THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IS CONSIDERING CUTTING BACK ON DISPARATE IMPACT LIABILITY: That’s good news. If you want to understand how Title VII got “interpreted” to prohibit disparate impact liability—despite overwhelming evidence that Congress did not intend such a result when it passed Title VII—read this amicus curiae brief. I am working on a more comprehensive article on the subject … but it’s not ready yet.

PROOFREAD, PEOPLE! PROOFREAD! Oops! ‘Meh’ parenthetical ended up in published federal decision.

A federal judge’s case dismissal is getting some attention because of an apparent note-to-self that didn’t get removed from the published order.

The writer was apparently dissatisfied with a statement summarizing the requirements for a false advertising claim. The parenthetical on page 11 reads: “(Meh I need a better rule statement than this.)”.

U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel of San Diego signed the Feb. 5 order, but one of Curiel’s law clerks likely wrote the “meh” phrase, according to the Recorder.

I had to warn a student last semester about including snarky statements in drafts, with the expectation of editing them out later. Sooner or later, I warned her, you’ll miss one. Back when I was practicing law, there was a partner who somehow let a footnote reading “CITE USUAL CRAP HERE” get into a brief.

PERSPECTIVE:

MARS’S SURPRISING VULCANISM: We Just Got Evidence That Mars Could Have Volcanic Activity.

(Classical reference in headline).

IS IT STILL THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OVER AT THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR?:  Paul Mirengoff discusses.

THIS SEEMS ABOUT RIGHT: Super Bowl fans bought seven times more beer than hot dogs.

LIVE BLOG: There is an active shooting situation in Aurora, Illinois, just west of Chicago.

UPDATE: The very latest here.

THAT’S NICE: All Tesla Models Get New Dog and Sentry Modes to Keep Pets Cool and Car Protected.

AT AMAZON, deals in Health and Personal Care.

Plus, save on Generators and Portable Power.

EVERGREEN HEADLINE FROM BRUCE BAWER: ‘Some Really Stupid People’: Our Catastrophically Clueless Congress.

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: 3 Democrat Policies that Must Die for America to Survive.

LONGEVITY: A cell-killing strategy to slow aging passed its first test this year.

TRUMP’S NATIONAL EMERGENCY ORDER TEXT:

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 15, 2019

DECLARING A NATIONAL EMERGENCY CONCERNING THE SOUTHERN BORDER OF THE UNITED STATES – – – – – – – BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION      The current situation at the southern border presents a border security and humanitarian crisis that threatens core national security interests and constitutes a national emergency.  The southern border is a major entry point for criminals, gang members, and illicit narcotics.  The problem of large-scale unlawful migration through the southern border is long-standing, and despite the executive branch’s exercise of existing statutory authorities, the situation has worsened in certain respects in recent years.  In particular, recent years have seen sharp increases in the number of family units entering and seeking entry to the United States and an inability to provide detention space for many of these aliens while their removal proceedings are pending.  If not detained, such aliens are often released into the country and are often difficult to remove from the United States because they fail to appear for hearings, do not comply with orders of removal, or are otherwise difficult to locate.  In response to the directive in my April 4, 2018, memorandum and subsequent requests for support by the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense has provided support and resources to the Department of Homeland Security at the southern border.  Because of the gravity of the current emergency situation, it is necessary for the Armed Forces to provide additional support to address the crisis. NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including sections 201 and 301 of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), hereby declare that a national emergency exists at the southern border of the United States, and that section 12302 of title 10, United States Code, is invoked and made available, according to its terms, to the Secretaries of the military departments concerned, subject to the direction of the Secretary of Defense in the case of the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force.  To provide additional authority to the Department of Defense to support the Federal Government’s response to the emergency at the southern border, I hereby declare that this emergency requires use of the Armed Forces and, in accordance with section 301 of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1631), that the construction authority provided in section 2808 of title 10, United States Code, is invoked and made available, according to its terms, to the Secretary of Defense and, at the discretion of the Secretary of Defense, to the Secretaries of the military departments.  I hereby direct as follows: Section 1.  The Secretary of Defense, or the Secretary of each relevant military department, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, shall order as many units or members of the Ready Reserve to active duty as the Secretary concerned, in the Secretary’s discretion, determines to be appropriate to assist and support the activities of the Secretary of Homeland Security at the southern border. Sec. 2.  The Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and, subject to the discretion of the Secretary of Defense, the Secretaries of the military departments, shall take all appropriate actions, consistent with applicable law, to use or support the use of the authorities herein invoked, including, if necessary, the transfer and acceptance of jurisdiction over border lands. Sec. 3.  This proclamation is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord two thousand nineteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-third. DONALD J. TRUMP ###

WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS: The KA-BAR Lake Effect Ice Scraper.

OF COURSE THEY DO: Microsoft Wants To Pick The News You Read.

A familiar player is getting into the censorship game: Microsoft just announced that the tech giant’s Edge web browser will feature a “NewsGuard” plugin that will display a big red exclamation mark and a scolding warning when users view news outlets its censors dislike. Media outlets hand-selected by NewsGuard and Microsoft, on the other hand, will get a big friendly green check mark and flattering praise of their journalistic merit.

Who are the approved “green check mark” news sources? The left-leaning, establishment media outlets you would expect: CNN, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, and so on. These are the same sites that rushed to publish dozens of demonstrably false stories about Catholic high schoolers harassing a Vietnam veteran — and wound up putting those teenagers and their families in the crosshairs of a vicious internet hate mob — and then, largely refused to apologize for getting the story completely wrong.

Other members of the “good news” club include Rolling Stone, responsible for making a cover story out of the most destructive rape hoax since the Scottsboro Boys, and BuzzFeed News, responsible for the report accusing President Trump of committing a felony by allegedly telling Michael Cohen to lie to Congress. The story was so outrageously false that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office issued a rare public statement to disavow it.

Which media sources are arrayed on the other side of this equation, the “bad news” bears designated on NewsGuard with red exclamation points? Exactly who you’d expect: Breitbart News; Drudge Report; the Daily Mail, Britain’s third-largest newspaper; and other outlets popular outside the Acela corridor.

When you need the latest, trustworthy news and you need it fast, stick with the high-speed bloggers you’ve known for over 15 years.

HMM: F.D.A. Panel Recommends New Depression Treatment.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Will there ever be a mile-high skyscraper?

Mile high skyscrapers would be nice, but the really ambitious are hoping for a series of massive, inhabitable space elevators/towers connected by an orbital ring around the Earth.

IT’S A TWO-WORD ANALYSIS: “BECAUSE TRUMP.”

MICHAEL LEDEEN: Bad Guys and the Internet.

Reading around the Net today, I am awed by the dramatic reversal of attitude. Compared to those happy early days, most of what I read is fearful and/or angry. As a Russian commentator observed back when, the Internet did indeed threaten tyrants, because it provided internal challengers with information that both exposed the malefactions of the regime and also enabled the opposition to plan their actions. If you talk to Iranian anti-regime activists and ask them what they most need, they will usually reply that they need secure communications with one another, along with access to detailed, reliable reporting on their own country.

However, as that smart Russian commentator observed, the same Internet that threatened the tyrants could also be used to suppress the promised wide-open exchange of facts and ideas. And so it has. The world’s most effective oppressors, those in places like Iran, Russia, North Korea, China and Cuba, have all developed technology to isolate their citizens from the Net, and to inundate their cyberspace with the regime’s own disinformation. No doubt they have helped each other, as free and open communication threatens them all.

The latest example comes from Putin.

Needless to say, read the whole thing.

I’M NOT A FAN OF DIET SODAS: Post-menopausal women who drink diet soda have increased stroke risk.

AFTER THE COUP IS GONE: “The tale we’ve been told for more than two years—that Donald Trump’s campaign team, possibly even the candidate himself, colluded with the Kremlin to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election—has been exposed as a lie. Various investigations into this alleged conspiracy are coming up empty and the accomplices are trying to change the subject. Even more pathetically, some still are clinging to the farce, desperate to salvage whatever still remains of their already sketchy credibility.”

LARRY O’CONNOR: A revealing two weeks for the Democrats.

By the end of the week, a second woman emerged with yet another detailed, credible allegation of sexual assault against Mr. Fairfax dating back to his college days. This allegation included contemporary, corroborating witnesses. Mr. Fairfax lost half his staff but stays in office demanding “due process,” a luxury Democrats refused to afford Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh when faced with sketchy, uncorroborated, contradictory accusations at his confirmation hearings.

Democrats: The party of unequal justice when politicians are accused of sexual assault.

Next came the Green New Deal ballyhooed by the young socialists in the congressional freshman class. It was immediately embraced by more senior Democrats wanting to appear woke with the kids. A fact sheet on the sweeping plan revealed modest 10-year goals like basically eliminating air travel, fossil fuels and the internal-combustion engines, plus a lament that ending cow farts might take longer.

Democrats: The party of light rail, tofu and the economic dark ages.

They’ll remake us all into the New Soyviet Man.

THIS SOUNDS FAMILIAR SOMEHOW: Seven Million Americans Delinquent on Auto Loans Could Be a Bad Sign.