While the holding fit nicely into a sentence, the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision wreaked havoc on lower courts struggling to figure out how that sentence was applied.

[T]he court articulated a “text, history and tradition” test for evaluating gun restrictions in future federal cases. Under this test, gun control measures were constitutional only if the government could demonstrate those restrictions were “consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” That was the most significant element of the Bruen case.

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Bail is bad. We know that because all the “abolish bail” reformers say so. They tell us that bail is just a way to oppress poor people, whose only “crime” is not having enough money to buy their way out of jail. And by definition, that makes the bail fund that buys the release of a person too poor to post bail good. Therefore, when Nancy Rommelmann argued that Rachael Abramson might still be alive if the Portland Bail Fund hadn’t paid the $2,000 needed to cover the $20,000 bail set for the release of Mohamed Adan, she was attacked.

Except Nancy Rommelmann was right. Between the threats, arrests and convictions, the evidence was overwhelming that Adan was going to kill Abramson. And after he was bailed out, he did. Continue reading →

I never thought I’d see the day when folks from the West Coast started getting the good sense  to flee that nightmarish part of the country for my beloved American South. And yet it keeps happening. It seemed to really take off during the pandemic when parts of my region embraced liberty while places like California prevented folks from eating outside unless the restaurant of their choosing had pricey outdoor air filters.

Personally, I’m not terribly thrilled at the influx of migrants to Tennessee and the surrounding states from places like California. One of the joys of country life is the lack of people. However, if you’re going to come here, I feel it incumbent upon me to provide you with some tips so some of you might learn the ropes and properly assimilate.

You’re welcome. Continue reading →

Patrick Reidy did well in school, graduating salutatorian of his class at Notre Dame. Later going to Yale Law School and first interning, later clerking, for Judge Thomas Hardiman at the Third Circuit. After doing a fellowship at at Yale Law School’s Center for Private Law, he got a gig as an associate professor at Notre Dame law school. Not too shabby, right?

So why shouldn’t a Supreme Court justice pick Patrick Reidy as a clerk?

After graduation, he entered formation with the Congregation of Holy Cross — the order that founded and continues to serve at Notre Dame — and earned his Master of Divinity from Notre Dame.
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Pamela Paul writes about why she’s not keen on joining protests. It’s not that she doesn’t like the outdoors, or has bladder issues. It’s that they seem kind of ineffective, on the one hand, and intolerant, on the other.

Intolerant?  Try being the skunk at the garden party.

I’ve never been much of a tribalist or a joiner, and have no use for conformity of thought or dress. Unless it’s Halloween or a costume party, I don’t like playing dress-up. Nor do I want to be part of a group where people might think I accidentally left my pussy hat at home. When I see a bunch of white kids wearing kaffiyehs I can’t help wonder whatever happened to the whole anti-cultural appropriation thing. Continue reading →

Over at VC, Ilya Somin has an excellent post about Biden’s “parole in place” policy. which should be about as uncontroversial from a policy perspective as any presidential act could be.

Today, President Biden  announced a policy granting “parole in place” to undocumented immigrant spouses of US citizens who have been in the US for at least 10 years, and meet some other criteria. Those eligible can apply for parole status. If they get it, they will then have a three-year period during which they will have work permits and can apply for “green card” permanent residency (that status will eventually also enable them to apply for citizenship). Currently spouses of US citizens are already eligible to apply for green cards. But if they entered the US illegally, they are required to meet onerous conditions, such as first leaving the United States, and staying away for up to ten years. About 500,000 people could potentially benefit from the program.

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While many people who find Trump so personally repugnant that they could never vote for him under any circumstances, that doesn’t mean that they’re enthralled with the alternative. There is a debate coming up, during which we may learn that neither candidate is fit for office, even if Joe Biden isn’t as bad as Trump. Then what?

I posed the question on the twitters and the responses were . . . interesting.

What do we do when we have a presidential debate and neither one proves capable of coherent thought?

— Scott Greenfield (@ScottGreenfield) June 16, 2024

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For a while now, Jon Haidt has been arguing that social media plays a significant role in the spike in anxiety and depression in teens. While it hasn’t received universal approval, it also hasn’t received much condemnation. There just aren’t a great many people who want to argue that social media in excess is good for anyone, particularly when it comes to kids using their smartphones to access social media during school.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has come up with a solution: Put a surgeon general’s warning on social media. Continue reading →

My father died in 2019. Dr. SJ’s father passed last November. Neither of us has a dad to send a card to, make breakfast for or give a gift to. The days of doing that are behind us now, but we don’t forget.

Mothers were the ones who nurtured us, fed us, wiped our tears and kissed our boo boos. Dads? They were the ones who would be stern when they got home. Things were a bit different back when Dr. SJ and I were young.

Dads were the ones who fixed things that broke and were too busy mowing the lawn to play catch. When we misbehaved, they were the ones mom told us we should wait for when they came home. We didn’t really appreciate dads as children. But we grew up and realized how important they were in our lives. Continue reading →

Not being a gun guy, it’s unclear to me what purpose a bump stock serves other than to allow someone to shoot a lot of bullets very quickly by using the rifle’s recoil to do the trigger pulling work. They are useful to people with disability, or so I’m told, though I’m not sure why and it doesn’t really matter. And after what happened in Vegas, I can well appreciate why bump stocks can present a horrific menace that should no more exist than machine guns in civilian hands.

Your mileage may vary, but I just can’t see any reason to allow the sale of bump stocks, other than to prepare for battle with…someone. Continue reading →