There’s a saying in Shawano County, usually attributed to the county’s former district attorney, that if you come on vacation, you’ll leave on probation. Decades of law and order prosecutors and a historically punitive culture have created a court system that mistreats outsiders, locals, Native Americans from the neighboring Menominee Reservation, defendants and victims. At…
Liberty
Equality, LGBT, Liberty
The Flag Stands for LGBTQ People, Too
America, Holiday, Liberty
Independence and Freedom for All
Language, Liberty
Liberty includes language
My daughter and I stopped at the gas station the other day to grab some soda and a snack. We were talking in Croatian like always and the lady behind us smiled at me and said, “It’s so nice to see a mother and daughter together. If only you would speak English.” I was taken aback for a second, letting the words sink in. I was shocked at what I heard, but it wasn’t unimaginable because some people are afraid of different.After a few seconds, I gathered myself and muttered a few choice words—in Croatian. We paid for snacks quickly and quietly left the store. I could see my daughter looking at me for a response and I was trying my best to do what I would want her to do, just let it go. However, it was difficult to do so.
Encryption, FBI, Federal Government, Liberty, Privacy, Private Property, Surveillance, Technology
Precedent
At least with our homes we have some reasonable ways to know whether or not a government agent has entered it. With our technology, however, they could enter our computers, phones, tablets, etc., take whatever they want, and we would never know unless they decided to tell us. And there have been too many instances of that happening for the American people to feel comfortable giving the government even more tools to access our technology.
Perhaps if the government had behaved more responsibly with our civil liberties to date, this wouldn’t be much of an issue.
Via Obama Makes Case for Government Access to Private Property @ Boots & Sabers.
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Law, Liberty, Polls, Wisconsin
Wisconsinites back same-sex marriage ruling
US Supreme Court decision allowing gay marriage: 52% agree, 40% disagree. #mulawpoll
— MULawPoll (@MULawPoll) August 20, 2015
Courts, Culture, Law, Liberty
6.26.15
I headed to the entry way of our home upon hearing the news this morning about the ruling from the Supreme Court about my right to marry the person I love. Days ago my partner James, who is the neighborhood vexillologist, pulled from his collection the colorful gay pride flag and had it neatly folded on a trunk, ready for the day the ruling would come down. I picked it up and walked briskly outside knowing that this ruling, will without a doubt, be the most profound action the court will ever have on my life….
Via Same-Sex Marriage Ruling Personal, Profound, Magnificent @ CAFFEINATED POLITICS.
Culture, GOP, Gov. Walker, Law, Liberty, Presidential race 2016
Walker Upset with High Court
Gov. Scott Walker on Friday called the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing gay marriage across the country “a grave mistake.”
Walker issued a lengthy statement on Facebook backing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would allow states to define marriage and calling the ruling “judicial activisim.”
Via Scott Walker: Supreme Court gay marriage ruling ‘a grave mistake’ @ Madison com.
History, Holiday, Liberty
Juneteenth
Free Speech, Law, Liberty, Wisconsin
The Price of Unlawful Conduct
“The lawyer representing six protesters who won a combined $44,830 in damages from the State of Wisconsin earlier this week says the total cost for unconstitutional arrests and fines handed out by Capitol Police since 2011 could ultimately run over $1 million. Attorney Jeff Scott Olson said that all of the protesters arrested under a…
Culture, GOP, Law, Liberty, Politics, Rights
One Paragraph
During the 2004 elections, George W. Bush’s campaign, managed by a closeted gay man, pushed a series of anti-gay ballot initiatives across the country. The House of Representatives, led by a male speaker who allegedly sexually assaulted a male minor, moved a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage after beating back attempts to strengthen hate…
Federal Government, Liberty, Patriot Act, Privacy, Surveillance
The extent of their work
“How much phone metadata does the government (and soon the phone companies) actually collect?… What other kinds of data does the government gather in bulk?… What are the costs of collecting all this data?…” Via “Three Big Questions About the N.S.A.’s Patriot Act Powers.” @ Althouse.
Gov. Walker, Law, Liberty, Patriot Act, Presidential race 2016, Privacy, Surveillance
Salesman of the Surveillance State
Fashion, Free Speech, Law, Liberty, Madison, Schools
Restrictions on logos, words on clothing
Via Eugene Volokh thinks the Madison, Wisconsin school board is violating the First Amendment… @ Althouse.
Law, Legislation, Liberty
Ireland Considers
Via “Marriage May Be Contracted In Accordance With Law By Two Persons Without Distinction As To Their Sex” @ CAFFEINATED POLITICS.
Law, Liberty, Wisconsin
And you thought being born here counted for something
Via Nanny State Republican Rep. Edming says we’re all immigrants now….take a citizenship test or you don’t graduate @ Democurmudgeon.
Corruption Probe, Crime, Law, Liberty, Wisconsin
DA Chisholm Makes Walker’s Argument for Him
Volokh finds “the use of criminal libel law in political disputes… troubling.” I’ll say. I mean, that was Walker’s point — government using its power to intimidate political opponents — and Chisholm’s instinct was to threaten to use government power to intimidate political opponents. Of course, that’s a despicable chilling of free speech. In fact,…
Corruption Probe, Law, Liberty, Press, Wisconsin
Some raids are more equal than others
Early this week, the National Review came out with an explosive cover story detailing the experience of three private citizens subjected to armed police with battering rams conducting pre-dawn raids of their homes, seizing cell phones and personal computers, and admonishing them to tell no one — even as the authorities apparently tipped off favored…
Law, Legislation, Liberty, Lifestyle
Barrett for Gun Waiting-Period
Law, Liberty, Open Government, Press, Public Records, Sheriff, Wisconsin
Fight for public records escalates
A Milwaukee-based public interest law firm has opened a second front in a legal war over Wisconsin police censoring names and other key parts from reports if the information came from driver’s license records. The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty on Tuesday filed a lawsuit on behalf of a reporter with Wisconsin Reporter, a conservative…
Gov. Walker, Legislation, Liberty, Lifestyle, Presidential race 2016, Regulations
No waiting
Scott Walker signals support for eliminating 48-hour waiting period for handgun purchases http://t.co/02avOwVDtn — madison.com (@madisondotcom) March 3, 2015
DNR, Law, Liberty
Ten years later…
Via Jury awards $2,500 to hunter who sued DNR warden for wrongful arrest @ JS Proof and Hearsay Blog.
Law, Liberty, Politics, Pres. Obama
Expediency
While I have always felt, and written over and over on this blog, that I knew deep down President Obama was comfortable with gay marriage from both a legal and cultural viewpoint I also have to be blunt in stating how dismayed I am over how he used the issue to his political advantage. I…
Free Speech, Law, Liberty, Marquette
Marquette Steps in It
Is this a case where the newly-installed President of MU took some seriously flawed advice and pulled the trigger without checking with counsel? Was he so busy carrying on with the Bucks and with Dwayne Wade that he just sorta nodded a vague approval of schmeissing McAdams without due diligence? Or did the decision come…
Free Speech, Law, Liberty, Wisconsin
Speak Freely
A Wisconsin appellate court has sustained the First Amendment rights of the civil-rights-movement-singing Wisconsin Solidarity Singers or Solidarity Sing-Along (Facebook). The case is State of Wisconsin v. Michael W. Crute (Appeal No. 2014AP659; Circuit Court No. 2010FO2108). Via Scott Walker Loses, Free Speech Wins in Wisconsin Appellate Court @ MAL Contends . . ..
Health, Liberty, Lifestyle, Regulations
Cannabis debate doesn’t follow script
HLN talk show host Nancy Grace discussed the subject with rapper 2 Chainz, who is a known smoker. I think whoever put this segment together believed the loud-mouthed Grace would own the segment. They showed clips of parents giving their toddlers weed and kids getting high. But the segment did not go down as expected.…
Law, Liberty, Local Government
Civil rights case against Racine still going
But the plaintiffs’ claims that their civil rights were violated survive and will proceed to discovery, where their attorneys will begin to collect records and take sworn depositions. In his 36-page order, Stadtmueller also detailed his reasoning for denying the city officials’ attack on the RICO claims against them, while dismissing some other individual defendants…
Business, Liberty, Technology
Open
Gov. Walker, Law, Liberty
Years of exclusion
I think that anyone who has a religious background, as Walker does, might find the need to heal the breach to be a path worthy of pursuing. Anyone with Potomac Fever might wish to play to the better angels and work for inclusion between all people regardless of sexual orientation. Via Will Scott Walker Offer…
Culture, Law, Liberty, Lifestyle
Infinitesimals
How many “traditional marriages” do you know that have broken down since same-sex marriage became legal in Wisconsin? Via A question for all you conservatives out there @ Blogging Blue.
Culture, Law, Liberty
The argument for, but against, plural marriage
…The would-be polygamist needs only to use the arguments of a gay-marriage advocate: What kind of moral claim, for instance, does anyone have to stand in the way of peaceful, consenting adults who call their union a marriage? Via The Mormons v. Althouse @ Dad29.
Health, Law, Liberty
After all, they have a choice about which ultrasound the state forces them to undergo
Law, Liberty
But says he would have found a ban on mixed-race marriages personally “distasteful “
Via Schimel says he would have defended ban on interracial marriage in 1950s @ Channel3000.