Category Archives: Law

Business, Economics, Law, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

Mark Sundahl

32 Comments

He’s going to be on The Space Show in a few minutes (2 PM PDT), talking about space law and space property rights. I’ll be interested to hear what he has to say.

BTW, just turned in the proposal to NASA this morning, so I’m sort of decompressing.

[Update a few minutes later]

Welp, five minutes past, and so far he’s a no show.

[Update a couple minutes later]

OK, sounds like they’re about to start now.

[Update toward the end]

Nice to hear him endorse the multilat idea I’ve been (and will continue to be) promoting.

Law, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

“Deviated”

8 Comments

The Horowitz report is out, and (as predicted) it looks pretty bad for the FBI and DOJ. And Comey.

[Friday update at noon]

Three big takeaways from the report. It’s a big report, and there will be a lot of cherry picking by both sides.

[Update a while later]

The report shows that the fix was in from the beginning for the email investigation. Well, duh.

[Saturday-morning update]

Mollie Hemingway read the whole report so you don’t have to.

Business, Law, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Masterpiece Cakeshop

14 Comments

Thoughts from Mark Randazza:

Ultimately, in this case, nobody really “won.” The baker “wins” because technically he “won.” But, all he “won” was the right to have the charges brought against him without the administrative panel making snarky comments about his religious beliefs.

The cause of gay rights was not advanced at all. And, the real issue here — the First Amendment issue, is not being addressed at all — except in a pretty damn good concurrence by Justice Thomas, joined by Justice Gorsuch. (Starts on Page 38 of 59) His concurrence is, of course, foreshadowing either the majority or the minority when this case finally comes to a head. Thomas (I believe correctly) says that designing a wedding cake is no mere act of throwing eggs and flour into a bowl – but is full of artistic creativity. Harnessing (or enslaving) an artist to create that which he does not wish to create is a travesty against the First Amendment.

Yes, that is the argument, despite the continuing nonsense about how it was “discriminating against gays” (I got into a Twitter discussion with an idiot about this yesterday). And SCOTUS punted on the underlying issue. It’s not just a travesty against the First Amendment, but tyrannical.

[Thursday-afternoon update]

One of the legal team who defended Phillips explains why it’s not as much of a nothingburger as some are saying.

[Bumped]

Law, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society

Climate Change

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It has (finally) run its course:

A good indicator of why climate change as an issue is over can be found early in the text of the Paris Agreement. The “nonbinding” pact declares that climate action must include concern for “gender equality, empowerment of women, and intergenerational equity” as well as “the importance for some of the concept of ‘climate justice.’ ” Another is Sarah Myhre’s address at the most recent meeting of the American Geophysical Union, in which she proclaimed that climate change cannot fully be addressed without also grappling with the misogyny and social injustice that have perpetuated the problem for decades.

The descent of climate change into the abyss of social-justice identity politics represents the last gasp of a cause that has lost its vitality. Climate alarm is like a car alarm—a blaring noise people are tuning out.

On the other hand, next month will be the sixth anniversary of the blog post that Michael Mann is suing me for. It’s been almost a year and a half since we requested an en banc rehearing of our appeal in the case to the DC court of appeals, with no response.

History, Law, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Presidential Pardon Power

I was arguing about this on Twitter this weekend. Yes, Trump can pardon himself. There is nothing in Article II to prevent it, other than in the case of impeachment.

Here’s the funny thing, though. Because Barack Obama didn’t pardon himself before he left office, he is now subject to prosecution for acts of abuse of power while he was president. Of course, Trump could pardon him. But why would he?