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1A: Biden’s HHS pick Xavier Becerra is on record saying religious institutions don’t have the same religious freedom as individuals
2A: Amy Coney Barrett's elevation to the Supreme Court produces a rush of litigation to lock in gun rights 1A: lawyer gets preliminary injunction against Bar anti-bias rule; likely to succeed on claims the rule is vague and overbroad and constitutes viewpoint discrimination (E.D. of Pennsylvania) 1A: Virginia county declares itself a ‘First Amendment Sanctuary’ and says it won’t comply with the Governor’s COVID restrictions Free Expression: Muslim apostate illustrator describes the struggle to get a Danish Quran for young readers published 5A: A quick word from our ‘Great Reset’ masters: “You’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy.” 8A: Ohio bill would bar life without parole for aggravated juvenile killers; sponsor of the bill mistakenly thinks Supreme Court has ruled such sentences unconstitutional 13A: Dems propose constitutional amendment to end prison labor because mass incarceration is so perpetuating involuntary servitude. Sure. Shame on us! Young people don’t love their country as much or are as patriotic as older people. Shame on us for teaching young people wrong-headed mush like wokeness and critical race theory. 2A: Biden pick for White House deputy chief of staff is a fan of ‘mandatory buybacks’ for certain rifles - "Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47."
1A Religion: Supreme Court temporarily blocks New York’s enforcement of attendance limit for religious services in COVID hotspots, saying it likely violates the First Amendment 1A: 11th Circuit splits circuits, strikes down Florida’s ban on gay conversion therapy Free Expression: NYC Islamic group wants anyone who insults Muhammad dead Discrimination: British pro-life nursing student gets apology and settlement from the University of Nottingham which had threatened to expel her Electoral College can frustrate the popular vote, but that’s a feature, not a bug; it empowers states in our federal system Nice reminder that Congress can override statutory rulings from the Supreme Court simply by changing the statute Mayflower Compact is a reminder of the importance and religious derivation of the Rule of Law Shame! NFL Quarterbacks Kneel During Anthem to Show Their Disgust for America on Thanksgiving Day
Biden hiring anti-free speech zealots who call for censorship of the Internet and speech controls. Townhall NewsBusters
Federal appeals court upholds Harvard’s affirmative action admissions policies that discriminate against Asians in a case likely headed to the Supreme Court (1st Circuit). Daily Signal Justice Alito defends religious liberty, gun rights in speech. Washington Free Beacon 1A: Federal judge in New York grants temporary order against ordinance requiring people to ‘be nice’ during town council meetings as unconstitutionally vague. Volokh Conspiracy Free Expression: YouTube took down a video that told the truth about the Quran containing hateful verses. Jihad Watch 1A Religion: federal judge in North Carolina refuses to block irreverent book from 9th grade classroom; parents can’t show harm or that the school has established a religion. News & Record 14A: San Francisco regulations favoring recent over long-time taxi medallion owners do not violate equal protection; rational for city to want to help new owners deal with ride-sharing competition. 9th Circuit Copyright: No copyright protection for memoirs because they purport to be factual and facts are fair game. Eleventh Circuit Shame! on the wacko WaPo for calling for the abolition of the Electoral College. OK, while we’re at it, let’s abolish your First Amendment rights to a free press! Daily Signal Radio host Mark Levin has brought to the public’s attention that, under Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, state legislatures have total power to choose the presidential electors they want. In the current circumstances in which we find ourselves, state legislatures - including those in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and other contested states - can pick pro-Trump electors for the Electoral College for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all. A stalwart Tea Partier friend of mine wrote a model letter that anyone can deliver to their state legislators reminding them they have this power and urging them to use it. I’d like to read the letter to you now, it’s short:
Hon. Legislator, This is a simple message—Article II, section 1 of the United States' Constitution gives your state's legislature the sole power to choose its Electoral College delegation. Article II says that each state shall appoint said delegation “in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct.” You are charged with selecting your state's electors for president of the United States. The U.S. Constitution specifically gives that power to you, and no one else. This means state legislators have complete power over how presidential elections are to be held in their states, too. If you feel that your legislature's constitutional prerogative to set election rules in your own state has been violated, you have the ability to rectify it. If Democrats made anti-democratic changes to your state's electoral process, seeking corrupt advantage, you can correct that. You need not bend to outside forces, civilian or governmental. Your branch of state government regulates your state's elections, and no one else. State legislatures may choose electors for Donald Trump because in their judgment President Trump is the legitimate winner in their state, or they may do so because they feel President Trump is the better choice. Both are constitutional, both are valid reasons. Therefore, Republican-controlled legislatures in AZ, NC, MI, GA, WI, and PA can decide that, in their best judgment, President Trump is the legitimate winner of their states' fraud-filled elections. Or, as has been done many times before in our history, state legislators have the power to simply overrule the voters if they believe the voters have chosen in error. The framers of the Constitution trusted you with that decision. You have that power. That’s the end of the letter. It should be in the wrap-up in its entirety, along with supporting documentation. Resources 1. Mark Levin, Nov. 6, 2020 “This is really the only place in the constitution where the framers of the constitution and the ratifiers go into the federal constitution and say not the state courts, not the federal courts, not the governor, not the bureaucracy, not congress, but the states are going to make the election laws on determining how to choose the electors for president of the United States.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b72yzm2rTI 2. Horowitz: How Republican-controlled state legislatures can rectify election fraud committed by courts and governors https://www.theblaze.com/op-ed/horowitz-state-legislatures-rectify-election-fraud 3. Majority Opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States, Bush v. Gore, 2000 “The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States unless and until the state legislature chooses a statewide election as the means to implement its power to appoint members of the electoral college. U.S. Const., Art. II, § 1. This is the source for the statement in McPherson v. Blacker, 146 U.S. 1, 35 (1892), that the state legislature's power to select the manner for appointing electors is plenary; it may, if it so chooses, select the electors itself, which indeed was the manner used by state legislatures in several States for many years after the framing of our Constitution. Id., at 28-33. History has now favored the voter, and in each of the several States the citizens themselves vote for Presidential electors. When the state legislature vests the right to vote for President in its people, the right to vote as the legislature has prescribed is fundamental; and one source of its fundamental nature lies in the equal weight accorded to each vote and the equal dignity owed to each voter. The State, of course, after granting the franchise in the special context of Article II, can take back the power to appoint electors. See id., at 35 ("'[T]here is no doubt of the right of the legislature to resume the power at any time, for it can neither be taken away nor abdicated'") (quoting S. Rep. No. 395, 43d Cong., 1st Sess.).” My grassroots Champions of the Constitution network - now in 13 states - recently pushed back against a tweet from the Gravel Institute which asked:
The Institute advocates for direct democracy through national referendums, even though direct democracy has a history of descending into mob rule that tramples over the individual and takes away individual rights. The Institute also supports defunding the police and destroying capitalism through socialism (i.e., “democratizing ownership”) and wealth redistribution. Before you take the Gravel Institute’s notions too seriously, you should know it’s being run by college kids. The chairman is a math student at Columbia University. The finance director is another student at Columbia who is 20 years old. The operations director apparently is the most august of the bunch, having earned a political science degree from American University in 2018. The pages for the latter two are deleted from the Institute’s website now, but the Google entries document these facts (see below). We know the chairman is a college student because he said as much. So these are the youngsters who, in addition to destroying the police and free enterprise, want to destroy the Constitution because, in their words, it “sucks”. They want to break the social contract and destroy America. They don’t want America; they want something else. And I’m supposed to listen to college kids with zero real-life experience and throw out the oldest written Constitution in the world that has stood the test of time? When did freedom become a bad idea? It didn’t, unless you think it’s a good idea to live in tyranny. When did a tradition of individual rights that can’t be negated by direct democracy become a bad idea? It didn’t, unless you think it’s a good idea to trample over the individual and not allow people to speak their minds. When did separation of powers and limited government become a bad idea? They didn’t, unless you think turning everything over to a tiny socialist elite who are only in it for wealth and power for themselves is a good idea. Unconstrained total government? That didn’t work out so well in the 20th century, did it. Apparently, the august peers of the Gravel Institute who were barely out of diapers when the 20th century ended missed a few things in their college education. Maybe they should watch a few more Prager U videos to get up to speed with the rest of us. Nothing against 20-year-olds, but I don’t want them deciding what kind of country we’re going to have, at least not until they’ve studied every constitution in history like the Founders did. But here’s the point for right-minded folks: The Gravel Institute’s tweet has over 38,000 ‘likes’ as of this writing. That’s 38,000 people who hate the Constitution and all it stands for. If the political Right wants freedom, free enterprise, limited government, and individual rights to endure, it has to do a much better job of propagating and defending its ideas. (comments from Champions of the Constitution members at the website) Colorado Votes Against Self-Interest, Signs Up to be Ruled by New York City and Los Angeles11/11/2020
Colorado joins National Popular Vote Compact to do away with the Electoral College; Compact now has 196 out of 270 electoral votes needed
https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/11/05/colorado-joins-states-pledging-to-surrender-electoral-votes-to-winner-of-popular-vote/ 1A: Nicholls College backs down from claiming College Republicans broke state law - by writing ‘MAGA’ in chalk on sidewalk - after receiving warning from Louisiana Attorney General https://thenewamerican.com/college-republicans-claim-victory-after-persecution-by-left/ 1A: Criminal conviction reversed because it may have been based on protected speech ‘I love ISIS’ and ‘Black/Indian lives don’t matter’ and not just on threats to "shoot up the building" (Michigan Court of Appeals) https://reason.com/volokh/2020/11/05/i-%e2%9d%a4-isis-bin-laden-confederate-flag-black-indian-lives-dont-matter/ 1A: computer code can be protected speech and state law compelling what it must say can violate the First Amendment (federal judge, Arizona) https://reason.com/volokh/2020/11/05/the-first-amendment-and-mandated-creation-of-computer-code/ 1A Free Press: Radical Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel goes after journalist who reported on how poll workers were trained to commit voter fraud (how to lie, fend off Trump supporters, call 911 on challengers, and use COVID as an excuse to deny challengers access) https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/huge-exclusive-michigan-ag-dana-nessel-sends-cease-desist-order-journalist-demanding-erase-detroitleaks-video-showing-voter-fraud-training-face-criminal-prosecution/ 1A: Mississippi public school gets sued for barring third-grader from wearing ‘Jesus Loves Me’ COVID mask https://freebeacon.com/campus/public-school-faces-lawsuit-over-ban-on-religious-masks/ 1A: federal judge greenlights suit against public schools that banned t-shirts indirectly supporting gun rights https://reason.com/volokh/2020/11/09/lawsuit-over-schools-restriction-on-pro-gun-shirts-can-go-forward/ 2A: gun control advocates spend big but fail to block Montana referendum barring localities from restricting gun rights https://freebeacon.com/2020-election/pro-gun-montana-ballot-referendum-passes-despite-millions-spent-by-gun-control-activists/ 2A: Michigan Supreme Court to hear challenge to University of Michigan’s ban on gun possession on campus https://reason.com/volokh/2020/11/09/michigan-s-ct-will-decide-whether-the-second-amendment-applies-at-public-universities/ 4A: digital anal exam, two scope exams, X-ray, and enema was a perfectly fine way to execute a search warrant for hidden drugs (6th Circuit) https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/20a0351p-06.pdf 5A Eminent Domain: it sure looks like a taking, but it was done by an HOA under state law. No state action, no taking (9th Circuit) https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2020/11/05/18-17320.pdf “First, Sixth Amendments Require Allowing TV Coverage of Derek Chauvin Trial” - that’s what a “public trial” in the COVID era requires https://reason.com/volokh/2020/11/06/first-sixth-amendments-require-allowing-tv-coverage-of-derek-chauvin-trial/ 6A: if you flee to Brazil to avoid capture, you can’t very well argue 11-year delay violates your speedy trial rights (2nd Circuit) https://ij.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Second-Circuit-B.pdf Shame! on New York Times journalist and 1619 Project writer Nikole Hannah-Jones for saying she doesn’t understand her father’s patriotism or why he flew the American flag outside her childhood home. This country’s been very good to you, you ingrate! I deeply resent your 1619 Project attempting to turn the rest of us into second-class citizens. https://thevirginiastar.com/2020/11/09/1619-project-writer-nikole-hannah-jones-says-american-flag-outside-childhood-home-embarrassed-her/ Out of the Mouths of Babes: “The Constitution Sucks” - Champions of the Constitution Push Back on the Gravel Institute
http://www.liberato.us/pushback-network.html Discrimination: California voters have likely rejected affirmative action in education, government employment, and contracting https://reason.com/volokh/2020/11/04/california-voters-reject-race-sex-ethnic-preferences-in-government-employment-education-and-contracting/ Separation of Powers: federal judge denies landlords’ request for injunction against CDC eviction moratorium; evictions would lead to COVID-risky overcrowded housing and CDC merely extended a congressional moratorium that expired in July https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-29/landlords-denied-injunction-against-cdc-eviction-moratorium Emergency Powers: California judge enjoins Governor Gavin Newsom from issuing COVID orders that alter state statutes or create new ones https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/judge-rules-ca-gov-overstepped-authority-covid-order-issues-permanent-injunction-restraining-newsom-issuing-unconstitutional-orders/ 2A: “Michigan Judge Blocks Ban On Open Carry Of Guns At Polls On Election Day” https://www.theepochtimes.com/judge-overturns-michigan-ban-on-open-carry-weapons-at-polling-places_3556145.html 1A: Fifth Circuit allows challenge to UTexas loosey-goosey speech code because code chills speech while pretending to promote free speech https://reason.com/volokh/2020/10/28/fifth-circuit-speaks-out-against-campus-speech-codes-in-university-of-texas-case/ 1A: Houston concedes its law allowing only registered Houston voters to circulate ballot petitions is unconstitutional (5th Circuit) http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/19/19-20828-CV0.pdf Freedom of Expression: Egyptian president Sisi says free expression stops when it offends Muslims. Not under our system. With our First Amendment, Islam stops at free speech. https://www.jihadwatch.org/2020/11/egypts-sisi-freedom-of-expression-stops-when-it-comes-to-offending-the-feelings-of-muslims Free Expression: PragerU videos banned at Ohio high school for being too right-wing https://www.toledoblade.com/education/2020/11/03/maumee-schools-organizes-workgroup-vet-curriculum-and-resources
https://lawliberty.org/critical-race-theory-or-civil-rights-law-we-cant-have-both/ Electoral College: National Popular Vote Compact would require impossible national ballot recounts https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/29/electoral-college-recount-meltdown/ Shame! on Senator Edward Markey for his nonsense that originalism is racist, sexist, blah, blah, blah. How about we stop taking an originalist view of Article I and do away with his Senate seat? We need a living, breathing Constitution now more than ever. https://www.mrctv.org/blog/ma-senator-ed-markey-constitution-originalism-racist-sexist-homophobic Strange as it may sound, there is no right to vote in federal elections expressly stated in the text of the original Constitution. The reason appears to be that the Founders were nervous about democracy descending into mob rule and the majority voting to take away the rights of the minority. At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, James Madison expressed the view that “the freeholders of the country would be the safest depositories of republican liberty.” In other words, Madison believed that people who owned land free and clear would be better guarantors of minority rights than other people would be, better able to stop the tyranny of the majority.
Madison’s view was on the wrong side of history. Voting rights steadily broadened in the country and several constitutional amendments just assume the right to vote exists, for example the 19th Amendment broadening the vote to women and the 26th Amendment lowering the voting age to 18. The U.S. Supreme Court has long deemed the right to vote to be a fundamental right. In 1886, the Court said the right to vote is fundamental because voting preserves all other rights. [Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 1886]. In cases in the 1960s, the Court wrote that the right to vote is essential in a democratic society and restrictions on it strike at the heart of representative government. [e.g., Reynolds v. Sims, 1964] Because the right to vote is considered fundamental in Supreme Court jurisprudence, restrictions on voting must meet strict scrutiny, the highest judicial standard applied to rights. The government must have a compelling interest and the restriction must be narrowly tailored to achieve that interest. There is concern, coming from the Left, that the right to vote - not expressly stated in the Constitution and reliant on the Supreme Court’s good will - is on shaky ground. They cite laws passed by the Republicans in North Carolina cutting back on early voting, curbing voter-registration drives by private groups, eliminating same-day registration, and imposing voter ID rules. Restrictions of this magnitude would be intolerable if imposed, say, on free speech or freedom of religion, they argue, but the Supreme Court opened the door for them when it stopped federal supervision of elections in southern states in 2013. [Shelby County v. Holder] There is even an organized effort called FairVote to get a constitutional amendment explicitly guaranteeing an individual right to vote. If you take a look at FairVote’s board, you will find lots of connections to left-wing groups and causes, even a tie to George Soros’ Open Society Foundation. So you know they’re up to no good, but here are some what-if’s to ponder: What if the Democrats succeed, one day, in taking the House, the Senate, and the White House, then proceed to pack the Supreme Court? What if the permanent leftist majority on the expanded Supreme Court decides the right to vote isn’t deserving of strict scrutiny after all? What if the new majority starts upholding laws in blue state restricting the rights of Tea Partiers and others on the political Right to hold voter registration drives and knock on doors for candidates? What the Supreme Court giveth, the Supreme Court can take away. I’d be tempted to say a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to vote would be in order, but I already know it would become the source of boundless mischief by the Left. 5A Property: More landlords litigate CDC’s COVID eviction ban
https://www.theepochtimes.com/cdc-sued-over-unconstitutional-nationwide-eviction-ban_3553564.html 1A: 6th Circuit strikes down public transit ban on ‘political’ ads as unworkable and viewpoint discrimination (anti-Islam ad at issue) https://reason.com/2020/10/23/sixth-circuit-strikes-down-transportation-agencys-exclusion-on-political-ads-and-ones-that-scorn-or-ridicule/ 1A: despite First Amendment wins at some colleges, others continue to impinge on free speech rights https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/10/22/free-speech-won-at-colleges-in-california-and-ohio-it-should-in-georgia-too/ 1A Religion: school rule barring students from all extracurricular activities for religiously motivated hairstyles poses free exercise of religion problems (5th Circuit) http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/19/19-40776-CV0.pdf Free Expression: giving in to the impulse to censor ‘error’ would mean no one, to this day, could say ‘the earth is round’ https://lawliberty.org/collisions-with-error/ 1A Religion: Colorado churches prevail in court against their state’s COVID restrictions https://www.oann.com/colo-churches-win-lawsuit-against-covid-19-restrictions/ Electoral College: “The Founders did not create the Electoral College for the purpose of bolstering the power of slave states, nor did it have the effect of doing so.” Slave states voted against it. https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/10/23/the-electoral-college-didnt-protect-slavery/ State Constitution: state statute which creates irrebuttable presumption sex offenders will reoffend violates due process and reputation rights https://reason.com/2020/10/25/pennsylvania-sex-offender-registry-act-unconstitutional-as-applied-to-low-risk-non-sex-offender/ Nationwide Injunctions: handing out nationwide injunctions like candy usurps legislative powers and short-circuits the process of similar cases percolating through the circuit courts of appeal before Supreme Court challenge https://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/ninth-circuit-judge-ryan-nelson-on-limiting-nationwide-injunctions/ Shame! on Joe Biden for saying America is an ‘idea we never lived up to’. He is showing us he is captured by the deliberately concocted ‘400 years of racism’ narrative dialectic pushed by people who want to destroy fidelity to American values so they can seize power for themselves and impose their tyranny on us. #NameTheGameAndTheGameBlowsUp https://www.mrctv.org/blog/biden-says-america-was-idea-we-never-lived Lawsuit Against Seattle for Supporting Autonomous Zone Moves Forward (Constitution news round-up)10/21/2020
5A: Residents’ lawsuit against Seattle for affirmatively supporting lawless autonomous zone is allowed to proceed; property rights and due process violations at issue.
https://reason.com/2020/10/20/property-owners-lawsuit-against-seattle-over-its-toleration-of-the-chop-takeover-can-go-forward/ LGBT Wars: “Trump Admin Resolves Transgender Athletes Case in Favor of Conservative Women’s Group” https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-admin-resolves-transgender-athletes-case-in-favor-of-conservative-womens-group_3543108.html + https://www.mrctv.org/blog/nh-school-nixes-policy-allowing-male-trans-students-compete-against-women-after-pressure-trump 1A: student radio station manager sues Arizona State University over removal, alleges free speech violation https://downtowndevil.com/blaze-radio-station-manger-files-a-lawsuit-against-asu-for-a-violation-of-free-speech/ 1A Religion: Federal judge temporarily blocks enforcement of Colorado’s COVID restrictions against church that was treated differently from similarly situated institutions https://reason.com/2020/10/20/colorado-coronavirus-response-unconstitutionally-restricted-religious-institutions-holds-federal-judge/ 4A: court allows use of investigative lead generated by facial recognition software where it won’t be the basis for testimony at trial (NY trial court) https://reason.com/2020/10/14/ok-to-use-evidence-indirectly-obtained-using-facial-recognition-software/ Title IX: "[P]laintiff has ... made a sufficient showing that defendant has threatened his academic future in violation of his rights to equal treatment regardless of his sex ...." (federal judge in New York) https://reason.com/2020/10/16/interesting-new-title-ix-sexual-assault-hearing-sex-discrimination-opinion/ Affirmative Action: “Black applicants to Yale University are up to eight times more likely to be admitted than Asian applicants with the same level of academic skill”; Justice Department on the case https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/data-reveal-how-yale-discriminates-based-on-race/ 14A: Kentucky abortion regulations not an ‘undue burden’ on abortion rights, 6th Circuit panel concludes https://reason.com/2020/10/18/divided-sixth-circuit-upholds-kentucky-abortion-regulations/ Shame! Radical leftists attacking the 4th of July, seeking to replace it with Juneteenth https://www.thepostemail.com/2020/10/19/the-lefts-attack-on-the-fourth-of-july/ |