The posts at Fault Lines are, ahem, exceptional. If you want something to read that will really make you think, read Fault Lines. This is what you’ll find there today:

By Thomas Johnson:
SHOULD THE POLICE BE LEFT TO DECIDE WHO’S “PRESS”?

By David Meyer-Lindenberg:
ACLU TO COPS: TURN OFF THE BODY CAMS (UPDATE)

By Noel Erinjeri:
LOUISIANA’S BLUE LIVES MATTER LAW DOES NOT MEAN WHAT CALDER HEBERT THINKS IT MEANS

By Mario Machado:
SOCIAL MEDIA GIANTS SUED FOR AIDING AND ABETTING ATTACK ON DALLAS COPS

By Sam Bieler:
IS POLICE REFORM OVER WITH AG SESSIONS? ONLY FOR COWARDS

By Lou Hayes, Jr.:
GETTING PAST THE CULT OF COMPLIANCE

You will not find smarter, more provocative, more informative criminal law commentary anywhere.

Actually, the phrase “alternative facts” got a bad rap. Period. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a “fact” is:

• 1:  a thing done: such asa obsolete :  feat

  b :  crime <accessory after the fact>c archaic :  action

• 2archaic :  performance, doing

• 3:  the quality of being actual :  actuality <a question of fact hinges on evidence>

• 4a :  something that has actual existence <space exploration is now a fact>

  b :  an actual occurrence <prove the fact of damage>

• 5:  a piece of information presented as having objective reality <These are the hard facts of the case.>

There are things that are susceptible to objective proof. such as whether there are five objects on a table or not. And then, there are things that are not susceptible to objective proof, such as whether there is a god. Continue reading →

There was a glorious Women’s March on the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration. It was glorious because it happened, an exercise of the right to assemble, to present grievances, to challenge the government. It was glorious because so many women, men too, turned out.

Whether they knew the mission of the March isn’t really that important. Even if it was merely to show support for their gender, it’s a perfectly sufficient reason. And if you didn’t agree, so what? They don’t need your approval to march or to express their views, whatever they may be. Nobody forced you to go, though some children might have been corralled into being props.

There was silliness, as one might expect, such as writing “messages” to no one on tampons. And someone complained about women being forced to purchase tampons when men get razors for free. Continue reading →

According to respectable journalists, President Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, beclowned himself already. Not by the ill-fitting suit he wore, but by declaring that the inauguration drew the “”largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.”

Granted, the pathological grandiosity has grown tiresome, even if it makes for fun internet memes. Nobody, obviously, is buying.

Oh, wait. That was the Women’s March. My bad. Continue reading →

Some worthless nobody named Richard Spencer* has caught public imagination because he espouses outrageous and repugnant things. In other times, he would be ignored, as there are and always have been nutjobs who say outrageous and repugnant things. They amount to nothing. They are unworthy of our time and attention. As my pal, Mark Bennett, says, attention is currency. Don’t waste it.

But Spencer stood on a street in Washington, D.C. and, inexplicably, someone put a camera in front of his face and asked him questions. During the course of the interview, someone sucker punched him.

The person who sucker punched Spencer has been doxxed (seriously NSFW and not worthy of even a click). and the forces of love and tolerance have found a new hero. Continue reading →

It makes little sense to me to be proud of living one’s life in a bubble. No one would suggest that it’s wrong of Layla Schlack to choose not to read “Dangerous” when it comes out, but to announce that you’re choosing not to read any books by white males, not because they’re not to your liking, but just because they’re written by white males, is the “hate” you profess to hate.

Milo Yiannopoulos has chosen to make himself the poster boy for outrageous political incorrectness. He was at the University of Washington as part of his “Dangerous Faggot Tour.” As one might anticipate, he was not well-received by all.

Protesters outside of the event, which is part of the openly gay Yiannopoulos’ “Dangerous Faggot Tour,” assaulted attendees and threw bricks and other objects at police officers. One victim was a high school senior who said he was assaulted and paint bombed because he was wearing a pro-Trump hat.

Prior to the shooting, Seattle police had recovered hammers, pipes and flares that protesters planned to use outside of the event.

Continue reading →

It was described as a “dark” inaugural speech, while protesters burned limos and the world’s most interesting trash can.

President Trump called for the end of the “carnage.”

Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves. These are the just and reasonable demands of a righteous public. Continue reading →

There is no shortage of snarky retorts to the contention that the tripartite structure of government crafted by the framers has ceased to function as anticipated. It’s all because of the other side, as everyone knows, that Congress can’t manage to get anything right.

And because Congress, filled with people elected by constituencies who are wrong, except your own which did the right thing, is a wasteland, it’s left to the Executive branch to get done what needs to get done.

Chevron deference.

When bureaucrats created rules and regulations that furthered your preferred ends, you called it “law” and applauded the accomplishment. Except it wasn’t law. It was at best regulation, the “rule” invented by an unelected bureaucrat who presided over a fiefdom and who, with the touch of a keyboard, could craft policy that launched a thousand ships.  Continue reading →

Charles Dickens began his story of how the French peasants were more brutal than their aristocratic oppressors with the famous words, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” But the fuller quote seems more appropriate today:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, …”

Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 45th President of the United States today. For many, this is like a bad after-school movie, too far-fetched to be credible and too lacking in substance to be interesting. And yet, it’s going to happen, despite the twits and change.org petitions, the New York Times editorials and shrieks of illegitimacy. The rending of clothes and pervasive hysteria will not stop the peaceful transition of power that is the hallmark of America. Continue reading →

Would it not be perfectly reasonable to believe that the saga of Faulkner Law School associate professor Adam MacLeod’s travails in the battle against his traffic cam ticket was true?  Of course it would, and why not?

Adam MacLeod, law professor at Faulkner University, was the recipient of a traffic cam speeding ticket. The problem was that he wasn’t driving the vehicle when the infraction occurred. So, it was his vehicle being ticketed, but he was being held responsible for someone else’s infraction.

He decided to fight it, and that fight uncovered just how crooked the traffic cam system is. Not only are traffic camera manufacturers receiving a cut of every ticket issued, but tapping into this new revenue stream has prompted municipalities to undermine the judicial system.

Well, maybe. Traffic cams invoke significant legal issues as a strict liability offense borne by the owner of a vehicle without regard to who committed the offense and how it’s proven. Their justification is to be a “silent cop” to prevent traffic violations, but their value as a revenue raiser for localities is a far more convincing explanation. In other words, the traffic cam system is, as Tim Cushing says, “crooked.” But that doesn’t mean MacLeod’s story is the real deal. Continue reading →