In the scheme of syllogism, the bogeyman of critical race theory has become the latest moral panic for which something must be done. Florida did something. They passed a law

Florida’s amendment takes an existing rule saying instruction “may not suppress or distort significant historical events, such as the Holcaust” [sic] and adds “slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, the civil rights movement and the contributions of women, African American and Hispanic people to our country.” The new language continues: Continue reading →

The superintendent of West Point schools had a math problem. The school policy, as set forth in its handbook and applied in the past, was that the valedictorian and salutatorian were determined by unweighted grade point average, meaning straight grades without any consideration of the difficulty of courses. It’s a dumb way to do things, but it was the method West Point used. Except for this year.

After talking with the white parents, Mr. McDonald, who is Black, concluded that the handbook and tradition backed them up: In the school system, class rank has been calculated by unweighted grade point average, not Q.P.A., which would have made the two white students the honorees.

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Sheriff Roy Templeton instinctively reached for his sidearm when the power went out at the Mud Lick Sheriff’s Department. Stuff like this wasn’t supposed to happen when you had two running recursive generators for instances when Old Man Cocke tried to pick a fight with a transformer.

Someone did this on purpose, the Sheriff thought. Assuming a standing defensive position, the Sheriff began checking each room in the station for potential intruders. He’d made it to the front desk when power returned to the building. Continue reading →

In its own jerky way, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights tried to put on a show this week by holding “hearings” over Microsoft Meetings about what changes should be made to the DeVos Title IX sex tribunal regulations, which became effective last August and have not as yet had much of an impact because of the pandemic.

Activists for changing the regs have argued that the number of women coming forward to complain has dropped precipitously because of the rigors of the regs, meaning that they can’t just grieve and win, but will have their accusation subject to scrutiny. Being scrutinized, they argue, is traumatic, and no doubt it’s true. It’s far less traumatic to just point, accuse and win. At least it’s far less traumatic for the accuser. The accused, not so much. Continue reading →

The public was reliably informed that it was sound and understood practice when being pulled over by police to acknowledge acquiescence to the stop while proceeding to a safe, well-lit location for everyone’s safety. What could possibly go wrong?

Nicole Harper, pregnant with her daughter, was driving her SUV home on a Arkansas freeway in July 2020 when Arkansas State trooper Rodney Dunn decided to stop her for allegedly driving 84 in a 70 mph zone. He turned on his lights in an attempt to make her pull over. Continue reading →

Remember the ABA’s failed effort at trying to make your law license hinge on your embracing the woke’s ever-changing vision of speech and viewpoint? Despite most states rejecting it, and a district court in Pennsylvania holding it unconstitutional, New York has nonetheless chosen to put it on the table.

What’s wrong with it has been plain since it was first proposed. The breadth of its sweep is stunning, covering “harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, national
origin, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital
status or socioeconomic status.” Not only would you be proscribed from expressing any disagreement with any challenged word or thought (hysterical? You can’t say that anymore, kids), but it wouldn’t just be limited to your practice of law, but to its emanations and penumbras. Continue reading →

In 2014, Harvard prawf Jeannie Suk Gerson raised a problem in the New Yorker, that crim law profs were concerned about triggering their students by teaching rape law.

But my experience at Harvard over the past couple of years tells me that the environment for teaching rape law and other subjects involving gender and violence is changing. Students seem more anxious about classroom discussion, and about approaching the law of sexual violence in particular, than they have ever been in my eight years as a law professor. Continue reading →

The wealthiest people in America. How little, at least as a percentage of wealth, they pay in taxes. What could possibly be more titillating? What could possibly prove how corrupt our tax structure is? What could possibly be wrong with ProPublica publishing it?

For one thing, it appears that their information was leaked from the IRS.* Continue reading →

The sky is falling, today’s version, is brought to you by Joe Manchin, Democrat from West Virginia, who betrayed his party by refusing to support the elimination of the filibuster. Some may see Manchin as the only adult in the Senate. Others may not.

Jemele Hill rips "cowardly, power-hungry white dude" Manchin for commitment to filibuster https://t.co/kK8gtXfN14 pic.twitter.com/2DJAdQqfMb

— The Hill (@thehill) June 7, 2021

Still others contend that Manchin is living in fantasyland, where the Republicans are untrustworthy scum willing to do anything to stymie the Democratic agenda of Utopia and he’s playing right into their hands. Continue reading →

There are twenty state laws in various stages of enactment that will apply to public bathrooms. Some create crimes. Some require signs. Some just dictate who may enter and who may not. These are bad laws, both because they regulate a “problem” that doesn’t quite exist and because they impair the agency of whomever cleans the bathrooms to make whatever choice they prefer. What business is it of the State of Tennessee to tell me who can and cannot use a bathroom?

Last month, Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee signed into law a discriminatory bill to prevent transgender people from using restrooms aligning with their gender identity at any business or place of public accommodation. A few days earlier, Governor Lee signed an anti-transgender student bathroom bill, too.

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