It wasn’t long ago that Josh Blackman came up with the idea that, to avoid court packing, Chief Justice John Roberts should sacrifice himself for the Court.
But there is one possible solution that does not require collective action. Of course, my proposal here is my proposal for all problems afflicting the Supreme Court. A resignation in time could save nine. Hear me out.
Is a charge of $1.75 for extra dipping sauce for fries too much? If so, don’t get it. If so, don’t patronize the establishment at all. If so, complain about it all you want to friends, neighbors and your tribe on the insta. Do a TikTok if you must, but don’t do this.
Customers trash Bel Fries in NYC after being told there was a $1.25 charge for extra dipping sauce pic.twitter.com/WXO40h21Kg
— No Jumper (@nojumper) July 8, 2022
The snark could have been almost witty by contrasting the claim of a “right” to a peaceful dinner with a right to an abortion, except for one detail. It wasn’t Justice Brett Kavanaugh who claimed a dinner “right,” but a spokesman for Morton’s Steak House. Contrary to popular belief, the Morton’s guy was neither the justice’s official spokesmodel nor legally qualified to assert whether dinner at a corporate steak house was a legal “right.”
Was it merely fortuitous that a group of protesters happened to be at Morton’s the evening Kavanaugh was there to dine? That’s hard to say, given that there’s a bounty for food service workers to give ready protesters a half hour to show up. Regardless, the question remains whether protesting people in official government positions at dinner, or their home, or anywhere else like their children’s schools, as opposed to their governmental office where they perform the governmental function with which others take issue, is a norm that should not be violated. Continue reading
Madison Cornbread was a petite, pretty young 22-year-old woman who had the world in front of her. Though life in Driftwood County was rather dull for someone her age, soon she planned to start classes at the University of Alabama. She’d been saving up through various odd jobs, including babysitting.
Things were starting to go her way. She’d been out the night before at the Grassy Knoll Pub celebrating with friends, met a cute guy, and went back to his place. Now, at about ten in the morning, Madison drove towards her parents’ home where she planned to clean up before getting to the day’s needed events. Continue reading
In a few years, lawyers, judges and scholars will look back at opinions written over the past few years and think one of a few things. Are they watching the budding of a new appreciation of gender identity and the rise of courts twisting their decisions to reflect the personal pronoun choices of litigants play out in legal decisions. Are they watching dinosaurs try to cling to the old ways of objective gender identity or use of pronouns and refusing to twist the language of decisions around the personal “dignity” of litigants?
Or are they watching judges who want to neither acquiesce nor offend and don’t know what the proper reaction should be, and therefore go on at silly length about their reasons for falling on one side of the other of a cultural divide, made necessary so they don’t appear to be playing woke or anti-woke jurists and so their writing isn’t incoherent nonsense gibberish laden by fanciful wording that gives readers a headaches and exposes opinions to confusion and pointless inconsistency? Oh wait, it’s not pointless. It recognizes the “individual dignity” of a litigant’s expectation that the court honor his/her/their/xir/its pronoun du jour, as in In the Interest of C.G. Continue reading
While the law, at least for the moment and somewhat theoretically, only compels a university to act when the conduct at issue is “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive,” that doesn’t mean the school cannot appreciate the delicate feelings of an extremely sensitive student.
Here are the facts. On April 1, the University of Idaho College of Law (“University” or “Idaho Law”) held a “moment of community” in response to an anti-LGBTQ+ slur left anonymously on a classroom whiteboard. Event attendees included plaintiffs Peter Perlot, Mark Miller, and Ryan Alexander, who at the time were law students and members of the Idaho Law chapter of the Christian Legal Society (“CLS”), and Professor Richard Seamon, the CLS faculty advisor. Continue reading
As Eugene Volokh notes, it’s fairly obvious that a 6th Grade lesson about Hammurabi’s Code as part of a a unit on ancient Mesopotamia does not constitute a violation of Title VI, prohibiting discrimination in education on the basis of race, because it mentioned slaves. Not even if the lesson fell during Black History Month, together with a lesson about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King.
But the problem is that this challenge, putatively raised due to a poorly framed question at the end of the unit, could put the government in the position of prohibiting schools from teaching words or concepts which, today, could possibly offend someone. Continue reading
It’s your right to protest, to bring your grievances to the attention of others, the world. That the world might not care about your grievances, or at least not care as much as, or in the way that, you might be a good line beyond which you shouldn’t go. But that’s such an old school notion, quaint and archaic.
You see, if you believe it’s important, it is important. If others fail to grasp its importance (fools), then they must be made to understand that it is the most important thing ever and must become the center of their universe because, you, a smart and passionate person, believe it to be so. After all, your opinion is entitled to respect. Everybody says so. And if people won’t respect your opinion, they must be forced to do so. And by respect, they mean you make it the center of your universe just as they have. Anything less would be heresy, and you know what happens to heresy. Continue reading
In light of the Bruen decision, the attorney general of Massachusetts has provided guidance on the issuance of concealed carry permits.
The guidance goes on to create the appearance of compliance while suggesting that little more has changed than creating the appearance. Suitability? Nothing subjective there, right? Continue reading
America is a great nation, and Americans are a great people. Not perfect, but great. If you can’t see this, but can only see failure, misery and horror in this nation, then the problem isn’t this nation but you.
Never lose hope. Never give up. And reject those who believe there is no hope, everything is horrible and we are a failed nation. Believe in our values, our freedom, and to the extent we have not yet achieved them, work to make this nation ever better.
I’m proud to be an American and I love this country. Happy 4th of July.