Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds

November 4, 2024

FIRST AMENDMENT VIOLATION: George Mason U. disciplines law students who objected to tampons in men’s restrooms: Lawsuit says school violated their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

Two female law students at George Mason University have filed a federal lawsuit against the school for “silencing” them after they opposed a policy of putting tampons in men’s restrooms.

According to the Alliance Defending Freedom, after opposing the measure, third-year law students Selene Cerankosky and Maria Arcara received “no-contact” orders from the university “prohibit[ing] them from having any contact with [another] student.”

The ADF says George Mason “unlawfully” used its Title IX and Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion harassment policies against the students, violating their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

According to the complaint, Cerankosky and Arcara let their concerns be known in a law school GroupMe chat, whereupon a male classmate (pseudonymously “Mr. Doe”) “mocked” them and called their opinions “bigoted.”

The pair were never notified of any complaint against them, and two weeks after the chat they received the non-contact order regarding Mr. Doe. They say they were not given a chance to defend themselves.

Go after the officials personally. Make some examples. Teach some lessons.

Posted at 10:30 am by Glenn Reynolds on Nov 4th, 2024

A SMALL MEASURE OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

But not enough.

The Blob looks after its own.

Posted at 8:43 am by Glenn Reynolds on Nov 4th, 2024

RUY TEIXEIRA: Democrats Undermined By Radical Agenda.

It wasn’t so long ago that progressives were riding high in the United States. Their radical views set the agenda and tone for the Democratic Party and, especially in cultural areas, dominated discourse. Building in the 2010s and cresting at the start of this decade with the Black Lives Matter protests and the heady early days of the Biden administration, few of their ideas seemed off the table.

Defund the police and empty the jails? Sure! Abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and decriminalise the border? Absolutely! Get rid of fossil fuels and have a Green New Deal? Definitely! Demand trillions of dollars for a “transformational” Build Back Better bill? We’re just getting started! Promote DEI and the struggle for “equity” (not equal opportunity) everywhere? It’s the only way to fight privilege! Insist that a new ideology around race and gender should be accepted by everyone? Only a bigot would resist!

In reality, a lot of these ideas were terrible and most voters outside the precincts of the progressive left itself were never interested in them. That was true from the get-go but now the backlash against these ideas is strong enough that it cannot be ignored. As a result, politics is adjusting and the progressive moment is well and truly over.

Astute observers on the left acknowledge this, albeit with an undertone of sadness. So how did the progressive moment fall apart? It is not hard to think of some reasons.

Loosening restrictions on illegal immigration was a terrible idea and voters hate it. When Joe Biden came into office, he immediately issued a series of executive orders loosening the rules for handling illegal immigrants, a move that was applauded by progressives.

The predictable result was a surge in illegal immigration and the diffusion of these immigrants into overburdened cities, which caused a spike in negative sentiment towards Democrats for letting the situation get out of control. This has resulted in huge advantages for Donald Trump and the Republicans that have continued even as the Biden administration moved in mid-2024 to tighten the border and Kamala Harris runs commercials promising to be tough on border security.

The Democrats should have seen this coming. Polling over the years has consistently shown overwhelming majorities in favour of more emphasis on border security. And now voters are increasingly open to draconian restriction measures. An astonishing 62 per cent of voters in a June CBS News survey supported starting a “new national programme to deport all undocumented immigrants currently living in the US illegally”. Progressives’ failure to understand this reality is a big reason why the progressive moment is over.

Promoting lax law enforcement and tolerance of social disorder was another terrible idea and voters hate it too. In the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, the climate for police and criminal justice reform was highly favourable. But Democrats blew the opportunity by allowing the party to be associated with unpopular slogans like “defund the police” that did not appear to take public safety concerns seriously. Democratic non-white and working-class voters tend to live in areas that have more crime and are therefore unlikely to look kindly on any approach that threatens public safety.

Yeah, that stuff mostly sells with woke white people.

Flashback: Working-class people of color hate the riots the lefty elite keeps cheering.

Also: Dems are losing the multiracial working class on basic lifestyle issues.

Plus: The rich and powerful thrived as the rest of us suffered in the year of lockdowns.

Posted at 7:35 am by Glenn Reynolds on Nov 4th, 2024

November 3, 2024

UM:

Posted at 10:15 pm by Glenn Reynolds on Nov 3rd, 2024

OPEN THREAD: Ring out the weekend.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds on Nov 3rd, 2024

FREUDIAN SLIP OF THE DAY:

Posted at 8:08 pm by Glenn Reynolds on Nov 3rd, 2024
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