, as there are many cops who are fairly confident they aren’t racist while still being pretty racist in action. meaning that they will assume people to be prone to criminality or violence based on race rather than conduct, and pre-emptively act in accordance with their prejudice. But Mother Jones offers a solution, a “road map,” to rid our police force of racist cops. Continue reading →

It comes as no surprise that President Biden is trying to broaden the pool from which federal judges are drawn. That’s a good thing.

President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats are vetting civil rights lawyers and public defenders to nominate as judges, embarking on a mission to shape the courts after Republicans overhauled them in the last four years, according to senior party officials and activists.

Democrats have a wafer-thin Senate majority that gives them control over appointments. They believe they have two years to make their mark and fill a growing number of vacancies before the midterm elections, where the party in power historically loses seats.

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Among lawyers, the big question following the vote to impeach Trump in the House was who would represent him. Would it be Rudy? Hilarious as that might be, even Trump and his advisers grasped that it would be a disaster to be represented by someone who had become a public joke, both for his wildly insane* rantings and dubious personal hygiene.

There were some legal academics who might have been better choices, whether Jon Turley or Dersh, but they demurred. It wasn’t a traffic ticket, so Jenna Ellis was out of her league, and poor Sidney Powell was already deemed too crazy even for Trump. Continue reading →

No, it won’t stop cops from lying. Not on the streets. Not on the stand. Not to their spouse, sergeant or god. But it just might end the “useful law enforcement tool” of using lies during interrogations to induce confessions. A bill has been introduced in New York to require the recording of interrogations absent good cause and adding a new section to Criminal Procedure Law § 60.45 that includes this line under the definition of statements involuntarily made:

(ii) BY KNOWINGLY COMMUNICATING FALSE FACTS ABOUT EVIDENCE TO THE DEFENDANT

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In a curious case, two “racial justice” protesters have been indicted in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, on felony assault charges. The facts are in substantial dispute, whether a hostess at a restaurant targeted for its “perceived racist and sexist behavior” suffered serious bodily injury.

Jacqueline Boyd is the director of operations at TownHall and the first cousin of owner Bobby George. She was working as a hostess at the back entrance on July 12 and alleged that she suffered permanent hearing loss due to the proximity of the megaphones throughout the event. Indeed, the weaponization of the megaphones is the basis for the felony charges. Local civil liberties attorneys and first amendment advocates view the indictments as extreme.

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If putting misinformation about voting out into the ether is a crime, then politics just became an uncrossable minefield. Yet, this didn’t concern the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, who announced the arrest of Douglass Mackey, 31, as the twitter troll Ricky Vaughn.

“There is no place in public discourse for lies and misinformation to defraud citizens of their right to vote,” said Seth D. DuCharme, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “With Mackey’s arrest, we serve notice that those who would subvert the democratic process in this manner cannot rely on the cloak of Internet anonymity to evade responsibility for their crimes. They will be investigated, caught and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

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