Bret Weinstein, a biology professor at Evergreen State College, is no racist. Not only is he not a racist, but he is clearly a believer in social justice. Just not quite enough to be on the cutting edge. For that, he is now in fear for his safety.

“I have been told by the Chief of Police it’s not safe for me to be on campus,” said Weinstein, who held his Thursday class in a downtown Olympia park.

An administrator confirmed the police department advised Weinstein it “might be best to stay off campus for a day or so.”

What did he do to deserve such hatred? He objected to racism, but not enough. Continue reading →

Life after graduation is unsettled, and unsettling. Something as banal as a juror questionnaire brings the point home. My son hasn’t lived with me since that fateful day in August, 2012 when I tried to say good-bye to him in front of G-entry at MacGregor Hall. I couldn’t eke the words out, and he laughed at his old man. He’s my boy.

Since graduation, there has been a nagging question. Where does he live? Sure, home is where the record collection is, but that doesn’t suffice for the questions posed by official people. Where does he vote? What address goes on his tax return? Does he keep his New York driver’s license? Simple questions, and yet, the answers were problematic.

He took off for the left coast after college to work with a start-up of dubious merit. Neither we nor he was sufficiently certain that it would be a long-term proposition, no less permanent. From the outset, the promise was only a few months, pending demo day’s outcome. Continue reading →

In a less-than-bipartisan showing, Texas Senator John Cornyn has introduced a bill to warm the cockles of every law-and-order conservative’s heart. Radley Balko explains:

The bill would create new federal crimes, impose federal police over the will of local officials and voters and shield police officers from virtually any civil liability, even in cases of egregious misconduct.

Remember how the prosecution of individuals at both state and federal levels for violations of civil rights under the dual sovereignty exception to the Double Jeopardy Clause was the right thing to do because nobody should get away with a crime when you didn’t like it? Well, why shouldn’t police enjoy the same benefit? What, you didn’t see how the tables could be turned on you? Continue reading →

There are two things that can exist simultaneously: You can think that Trump’s Muslim Ban Executive Order was terrible policy and think the Fourth Circuit’s en banc affirmance of its injunction astoundingly wrong. Then again, two things would have to happen in order for this to be true.

1. You need to be capable of distinguishing principle from emotion.
2. You need to believe that the ends do not justify the means.

Can you do these two things? The opening paragraphs of the opinion are forceful and emotionally appealing. Continue reading →

There may be no better soapbox for this outrage than the Portland Mercury.

Portland has an appropriation problem.

This week in white nonsense, two white women—Kali Wilgus and Liz “LC” Connely—decided it would be cute to open a food truck after a fateful excursion to Mexico. There’s really nothing special about opening a Mexican restaurant—it’s probably something that happens everyday. But the owners of Kooks Burritos all but admitted in an interview with Willamette Week that they colonized this style of food when they decided to “pick the brains of every tortilla lady there in the worst broken Spanish ever.”

You may wonder what exactly is meant by the peculiar use of the word “colonized,” one of the new-fangled code words for cultural appropriation. Continue reading →

In the scheme of really crappy jobs in Washington, congressman is right up there, barely edging out barista. Why anyone would want the job is a mystery, and yet, people do and actually run for it. In a special election in Montana, Greg Gianforte wanted the really crappy job.

Given the opportunity to show the kind of person he really is, Gianforte showed two things: first, that he is as crappy a person as congressman is a job, and second, he lacks the impulse control and temperament for even the crappy job of congressman.

During that conversation, another man — who we now know is Ben Jacobs of The Guardian — walked into the room with a voice recorder, put it up to Gianforte’s face and began asking if he had a response to the newly released Congressional Budget Office report on the American Health Care Act. Gianforte told him he would get to him later. Jacobs persisted with his question. Gianforte told him to talk to his press guy, Shane Scanlon.

At this point, nothing out of the ordinary. Ben Jacobs was a reporter. He can be criticized for being pushy, but that’s part of the job description of reporter. They’re not there be polite, or to be cooperative, though it wouldn’t hurt. Some can be annoyingly tenacious. But when you’re a guy running for office, pushy reporters are merely one of the things you need to tolerate.  Continue reading →

We knew it was coming. March 1st was the date, and the American Bar Association made it very clear that as of that date, it would be mandatory.

In June 2016, in response to the efforts of the ABA’s “Diversity & Inclusion 360 Committee,” the ABA Board of Governors adopted a new ABA Rule for all ABA-sponsored Continuing Education (CLE) Programs. The ABA intends that this new rule be mandatory, not aspirational. It will “take effect March 1, 2017.”

This new rule does not remove barriers to equal opportunity nor does it promote intellectual diversity. Instead, this rule imposes a requirement that each CLE panel has “diversity” based on sexual orientation, gender identification, and so forth.

There are two competing interests at stake. On the one hand, there is the concern that the CLE presenters be sufficiently knowledgeable and competent to offer substance, as well as not bore the class to tears. On the other, there is the interest in having people other than the usual white men get a chance to present. It may be that non-white-men have different views that have not been adequately represented, or it may be that they just want the same opportunity to stand on stage and get some recognition. Continue reading →

The United States District Court for the District of Nebraska is the only court, or at least that’s what I have been told, that regularly publishes each judge’s individual sentencing statistics. We have been doing so since 2007.

These statistics are prepared by the Sentencing Commission at the request of each judge of our court. If for no other reason, I am proud of our judges for being utterly transparent on this subject. And that is true notwithstanding the fact that I am told by a person with intimate knowledge of such things that our practice is very annoying to a fair number of judges in other districts.

Keep in mind that our court is very busy when it comes to criminal cases. On a per-judge basis, we rank 8^th in the nation for criminal felony cases and 7^th in the nation for supervised release violations. (See here, click on “Judicial Caseload Profiles for Nebraska and All District Courts for the 12-Month Period Ending September 30, 2016.”) Continue reading →

The bombing in Manchester, England was horrific. There’s no scale by which to measure such tragedies, but by any measure, it’s up at the top.

By Tuesday, 22 people had died, and 59 others had been hospitalized, some with life-threatening injuries. The dead included 8-year-old Saffie Rose Roussos, who had come with her mother and older sister, and 18-year-old Georgina Bethany Callander, who had posted an image of her brand new driver’s license on Instagram.

There are things that appear known, though at the moment less than certain. And, as usual, there are unknowns even if the things known turn out to be known.

The Islamic State said one of its “soldiers” had carried out the bombing, which took the life of the man British police officials believe was behind it, Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old whose parents emigrated from Libya. It is still unclear whether Mr. Abedi acted alone or as part of a network. No one yet knows what motivated him to commit such a horrific deed. It is also unclear whether the Islamic State’s claim is legitimate. Only further investigation can answer these questions.

Continue reading →