201 years ago, North Carolina passed a law (N.C.G.S. § 14‑184) which made it a criminal offense for a man and woman to live together unless they were married. Specifically, the law says: If any man and woman, not being married to each other, shall lewdly and lasciviously associate, bed and cohabit together, they shall be guilty of a Class … Read More
Heckuva Constitutional Infringement, FEMA.
I had to read this two or three times to make sure I was getting it right: Residents of trailer parks set up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to house hurricane victims in Louisiana aren’t allowed to talk to the press without an official escort, The (Baton Rouge) Advocate reported. In one instance, a security guard ordered an Advocate … Read More
New York Court Says “No” To Gay Marriages
What the NY Court actually did was kick the issue over to the Legislature: First, the Legislature could rationally decide that, for the welfare of children, it is more important to promote stability, and to avoid instability, in opposite-sex than in same-sex relationships. Heterosexual intercourse has a natural tendency to lead to the birth of children; homosexual intercourse does not. … Read More
Mark Levin Is A Moron
Publius beat me to it. I was going to post the exact same thing: Mark Levin, NRO: Congress and the Court are systematically stripping the presidency of war-making powers. Congress demands that the president get court approval before intercepting enemy communications (we call that intelligence gathering) and the Court demands that the president get statutory support from Congress before he … Read More
A Soldier’s Salute
Ben Shapiro, not surprisingly, thinks that anyone who burns a flag hates America, and publicly desecrates the soldiers who fought to preserve that flag blah blah blah, which is why there should be a No Flag Burning Amendment giving the government more power and taking away liberties from, you know, the people. A soldier comments on Ben’s article: As an … Read More
Flag Amendment Fails
Burn ’em if you got ’em. Meanwhile, there’s delusions at the Corner. John Podheretz to fellow Cornerite Jonah Goldberg: Jonah, I also oppose the flag-burning amendment. But as a strictly Machiavellian matter, as a sheerly political stunt, you have to admit that it’s one of those peculiar gifts that keeps on giving. Republicans can bring it up every few years … Read More
The Fine Print
The Citizen’s Flag Alliance is a public interest group with one cause: a constitutional amendment forbidding the desecration of the U.S. flag. To support their outrage, they informed the Senate that the incidents of flag burning has increased 33% in the past year. Thirty-three percent. Sounds alarming, don’t it? What the CFA hides is this fact: Yeah, it went up … Read More
Can’t Believe This Guy Is A Law Professor
Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds, on the issue of the New York Times leaking news that the government is monitoring bank transactions: The founders gave freedom of the press to the people, they didn’t give freedom to the press. [NYT Editor] Keller positions himself as some sort of Constitutional High Priest, when in fact the "freedom of the press" the Framers described … Read More
First Amendment Primer
Dear AgapePress: This is very simple. Try to wrap your pea-brains around it. When a school prevents a student from talking about God, that is a violation of the student’s First Amendment rights. However, when the school provides the microphone for the student to speak about God, that too is a violation of the First Amendment. In other words, public … Read More
Federalist 69
In the legal realm, neo-conservatives talk a good game about the Founding Fathers and how we should be true to their original intent. That grounding falls apart when it comes to the subject of presidential powers. There is simply no way that Bush’s "President-as-King (during wartime)" arguments can be reconciled with the writings of the Founding Fathers, a point brought … Read More
Freedom of The Press? Here?
The U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services website has handy flashcards teaching new citizens about American civics. Flashcard 80 asks about the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. The answer lists them all, except one: freedom of the press. Guess that was taken out of the Constitution when nobody was looking.
Greenwald On Orrin Hatch
The whole post is worth a read, but I like Glenn Greenwald’s views about Sen. Orrin Hatch: This seems to be an accurate summary of the evolution of Sen. Hatch’s views of constitutional law: (1) The Congress has the right to restrict the President’s eavesdropping activities, and to make certain eavesdropping activities a criminal offense punishable by up to five … Read More
Funeral Picketing
Fred Phelps, a supposed "Christian", has made a name for himself by leading a band of degenerates. Together, they protest at funerals across the country, usually of fallen soldiers. They shout and carry signs that say "Thank God for 9/11" and "Thank God For Dead Soldiers" — all to spotlight their belief that these things are God’s way of punishing … Read More
SCOTUS Limits Warrantless Searches
One thing that struck me in law school, and to this day, is how often the U.S. Supreme Court visits the issues of searches under the Fourth Amendment. Seriously. Every year they take a couple of these cases, it seems. I don’t even pay attention any more. But this morning, the Court addressed an interesting issue: consent searches. Consent searches … Read More
The Solomon Amendment Case
Sadly, I simply won’t have time to do a timely, intelligent post on the Court’s unanimous decision yesterday on the Solomon Amendment. So, as a cheap cop-out, I beg, borrow, and steal from Blogometer for a round-up of what other people are saying: The SCOTUS ruled unanimously 3/6 in support the Solomon Amendment, requiring Yale law and other schools to … Read More