OUT TOMORROW: Julie Albright’s Left to Their Own Devices: How Digital Natives Are Reshaping the American Dream. I wrote a blurb for it, which you can see at the link.
Archive for 2019
April 15, 2019
IT’S WHAT HE SAID HE WANTED. GIVE IT TO HIM GOOD AND HARD: “Spartacus” Booker Says Moving Illegals To Sanctuary Cities Makes Us ‘Less Safe.’
CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Colorado enacts ‘red flag’ law to seize guns from those deemed dangerous, prompting backlash.
Colorado’s law, approved by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, allows family, household members or law enforcement to petition a court to have guns seized or surrendered based on a showing that someone poses a danger under the “preponderance of the evidence,” a civil standard which means that the defendant is more likely than not to be a threat.
“In other words, there is just over a 50/50 chance of accuracy,” van Beek wrote, noting that someone’s guns could be seized even without a mental health professional making a determination of any kind. “Like the flip of a coin. Couldn’t that apply to just about anything a person does?”
A subsequent court hearing could extend a gun seizure up to 364 days, and gun owners can only retain their guns if they meet a burden of demonstrating by “clear and convincing evidence” — a much higher standard — that they are not in fact a threat. Gun owners, van Beek said, are “guilty until proven innocent” under this framework.
Well, yeah, if you ask most any Progressive Democrat.
OLD AND BUSTED: HOW DARE YOU QUESTION THE LEFT’S PATRIOTISM! The New Hotness? Putting American flags on police cars sparks backlash in Laguna Beach.
BYRON YORK: Five arguments the Mueller report won’t settle.
WELL, AT LEAST HE ISN’T CAMPAIGNING LIKE IT’S 1988: Biden to Campaign Like it’s 2012 All Over Again.
ANALYSIS: TRUE. The Courts Have Shown Too Much Deference to Unaccountable Government Officials.
Under the Supreme Court’s doctrine of qualified immunity, courts will hold government officials liable for violating the rights of their fellow citizens only if a prior court, adjudicating another case with virtually identical facts, has already held that such conduct was unconstitutional, effectively ensuring that nearly zero government officials ever face federal trial for their crimes.
In essence, police officers and other government officials, theoretically those members of society best equipped to know the current state of the law, are held to a significantly lower standard of legal conduct than ordinary citizens, for whom ignorance of the law is not a defense.
This toxic deference to government authority also extends far beyond the context of police misconduct. Courts regularly allow federal agencies to define the scope of their own authority and redefine what their own regulations mean on the fly, with little to no oversight. State and local governments are routinely permitted to pass laws protecting the business enterprises of well-established and politically connected individuals from upstart competitors under the barest and most transparent of pretenses, often with the courts themselves proffering potential justifications to help the government’s case.
This is a judicially created doctrine with no basis in the Constitution.
IT’S THICK: Clearing the Fog.
ARE YOU SURE? I THOUGHT IT WAS SANTA CLAUS: Bernie Sanders to Model “Medicare for All” on Successful Easter Bunny Egg Program.
NEWSFLASH: BEING A BOY IS DIFFICULT: ‘The Heart of a Boy’ is a beautiful celebration of boyhood.
THIS IS MY SHOCKED FACE: ‘The Silence’ Casts Christians as the Real Monsters.
ONLY IN SANCTUARY CITIES: “Spartacus” Booker Says Moving Illegals To Sanctuary Cities Makes Us ‘Less Safe’.
NUMMY, NUMMY HATE CHICKEN: Chick-fil-a’s “Hate Chicken” Strikes Again.
NO, THEY JUST WANT TO DESTROY AMERICA: Democrats Have No Interest In Illegal Aliens.