OUR CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL IS CRAZY:  “California Attorney General Sues Rady Children’s Hospital for Curtailing Gender-Affirming Care.”

Meanwhile a jury just awarded $2 million to detransitioner in win against gender surgeons. 

SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE:  “[San Diego] County Flags to be Lowered in Recognition of ICE-Related Deaths in Minneapolis.” (Paywalled, but the headline says it all.)

KENIN SPIVAK:  “The Campaign Against ICE Is All About Open Borders.”

GEORGE LEEF:  “University Retaliates Against Professor for Speaking His Mind.”  But the courts have intervened.

WOW!  THAT’S MORE THAN I THOUGHT:  “More than 60 Quit Heritage Over Roberts’ Failure to Condemn Antisemitism.”  I’ve had my doubts about Heritage’s direction for a while–too much unthinking activism, not enough careful thought.  In the last couple of months things have gotten much worse.

REST IN PEACE GRANDPA VICHA:  In 2021, Antoine Watson, crossed the street to shove 84-year-old  Vicha Ratanapakdee to the pavement, resulting in Ratanapakdee’s death.  Watson then went back to his car to fetch his phone and took pictures of what he had done.   There was no apparent reason for Watson’s action.  He didn’t know Ratanapakdee.  It was pure free-floating malice.  Watson is a monster.

His murder trial just ended in San Francisco.  The jury found him NOT guilty of murder in either the first or second degree, but guilty of involuntary manslaughter and guilty of using force likely to produce great bodily harm.  Not surprisingly, there is disappointment in the Asian community, and I’m not so thrilled about it either.

Watson’s crime was brought to the attention of the Commission on Civil Rights when the Commission was working up its report on “Anti-Asian Racism.”  Then as now, I wasn’t  big on the concept of “hate crimes.”  I don’t much care if an animal like Watson was motivated by his victim’s race or just by the desire to inflict harm on some random person (and the latter seems to have been the case).  First and foremost the duty of government is to protect people from violence.  In the early 2020s, it was failing spectacularly in that duty.  And things still aren’t that great.

What bothered me most about the Commission’s report is how it seemed to be interested only in scaring Asian Americans into believing that large numbers of their fellow Americans wanted to kill them because of their race.  It didn’t have much to say about how to stop those crimes or about crime in general and how to stop it.  Instead, the report seemed to be cynically focused on funding useless “bias training” (and on the ever-popular task of getting votes for Democrats).  Anybody who thinks Antoine Watson would have benefited from a little “bias training” is an idiot.   My Commissioner Statement for that report is here.  

TRANSGENDER WARS:  Two cases were argued before the Supreme Court today on whether “transgender women” (i.e. biological men) are entitled to compete on women’s teams despite state laws in West Virginia and Idaho that prohibit the practice.  I didn’t listen to the arguments, but I am told that at least two of the Justices and possibly more were specifically interested in the argument that Joe Bingham, Pete Kirsanow, Dan Morenoff and I made in our amicus brief on behalf of the American Civil Rights Project.  That argument was itself derived from a Comment that Pete and I filed with the Department of Education a few years ago.

One way or another, the Supreme Court should uphold the state laws that forbid such foolishness.  I personally believe that our analysis of Title IX is the correct one (though there are other arguments that get to the same result).

FORTUNATELY, I’M NOT A MEMBER OF THE CALIFORNIA BAR:  “California Restricts Free Speech.”

WHOOSH!:  Elon Musk’s Grokipedia is growing really fast and will soon surpass Wikipedia in number of entries.  It even has a “Gail Heriot” entry.  As Descartes might have put it, “I am grokipediaed, therefore I am.”  (A friend of mine reminded me of the Steve Martin telephone book scene in the Jerk.)

THINGS SEEM TO BE COMING TO A HEAD:  “Iran Supreme Leader Signals Upcoming Crackdown.”

MY TALK AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY:  Here’s a video of the talk I gave last month at Cornell.  The talk is titled “Why We Walk on Eggshells.”  I am ALMOST finished with a book of the same name that will be published by Encounter Books.  With luck, I’ll be able to blog a bit more once it’s done.

IRAN NEWS:  Iranian protesters name street in Tehran after Trump.   (I’m finding myself checking for Iran news every few minutes.)

REGIME CHANGE SOON?:  “Opposition Group Claims Protesters Have Taken Over 2 Cities in Iran.“

IRAN:  Things are getting worse for the regime.  The news is coming in fast.

FIRST THEY THREATENED THEM (AND KILLED A FEW):  Now the Iranian government is trying to bribe its people.  My unsolicited advice to the Iranian protesters:  Don’t take the bribe.  It’s a trick.

I HOPE IT’S TRUE:  Khamenei has plans to flee if things get worse.

WAIT, WHAT?:  Woman goes in for surgery to remove a benign, 22-pound ovarian cyst.  Doctors find a full-term baby boy too.  Merry Christmas!

WATCH ME VIA ZOOM:  You can register here to watch my talk–“Why We Walk on Eggshells”– at Cornell University via Zoom.  The talk–which will be live and in person at Cornell’s Statler Hall in Ithaca, New York–takes place tomorrow–Monday at 5:30 p.m.  If you’re in the area, please come.

I checked out Ithaca’s weather this morning.  The expected low on Monday is just 8 degrees (though the high is expected to be a balmy 25).  I’ve been searching my bureau here in San Diego for a pair of woolen socks.  I’m not sure I’ve owned any since I lived in Chicago in the 1980s.

STEFAN PADFIELD:  Striking at the Legal and Conceptual Core of “Woke AI.”

KENIN SPIVAK:  Imperial Judiciary scorecard.

TOMORROW at 5:30 pm PACIFIC TIME!!!!  GLENN REYNOLDS IN SAN DIEGO!:  If you’re in Southern California, come hear our fearless leader speak at the University of San Diego School of Law.  Glenn will be speaking on “Our Ruling Class Monoculture, the Judiciary’s Class War, and the Great Realignment.”   RSVP (required) here.

FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS VOTE FOR THE GUY WITH THE HAIR GEL:  Kenin Spivak gives you details on something I hope you already knew in your gut:  Gavin Newsom must never be the President of the United States of America.  Make sure your parents, spouse, siblings, children, cousins, nieces, nephews, neighbors, and friends know too.

HOW MANY OF YOU LIVE IN OR NEAR ITHACA, NEW YORK?  Don’t tell me, let me guess:  Not many.  It’s kind of off the beaten path.  But some Instapundit readers must live there.  If you do, and you would like to meet and hear me speak about civil rights law, I’ll be at Cornell University in connection with its  Program on Freedom and Free Societies on Monday evening, December 8, 2025.

I THINK YOU MISUNDERSTAND THE LAW:  I got this in my email yesterday from what I believe to be an actual lawyer who is involved in the reparations movement here in California:

Dear Ms. Heriot,

This letter serves as a formal cease and desist demand regarding your ongoing, public, and targeted efforts to undermine and harass the Black community and its advocates for equity, in direct violation of state and federal civil rights laws and your ethical obligations as a member of the bar.

Your activities—including those publicly associated with the California Foundation for Equal Rights (CFER) (among others) and campaigns explicitly opposing Black-focused equity —constitute racial targeting and harassment under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and applicable state hate crime and anti-discrimination statutes. Such conduct is not protected expression when it rises to the level of coordinated intimidation or bias-based obstruction of legally protected programs. It is particularly egregious that your public campaigns have focused solely on efforts benefiting the Black community, while remaining silent on or even supportive of state and federal allocations to other racial or ethnic groups. 

For example:

In 2021 and 2022, the State of California directed substantial funding—over $165 million—to AAPI anti-hate initiatives, a commendable effort to address rising hate incidents against Asian Americans.

In 2024, the California Legislature authorized over $300 million in support for Holocaust survivors and members of the Jewish community, recognizing their suffering and need for continued support.

Despite these allocations, your campaigns have not targeted or criticized these initiatives—only those aimed at repairing centuries of harm done to Black Americans, who remain the most frequent victims of race-based hate crimes nationwide according to federal data. Your selective and racially targeted opposition to Black equity initiatives, combined with your public standing as an attorney, member of a federal civil rights commission and educator, magnifies the discriminatory impact and constitutes a pattern of bias-based harassment under both state and federal law.

Accordingly, you are hereby ordered to immediately cease and desist from any further direct or indirect harassment, public misinformation, or racially targeted advocacy directed toward the Black community or programs designed to support it. Continued actions of this nature may result in:

Formal referral to state bar disciplinary authorities for violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct concerning bias, harassment, and discrimination; and

Referral to appropriate civil rights enforcement agencies for investigation under state and federal hate crime and civil rights statutes.

Please provide written confirmation within ten (10) business days that you have received this notice and that you will comply fully with its terms.

Warmest Regards,

Well, at least the author has warm regards for me.  (And unlike stuff I’ve gotten in the past on the transgender issue, it contains no threats of violence.)