Tag Archives: supreme court
Nasty Free Speech
The creeps who protest at the funerals of dead soldiers appeared before the Supreme Court on Wednesday. They were sued by the father of Matthew Snyder, a marine whose funeral they picketed. The protesters are led by a preacher named Fred Phelps. Their beef is with homosexuality and they claim that dead soldiers are God’s punishment. The thing is, unless the Supreme Being files a brief, they may be well within their rights. A 1988 court ruling, Hustler Magazine v. Falwell, unanimously upheld the right to nasty speech unless it can be proven false.
USA Today has a complete story with video.
Voltwagon
Fredrich Hayek’s 1944 classic Road to Serfdom has become a best seller again. He said that governments tend to plan production for political, rather than market, purposes. Government owned GM’s new Volt costs $41,000, runs on a battery, and gets 40 miles per charge.
Diversity
Kathleen Parker noticed that if Kagan is confirmed all three women justices will be from New York.
Empathy for the Court
David Souter says he’s retiring from the Supreme Court and President Obama is looking for an empathetic replacement .
There is a new Hate Crimes bill before Congress.
I’m not sure exactly which groups won’t make the cut for hate protection under this law but I’m guessing things might go harder on you if you shoot up a gay wedding than if you take out, say, a gang of global warming deniers. Given the coming need to sort out all our guilty thoughts, it’s not hard to figure Obama’s emphasis on empathy.
Nat Hentoff hates hate crimes laws here. Meanwhile, here is Thomas Sowell’s expression of his lack of sympathy for empathy.
