THE BARBIELAND INTIFADA:
Research Discovers Women Will Support Any Cause No Matter How Murderous So Long As They Get To Wear A Scarf https://t.co/8RvHiIC7kF pic.twitter.com/AjGDW9ObR5
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) May 8, 2024
Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds
May 9, 2024
THE WORLD BANK WANTS THE ERA OF CHEAP FOOD TO BE OVER. Of course it does.
Remember, making ordinary people’s lives worse isn’t an unfortunate side effect of their policies. It’s the goal.
THE GIFT THAT KEEPS GIVING: Fetterman commends University of Florida’s response to campus protests. I can’t wait until he switches parties.
MORE NEUROLOGICAL ACTIVITY, TOO:
Dead Worm Found In RFK Jr.’s Brain Already Polling Higher Than Biden In 11 States https://t.co/v1STabjycx pic.twitter.com/pABxmnMsgr
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) May 8, 2024
IT’S HARD TO HAVE BALLS AND SWAGGER WHEN YOU’RE GENUINELY AWFUL AT YOUR JOB: Press Cowards’ Hypocritical Lament Over Media’s Lack of ‘Balls’ and ‘Swagger.’
WELL, YES: Ron Hart: Foolish College Antics Accelerate Downward Spiral Of Higher Education.
36,639 students attended Columbia in 2022, and 20,321 were foreign students in 2023. It crept up on the university. . . .
The “demonstrators” were given pamphlets on how to protest. If you know anything about 18- to 25-year-olds today, they couldn’t organize a one car funeral. They are lemmings, woke and entitled.
Lefties fell for Hamas. I thought the 9/11 attacks taught us all we needed to know about radical Islam.
Hamas members committed rape Oct. 7 when it invaded Israel. Yet the “MeToo” progressive women’s movements remain eerily quiet. Hamas is fortunate that it is not a Christmas song, Founding Father statue, syrup bottle or a male candidate for the Supreme Court.
It’s only rape if it’s done by a white frat guy.
May 8, 2024
OPEN THREAD: It’s that time again.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Chang’e-6 enters lunar orbit ahead of far side landing attempt.
UPDATE: Link was bad before. Fixed now. Sorry!
BECAUSE IT’S A KANGAROO COURT RUN BY AN IN-THE-TANK JUDGE? Why Is the Judge in Trump’s New York Trial Muzzling a Key Defense Witness?
WELL OKAY THEN:
The Biden admin you guys. I just don't know. https://t.co/MOf7uLQ4hx
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) May 8, 2024
ATRIAL FIBRILLATION IS EVERYWHERE: Concerning Findings – This Severe Heart Disease Is Becoming Much More Common.
IN THE MAIL: Vows: The Modern Genius of an Ancient Rite.
THE POWER SOURCE OF THE FUTURE! Fusion Breakthrough: 6 Minutes of Plasma Sets New Reactor Record.
HEH. WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING?
They're starting to panic about Biden's 2024 chances.
Jake Tapper on April 29: "When you look at these protests… do you think to yourself, 'Wow, this is a real in-kind contribution to Donald Trump'?" https://t.co/nKx5vj6S2y— Bill D'Agostino (@Banned_Bill) May 8, 2024
SOME HAVE IT MORE THAN OTHERS: Research pinpoints ‘neural compass’ of brain activity used to orient people.
OUT: PRAY THE GAY AWAY. IN: Transing The Gay Away. “Gareth Roberts isn’t sure that ‘genderism’ will go away. At the end of Gay Shame, he presents two plausible scenarios. One depicts a world where queer theory and all its works and all its ways has gone down the long slide and all seems well. The other shows what things look like in the event of a genderist win. And in that world, the grim joke that emerged among staff at the Tavistock has come true. There are no gay people left.”
ED MORRISSEY INTERVIEW: Dr. Bhattacharya: Here’s Why the WHO Treaty Is Fauciism on Global Steroids.
These people should be in cells awaiting trial, not authoring new treaties to give them more power.
GOING TO THE CENTER: President Donald J. Trump to Speak at NRA Annual Meeting.
WHEN STEREOTYPES FAIL: Study finds little gender difference in the perception of ambient room temperature.
WE NEED CONSUMER PROTECTION FOR BLACK-MARKET DRUGS: Counterfeit Oxycontin pills almost always contain fentanyl.
I’VE BEEN SUGGESTING THIS FOR A WHILE, but GWU lawprof John Banzhaf emails this press release on suing protesters who cause illegal harm and disruption:
llegal protests on university campuses have already triggered a number of legal actions, but so far the lawsuits likely to be most successful, and most effective at strongly discouraging similar criminal activity in the future – class actions brought by as few as one student or faculty member – seem to be overlooked, says a class action expert.
Public interest law professor John Banzhaf – who has been called a “King of Class Action Law Suits,” “a Driving Force Behind the Lawsuits That Have Cost Tobacco Companies Billions of Dollars,” and “The Law Professor Who Masterminded Litigation Against the Tobacco Industry,” points out than even one individual student or faculty member harmed by illegal actions by protestors can bring a class action lawsuit against each and every one of the criminal protestors who can be identified (e.g. by cell phone or video camera recordings, arrest records, etc.).
In addition to the serious financial and other burdens of having to hire lawyers to defend against such suits, and the impact on their future credit ratings, each protestor could be found legally liable for the entire amount of all the damages to all of the thousands of class action plaintiffs under the well-established legal doctrine of joint and several liability, says the law professor, who promoted such lawsuits against the January 6th rioters.
Indeed, it’s a legal tactic even the Wall Street Journal (as well as others) has recommended, even for far less serious crimes such as simply temporarily blocking traffic:
If DAs won’t prosecute, victims can sue for false imprisonment
Such class action lawsuits could be brought for familiar torts (civil damage actions) such as assault and battery, false imprisonment, and tortious interference with existing contractual advantage, as well as less familiar ones such civil conspiracy and prime facie tort, says Banzhaf, who has already inspired such public interest lawsuits.
University protestors seem largely undeterred by actual or threatened arrests since in many cases the typically minor criminal charges are likely to be dropped by the university and/or by sympathetic prosecutors. If not, a tiny criminal fine may be seen as a small price to pay by students striving to achieve a major social goal, argues Banzhaf.
Similarly, many universities are likely not to impose serious – if any – discipline on students who exceeded their rights of free speech and expressive activities by engaging in criminal tortious conduct such as:
■ Trespass to land (illegally occupying university property, especially with tents),
■ Civil assault and harassment (which need not involve any touching or actual harm),
■ Civil battery (even the slightest touching which proves to be harmful or even simply offensive)
■ False imprisonment (menacingly surrounding a student or professor, not permitting janitors to leave a building)
■ Tortious interference with existing contractual advantage (preventing students from going to classes and/or the library, from taking exams, experiencing graduation, etc.)
A lesser known but very powerful tort action is a civil conspiracy. It allows a plaintiff to seek damages from two or more parties who agree to commit an unlawful act, or to engage in combination even in a lawful act (e.g. hundreds of protestors all telephone or try to withdraw money from their account at the same time to pressure a bank to take some action) and the plaintiff suffers harm (including disruption and/or delay) as a result of that agreement.
Another very powerful legal tool which has been recognized and utilized in many situations is the prime facie tort. It is generally defined as the “infliction of intentional harm, resulting in damages, without excuse or justification, by an act or series of acts which would otherwise be lawful.”
In other words, in addition to all of the other possible civil actions, once a jury found that protestors knew that their actions would harm other students, and that any of the actions (including but not limited to those which violate the law) were not justifiable, it can issue a verdict holding each and every protestor who participated legal liable for all damages to all students who were adversely affected (and therefore make up the “class” in the class action).
Banzhaf notes that his prior articles and other legal analysis inspired civil lawsuits against “cause” lawbreakers, and that similar suits have sometimes led to very large damage awards which shocked the criminal protestors.
Prosecutorial discretion won’t help them here.
Related: Pushback Works: Campus political violence and the moral and practical aspects of resistance.