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 →

Like many names associated with colleges for generations, if not centuries, the University of Califorinia’s public law school, Hastings College of Law, bore the name of Califorinia’s first Chief Justice of its Supreme Court, who gave the state $100,000 in gold coins to found the school. In return, the law school was to be named after its benefactor, who would be its first dean, and his heirs would have a seat on the school’s board “forever.”

The University of California, Hastings College of the Law (“College”)—often referred to simply as “Hastings” by the legal community—has operated successfully in its current form since it was founded in 1878. Among the oldest law schools west of the Mississippi River, the College was founded by the first Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, Serranus Clinton Hastings (“S.C. Hastings”), pursuant to his written agreement with the State of California, enshrined by State law (the “Act”). (Cal. Educ. Code, § 92200, et seq.) Continue reading →

Can’t one feel badly for a homeless person, a mentally ill person, whom one comes across in a public park? Of course one can. And when that person is black, it immediately dredges up the litany of reasons why the situation for black people might be very different than a white person, particularly if you’re inclined to make stereotypical assumptions about black people based upon these generic reasons. But what if that person strikes you and kills your dog in the uber-progressive white enclave of Park Slope, Brooklyn?

On Aug. 3, Jessica Chrustic, 40, a professional beekeeper, was walking her dog in Prospect Park a little after 6 a.m. when she saw a man rifling through the garbage outside the Picnic House. She had seen the man before — tall, with dreadlocks wrapped in a turban, carrying a long staff and often muttering to himself or cursing — and she usually kept her distance. But this morning there was no room to avoid him. Continue reading →

[Note: Since the subject of today’s piece lacks any sense of humor and I’m not trying to get arrested, today’s content is brought to you by the word “Parody.” P-A-R-O-D-Y is the defens—I mean the excuse for today’s jokes. Parody. Back to it—CLS]

Good day to all the Simple Justice readers out there. I am Sergeant Bruce D. Cthunts, Public Information Officer for the Parma, Ohio Police Department. I want to take a moment to thank Chris Seaton and Scott Greenfield, two fine men of American letters, great public intellectuals, and snappy dressers to boot, for giving me the space today to address the incident that has our Department’s name in national news again. Continue reading →

A mere 82 out of 350 students signed a petition that Maitland Jones, renowned, esteemed and now former contingent professor of organic chemistry at NYU.

Dr. Jones, 84, is known for changing the way the subject is taught. In addition to writing the 1,300-page textbook “Organic Chemistry,” now in its fifth edition, he pioneered a new method of instruction that relied less on rote memorization and more on problem solving. Continue reading →