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Jan 27

16 year-old wins legal battle to vindicate her constitutional rights, but continues to face retaliatory harassment

In July 2010, 16-year old Jessica Ahlquist—who identifies as an atheist—informed her local ACLU chapter that a mural addressed to “Our Heavenly Father” was displayed in her school auditorium, which made her feel “ostracized and out of place”. In 1963-64, after the Supreme Court had invalidated the practice of school prayer in public schools in Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962), the Class of 1963 had presented a gift of two murals to the School, one depicting the school creed and the other the School Prayer, to decorate the walls of the new auditorium.

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Jan 27

Maryland Higher Education Goes to Trial

A bench trial in The Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education vs. Maryland’s Higher Education Commission began on January 3 in the Baltimore district court.

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Jan 27

Transgender Marriage in the Courts

In the light of a recent Hong Kong Court of Appeal decision, this post considers how courts in the United States have ruled upon the issue of transgender marriage.

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Jan 26

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Agency Nullification at the FEC

In a time of high scrutiny related to the voting franchise, the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), the only federal agency authorized to enforce federal campaign finance laws, is so bogged down in political infighting that its authority is at risk of self-nullification. This is of special concern in a presidential election year characterized by concerns over Super PACs, corporate influence over elections in light of Citizens United, aggressive voter identification statutes, and Congressional redistricting.

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Jan 26

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Floyd Abrams on Free Expression, Broadcast Regulation, WikiLeaks, Citizens United and SOPA

One thing that troubles me is the willingness of too many people to be selective in their support for First Amendment norms, because of their political or ideological views. The First Amendment doesn’t work that way—its protections don’t vary according to whether the left or right will benefit from a particular case. The Nation magazine invited me to a forum in the late 1990s or early 2000s. Someone at the forum said, “The wrong people are winning First Amendment cases. What can we do about it?” My answer was, “Maybe you ought to change your political views to conform with your First Amendment views, rather than the other way around, trying to change the First Amendment to conform with your political views.

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Jan 25

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U.S. v. Jones: Gear Up for the Sequel

“The Fourth Amendment protects people, not places.” Except when it protects places, which it apparently does sometimes. On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the government’s placement of a GPS device on the defendant’s car in United States v. Jones was a search, and without a warrant, was unconstitutional.

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Jan 25

Reexamining Licensing Regimes

This is my second dispatch from New Orleans focusing on municipal licensing. Last time, I discussed why I thought progressives should care about seemingly silly regulations. This time, I ask whether the licensing regime we have, one that is hardly limited to New Orleans, is a good idea for progressive policy, and what a potential alternative might look like.

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Jan 24

An international intervention in Syria?

For the past 10 months, unrest in Syria has continued to mount. In the wake of President Assad rejecting the Arab League’s agreement, the debate about international intervention has begun.

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Jan 23

High court rejects Texas judge’s redistricting map

The Supreme Court unanimously threw out a federal judge’s redistricting map for the state of Texas. The Court’s per curiam opinion, released Friday, said the judge failed to show deference to the Texas legislature’s policy judgments in its map, which is still awaiting preclearance from a federal court in D.C. The Court said the judge should have used the legislature’s map as a starting point. The Court noted that redistricting is primarily the responsibility of state legislatures.
The Court noted that, when it comes to redistricting, there is no such thing as “neutral principles.” All of the decisions involved are policy judgments. The Court reiterated that Section 5 presents “serious constitutional questions,” but new voting laws prove that federal oversight is still justified.

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Jan 20

Congress is master of the public domain

While the Internet came together on Wednesday to protest Congressional consideration of the Stop Online Piracy Act in a recognition by citizens that intellectual property infrastructure matters, the Supreme Court struck a quieter, if still devastating blow against an open, vibrant public discourse in its latest IP opinion, Golan v. Holder.

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