for their kind words about our blog, which they labeled their “Blog of the Year.”
Archive | November, 2009
Tortious vs. Tortuous
When you want to say “constituting a tort,” say “tortious,” as in “tortious interference with contract,” and not “tortuous” (unless you’re trying for a pun). The dictionary definition (I quote the Random House here) reports that “tortuous” means “twisting, winding, or crooked,” “not direct or straightforward,” or “deceitfully indirect or morally crooked.” Much tortious behavior […]
Straight Out of an Orson Scott Card Ender Novel?
Senator Xenophon, and not in Greece, either. UPDATE: If you meet the Senator, you should tell him, “Xenophon? Sounds foreign.”
More Stimulative Than You Could Have Imagined
How successful has the stimulus been at creating jobs? So successful that it’s created jobs in Congressional districts that do not even exist! More from Nick Gillespie. (HT: Instapundit)
Murderers’ Right to “Privacy” vs. Freedom of Speech
The New York Times reports: Wolfgang Werlé and Manfred Lauber became infamous for killing a German actor in 1990. Now they are suing to force Wikipedia to forget them…. German courts allow the suppression of a criminal’s name in news accounts once he has paid his debt to society …. Now [the lawyer for murderers […]
Filibustering Judge Hamilton
Several news reports indicate that some Republican Senators are going to try to filibuster the confirmation of Judge David Hamilton to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. This effort is futile and unfortunate. Even if I believed that Judge Hamilton’s record justified opposition to his confirmation (and I do not, as I […]
“It Is a Bad Idea . . . to Leave the Judge with a Smoldering Suspicion . . .”
On Friday, in Johnson v. Sherry, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit vacated the district court’s denial of William Johnson’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus and remanded the case for additional proceedings to determine whether Johnson received inadequate assistance of counsel. In his habeas petition, Johnson […]
Petitioner’s Brief in McDonald v. City of Chicago (The Second Amendment Incorporation Case)
Today the Petitioners in McDonald v. City of Chicago, the case on whether the Second Amendment applies to the states, filed their merits brief. You can read it here. It’s a truly remarkable brief. It devotes 55 pages to arguing that the Supreme Court should overturn The Slaughterhouse Cases (1873) and embark on a […]
Is Sex More Likely To Be Emotionally Traumatizing for 17-Year-Old Boys or Girls?
In response to my earlier remark that “I suspect that sex between an adult woman and a 17-year-old boy is much less likely to be emotionally or physically damaging than sex between an adult man and a 17-year-old girl,” some commenters asked why I thought this. To give one example, from Guest101: Why? Not trying […]
The End of the Strippermobile
AP reports: A Las Vegas strip club has agreed to stop an advertising promotion that involved hauling bikini-clad exotic dancers around in a truck with clear plastic sides…. Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak said … “It’s clearly a distraction …. Somebody’s going to turn their head to look at some girl flipping upside-down and spinning […]
“UN Security Demanded the Removal of a Poster Promoting a Book by the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) During a Session at the Internet Governance Forum in Egypt”
I don’t know enough about the context to opine confidently on the subject, but I thought I’d pass along a link to this BBC News story in case other readers can tell us more about the matter: The UN has been criticised for stifling debate about net censorship after it disrupted a meeting of free-speech […]
Female Teacher’s Having Sex with 17-Year-Old Male Student/Teacher’s Aide = 12 Years in Prison (But Was More Involved?)
So reports the Tennesseean; the sentence is apparently at the maximum of the legally allowed range, and on its own strikes me as very high. Partly this is because I suspect that sex between an adult woman and a 17-year-old boy is much less likely to be emotionally or physically damaging than sex between an […]
Purdue Resists Calls for Firing Professor for Anti-Homosexuality Blog Post
From the Indianapolis Star, discussing this blog post (my backup version is here): Some have called for [Purdue University professor] Bert Chapman to resign or be fired for his Oct. 27 posting, which laid out an argument that the cost for AIDS research and treatment should factor into the national debate over the acceptance of […]
Publishing a Misogynistic Student Newspaper Column = Sexual Harassment?
By Eugene Volokh on November 16, 2009 5:08 pm in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
From the Connecticut Post, apparently discussing this column (my backup version is here): … The Fairfield Mirror …[, an] independent student publication[,] faces harassment charges before the school’s Student Conduct Board…. The controversy erupted over a satirical column in the Sept. 30 edition of The Mirror that poked fun at female students who agree to […]
“Twitter Allowed in the [Maryland State] Courtroom …. for Now”
Jeff Quinton on the OnQ Social Media Consulting blog has a report, with links to journalist tweets on the subject. Compare this federal case barring Twitter reporting of a trial, though that one is under federal rules that generally ban broadcasting of trials.