News & Media
Online "dating" catches on among newlyweds
By J. DeVoy Via Roissy (I don’t care what he’s calling himself these days), Ashley Madison – the online dating service specializing in matching married men and married women – has had a membership explosion in the Toronto area. Sexually frustrated and a little lonely, the 25-year-old started Googling “sex club” and “swingers club” before stumbling upon AshleyMadison.com, advertised as a “discreet dating service” for people in relationships. Like most Torontonians, Susan, who did not want her real name used, heard about it before. Three months and more than a 1,000 profiles later, she sat at the bar at a
Explaining the college admissions gender gap
By J. DeVoy Noted at Overlawyered, the University of Florida’s freshman class has 3 females for every 2 males. Most men would like those odds, but then again most men are listless betas shut out of the “dating scene” (i.e. casual sex market), and cannot fathom using this gender ratio to access the top-shelf stuff. When asked about this disparity, a spokesman had this to say: “Girls are being admitted because they are doing the things to be admitted and boys aren’t.” Though possibly true, blaming males is becoming passé. From colonialism to being presumptive rapists – and, the more intelligent,
Wisconsin DA threatens charges over sex education
By J. DeVoy The District Attorney for Juneau County, Wisconsin, has threatened to bring charges against teachers who inform students of reproductive options other than abstinence. Scott Southworth – whom you can contact here – wrote a letter to Juneau County’s teachers, warning them of the consequences for following a law requiring them to discuss condoms and contraceptives. “If a teacher instructs any student aged 16 or younger how to utilize contraceptives under circumstances where the teacher knows the child is engaging in sexual activity with another child – or even where the ‘natural and probable consequences’ of the teacher’s
Applause for Spirit Airlines for charging for carry on bags
Spirit Airlines is taking a lot of heat for its latest move — charging for carry on bags. I will not add to that heat. In fact, I applaud them. It is moronic to charge for checked bags while allowing passengers to bring on free carry on bags. Think about what you want from a flight, and what kind of behavior that you incentivize by giving free overhead bin space. Have you ever sat on the tarmac, waiting for a plane to take off because some stupid prole can’t figure out how to cram a 75 pound floral-print full sized
Naughty Teenagers
by Charles Platt Since “protecting our children” became a reliable mantra for DAs seeking re-election at some time during the Reagan administration, the horrors of statutory rape and child pornography have justified countless legislative excesses. Unfortunately such laws conflict with the inconvenient biological fact that most young people become capable of reproducing around the ages of 12 or 13. Age-of-consent laws used to recognize this. (In the text below I am talking primarily about teenagers having sex with each other and taking pictures of each other, not adults taking advantage of children, which is, or should be, an entirely separate
A funderemployment primer
By J. DeVoy [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAs2EXsHfMg&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Metalocalypse is one of my favorite shows* for many reasons, among them being its extreme social commentary. The music video, while graphic, invokes themes that have been addressed in mainstream offerings like Office Space and The Office, such as the futility of working jobs we hate and the soul-killing duplicity that corporate advancement entails. In light of this message and increasing internet chatter about “going Galt” due to inevitable tax increases, many are questioning whether the rat race of an aggressively upward mobile career is for them. For recent college and law school graduates, opportunities to
Law School Relegation
by Christopher Harbin European Soccer Leagues have a concept called relegation. Teams that are in the bottom of the standings get punted down to the second-class league for the entire next season. Similarly, top performers in the second-league get promoted to the top-flight league. Imagine if the loathsome Yankees royally sucked one season and had to spend their next season in Triple-A (or should it be AAA? Class-AAA?) facing off against the Durham Bulls and Toledo Mud Hens. Law school already has a system of promotion by allowing top performing law students to transfer “up” after their first year. But
My First Earthquake
I guess there have been other earthquakes since I’ve been out west, but I never really noticed them. Today was a little different. My chair started bouncing up and down, and I thought that the dog was jumping on the back of the chair. Then I noticed that the windows were waving in and out, everything on the shelves was shaking, and there was a really strange noise outside. Funny enough, I had just finished watching 2012 about 15 minutes earlier. I am sure that seasoned Californians laughed this one off. But, I ran to grab Jennifer from the shower,
Seizures (not the epileptic kind)
by Charles Platt I have no formal legal training, but emigrated from the UK to the US partly because I liked the First Amendment. The wisdom of my decision was affirmed when an erotic novel that I had written in 1969 was seized, in Britain, by the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the publisher was jailed for three months. That kind of thing tends to stick in one’s memory. Subsequently, I wrote a nonfiction book titled Anarchy Online, examining and defending every type of internet freedom. These days, I am more interested in writing educational material for young people, such
Sexting Story on Nightline
A high school kid forwarded nude photos of his 16 year old girlfriend to some friends. For that, a dipshit prosecutor decided that Philip Alpert needed to be charged with 72 sex crimes, and that he should be on the registered sex offender list. Here is his story. The prosecutor is quoted as saying that he had no other option. Of course he did… he exercised his discretion not to prosecute the 16 year old girl, but decided that his ego couldn’t survive letting Philip get away without being charged. My former partner, and good friend, Larry Walters is Philip’s
No One Has The Right To Live Without Being Shocked
Of course, don’t let any of the academic circle-jerk (The U.S. legal academy) hear you say that. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ3VcbAfd4w&feature=player_embedded] H/T: Marc D.
And this is who Jesus allegedly died for?!
By J. DeVoy A Florida man recently pled no contest to five misdemeanor theft counts arising from his theft of food from various restaurants and stores. Though spared jail time, the court required the defendant, George Jolicoeur, to pay court costs and restitution. This conduct was hardly new for Jolicoeur, who had been grifting free food from businesses for years. A Seminole County Sheriff’s Officer report details an August 2007 incident in which Jolicoeur attempted a refund scam at a 7-Eleven. Jolicoeur, described as having “labored breathing, similar to wheezing,” claimed to have purchased $50 worth of beef jerky that turned out to
NPR Story on SLAPP Suits
I was interviewed on the subject of SLAPP suits by Nazanin Rafsanjani. The interview is available here.
Congress Weighs Law Against Some Lawsuits
Discusses the Federal Anti-SLAPP legislation pending before the House of Representatives. Transcript available here. The Citizen Participation Act, which would introduce anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) remedies in Federal law if adopted, is designed to deter lawsuits filed to silence critics of powerful entities.Read more…
Happy "Good" Friday
Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man, living in the sky, who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of 10 things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these 10 things, he has a special place full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish where he will send *you* to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever til the end of time…but he loves you.” — George Carlin According to
Hope and change in the face of rejection
By J. DeVoy Not an April Fool’s joke — just a good, if trite, op-ed from Susan Estrich, with whom I normally disagree. From law school and college students facing graduation just weeks away to applicants who are realizing for the first time that their best isn’t good enough, there’s something for everyone. I know that no one gets all Aces, that life is rarely a straight flush, beginning to end, and that what matters most is not the cards you are dealt but how you play them. A charmed childhood is no guarantee of a charmed life, and learning
Rep. Steve Cohen with more badassery!
hot on the heels of being named a Legal Satyricon First Amendment Bad Ass for introducing Federal Anti-Slapp legislation, Rep. Cohen gives a shout out to Alex Chilton, may he rest in slack. [YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9LGwzGnx5w&sns=em]
Majority of Tea Party movement is female
By J. DeVoy New facts about the Tea Party movement emerge in a recent Quinnipiac University poll. 74 percent are Republicans or independent voters leaning Republican; 16 percent are Democrats or independent voters leaning Democratic; 5 percent are solidly independent; 45 percent are men; 55 percent are women; 88 percent are white; 77 percent voted for Sen. John McCain in 2008; 15 percent voted for President Barack Obama
Garcetti v. Ceballos potentially subsumes public employees' First Amendment rights
By J. DeVoy Public employees in political jobs often walk a difficult line when they speak about current affairs. Historically, this speech was protected by the Pickering-Connick test, established in Pickering v. Board of Education of Township High School District, 391 U.S. 563 (1968), and Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138 (1983). Under that test, courts engaged in a two-step inquiry: First, whether the employee’s speech was a matter of public concern based on its content, form and context, and Second, if the speech was a matter of public concern, if the public employer had an adequate justification for treating