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November 2014

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on November 07, 2014 24 Comments
Here's a feel good story to wrap up the week. Usually people robbed at gun point aren't too keen to get to know the guy that shoved a gun in their face, much less offer what could be life altering help. These homeowners however see the entire situation differently. KHOU Houston reports (emphasis added):
BUNKER HILL VILLAGE, Texas – Police have released composite sketches of the suspects wanted for terrorizing a Bunker Hill family during a home invasion last month. They pretended to be delivering packages to the home in the 11800 block of Redcoat Lane so a housekeeper opened the door. That's when two gunmen, wearing black ski masks and gloves, forced their way inside the home. "She thought they were delivery people," said the homeowner who didn't want to give her name. "When she opened the door, they pulled a gun on her and they locked her in the bathroom. They spoke to her in Spanish." The homeowner arrived in the middle of the robbery and a third suspect was waiting outside in a white SUV. "When my husband showed up, they pulled a gun on him and told him he had to open the safe," said the wife.... A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of these suspects. The victims are also making an unusual offer if the suspects turn themselves in.

Posted by Amy Miller on November 07, 2014 12 Comments
Republicans walloped Democrats on Tuesday night, gaining control of the Senate and substantial pickups on the state and local level---but national groups aren't even close to calling it a day. The NRSC and RNC are currently organizing staff from across the country for a mass deployment to Louisiana to help resolve December's runoff election for U.S. Senate between incumbent Democrat Mary Landrieu, and breakthrough challenger Bill Cassidy. Neither Cassidy nor Landrieu managed to secure the votes of a majority of Louisianans, and national groups are counting on the volunteer efforts of seasoned campaign staff and operatives to secure the election for Cassidy. From this morning's RNC e-mail blast:
We had great, historic Republican victories on Election Day. But here's the deal: there is still ONE key Senate seat left to win — Louisiana. Only 1% - just 16,400 votes - separated the Democrat incumbent from the Republican frontrunner in the Louisiana Senate race on Tuesday. And now they're in a neck-and-neck runoff race. This weekend, the RNC is sending hundreds of our staffers into Louisiana. We must secure ONE more seat to strengthen our newly won Senate majority, so we can stop President Obama's radical agenda and enact pro-jobs, pro-growth policies. President Obama and Senate Democrats are not happy about Tuesday's results. They are pouring in resources to hold onto this final seat and keep liberal Senator Mary Landrieu in office. The RNC is ready for the challenge — but we need you to stand with us one more time.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on November 07, 2014 9 Comments
Concern about the administration's handing of the global Ebola crisis was a contributing factor in the Republican success across the country in Tuesday's election; polls indicated Americans were more worried about the lack of a comprehensive response than they were about immigration and same-sex marriage. It is likely this concern will remain for quite some time, especially as Americans returning from Africa are still being impacted by this pathogen.
The Iowa Department of Public Health said Thursday that 13 travelers who were in West African countries are being monitored in Iowa for Ebola. The travelers were in Sierra Leone, Liberia or Guinea in the last 21 days and are now in Iowa. Twelve had low risk of having been exposed to Ebola in those countries health officials said, so they are being allowed to resume normal activities. IDPH has ordered them to take their temperature twice a day and report their health status to public health. One person had some risk of being exposed to Ebola, and has been quarantined. The person was told to stay at home and take their temperature twice daily, including at least once with a public health official observing.
Let's hope the quarantined Iowan takes the situation more seriously than the Maine nurse who fought against restrictions based on public health concerns. Meanwhile, one of the nurses who contracted the deadly virus while treating America's patient zero, Thomas Duncan, is mystified as to how she became infected and resents being thrown under the bus after she boarded a flight to Ohio:

Posted by Mike LaChance on November 07, 2014 6 Comments
I don't know about you, but I look forward to many more moments like this in the coming weeks. White House spokesman Josh Earnest was grilled by the White House press pool to admit that the midterms were bad for Democrats and a good laugh was had by all. The Washington Free Beacon reported:
White House Spin on Midterms Leaves Reporters in Disbelief The White House is still reeling from Tuesday’s elections, and has continued to deflect any questions on the subject. Press Secretary Josh Earnest did his best to keep the mood light and respond to the press Thursday, however, his audience was not impressed. “Would you say that Tuesday night was a big loss for Democrats?” a reporter asked. To the dismay of his audience, Earnest declined to answer directly since it would not be appropriate for him to offer any sort of “punditry.” “There are lots of people who get paid a lot more money than I do, who are responsible for offering up analysis and spinning the elections,” Earnest said. “I’m not going to do that.”
Watch and enjoy: As I said, I look forward to more of this.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 07, 2014 1 Comment
The American Studies Association annual meeting, which started yesterday, had a panel of faculty opposed to the ASA's anti-Israel academic boycott. That panel came against the backdrop of ASA being forced to abandon its previous written policy of excluding representatives of Israeli academic institutions under threat of legal action against the hosting hotel. Apparently, the anti-BDS panel's mere existence was upsetting to some boycott supporters, including Micki McGee of Fordham, who was in the spotlight when she filed a university religious discrimination complaint against a fellow professor who objected to the boycott. Fordham rejected the charge. Inside Higher Ed reports:
It was just the first day of the American Studies Association’s annual meeting here Thursday, but tensions surrounding the organization’s year-old academic boycott of Israel were already flaring. The flashpoint was an anti-boycott panel that sought to explore such questions as the role of political ideology in academic debate, whether the Israel-Palestine conflict is within the purview of the ASA, and whether academic boycotts are a legitimate means to political ends. But while some attendees said they appreciated the panelists' thoughts, others accused them of perpetuating a “for” or “against” line of thinking they said has done irreparable damage to the discipline.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 07, 2014 26 Comments
The issue of subsidies on the federal exchange has been accepted by the Supreme Court. Scotusblog reports:
The Supreme Court, moving back into the abiding controversy over the new health care law, agreed early Friday afternoon to decide how far the federal government can extend its program of subsidies to buyers of health insurance. At issue is whether the program of tax credits applies only in the consumer marketplaces set up by 16 states, and not at federally-run sites in 34 states. Rather than waiting until Monday to announce its action, which would be the usual mode at this time in the Court year, the Justices released the order granting review of King v. Burwell not long after finishing their closed-door private Conference. By adding the case to its decision docket at this point, without waiting for further action in lower federal courts, as the Obama administration had asked, the Court assured that it would rule on the case during the current Term. If it confines the subsidies to the state-run “exchanges,” it is widely understood that this would crash the Affordable Care Act’s carefully balanced economic arrangements.
We previously wrote about the King case, Whipsaw: 4th Circuit upholds Obamacare federal exchange subsidy after D.C. Circuit rejects:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 07, 2014 19 Comments
There have been few electoral races in which Legal Insurrection played a more decisive role than in the congressional race in my home district NY-23 this cycle. Martha Robertson was challenging incumbent Republican Tom Reed, who won the district in 2012 by about 4 points. Reed was considered vulnerable. Robertson was the promising star in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee candidate roster slated to take Reed out. Robertson earned the coveted "Red-to-Blue" designation, meaning that she was one of a small number of Democratic prospects to flip a Republican seat. Robertson was an Emily's List favorite. Money poured in to support Robertson. But Robertson's campaign never really got off the ground as she geared up in the fall of 2013. Our accurate and in depth reporting was a part of that failure. We exposed a false campaign fundraising solicitation that claimed GOP operatives tried to take down Robertson's website during a key fundraising period. That report, which Robertson struggled to deal with, haunted the Robertson campaign for the rest of the campaign. We exposed Robertson's history of supporting single-payer and plan to use Obamacare as the stepping stone. That is not a popular view in this district.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 07, 2014 34 Comments
Update 7 p.m.: It's official: In a second trail-blazing pick for the nation's top law enforcement officer, President Barack Obama intends to nominate the federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, New York, to become the next attorney general and the first black woman to lead the Justice Department. Obama's spokesman said Friday that he will announce his selection of Loretta Lynch from the White House on Saturday. If confirmed by the Senate, she would replace Eric Holder, who announced his resignation in September after serving as the nation's first black attorney general. --------------- I admit, I'm prejudiced in favor of Loretta Lynch, my law school classmate and then good acquaintance. Other than a brief encounter at a reunion, I have not had contact with her since 1984, but I've followed her career.  While there certainly is more research to be done, I never viewed her as politicized in her conduct as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. It is reported she will be nominated to replace Eric Holder:

Posted by Amy Miller on November 07, 2014 13 Comments
Back in early October, pundits and marriage activists on both sides of the issue were left stranded at a fork in the road after the Supreme Court declined to hear oral arguments on several high-profile gay marriage cases. Some lawyers, including myself, weren't particularly shocked by this given that there was no circuit split in the lower courts. The latest decision by the Sixth Circuit, then, could be a gamechanger. Yesterday, a three judge panel upheld same sex marriage bans in four states. The judges writing for the majority banked their opinion not on the merits of same sex marriage, but whether or not the decision to allow same sex marriage should be left to the states and the people, or to judges applying the Constitution generally. Now, we have a "circuit split," and an even greater likelihood that the Supremes will take on the issue and resolve the question. via SCOTUS Blog:
At this point, the decision conflicts directly with federal appeals courts in the Fourth, Seventh, Ninth, and Tenth Circuits — precisely the kind of division of judgment that ordinarily will lead the Supreme Court to step in to resolve the split, especially on an issue of fundamental constitutional significance. So far, the Court has passed up review of any of the lower-court decisions striking down state bans that it has considered, and it has even refused recently to put lower-court decisions on hold until appeals could be filed and decided by the Justices. In widely reported public comments, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has indicated that the main reason the Court had bypassed the cases up to this point was that there was no current split among the courts of appeals. Now there is a split, and it is a stark one. In one sweeping decision, the Sixth Circuit has given all of the states in its geographic region a victory for their bans on both initial marriages of same-sex couples and official recognition of such marriages performed outside of the couples’ home states. By contrast, other federal courts have nullified identical bans in thirteen states just over the past few months, with the prospect that the number would soon rise to sixteen — for a total of thirty-five states, plus Washington, D.C., allowing such marriages.

Posted by Amy Miller on November 07, 2014 8 Comments
For many living in states not called Texas, it might seem odd that a place most regard as the "reddest" state in the union would fight so hard to gain ground in traditionally-liberal districts. Isn't a solid governing majority and clean slate of statewide office holders enough? Not if you want to keep building. And build Texas has, by electing a full slate of Republicans on the statewide level, defeating Battleground Texas' initial efforts to elect a Democrat statewide, and making key inroads with both battleground districts and battleground demographics. Perhaps our most notable achievement this cycle was flipping Wendy Davis's Senate District, SD-10, in favor of Republicans. When Tea Party candidate Konni Burton first announced her candidacy for Davis's old seat, many wrote her off as a long-shot; on election night, however, she proved them wrong. Via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
“It’s hard to believe that over 20 months ago I started having conversations with conservatives across Tarrant County about the need for someone to challenge Wendy Davis,” Burton, a Colleyville conservative with Tea Party ties​, told about 300 supporters gathered at the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame. “We were all sick and tired of being represented by a liberal in Austin who didn’t reflect the conservative values of District 10.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 07, 2014 7 Comments

snookered...

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on November 06, 2014 31 Comments
Following an epic GOP whoopin' on Tuesday, the liberal media is in full pout mode. That the country would almost unilaterally reject President Obama's policies and a statist agenda is incomprehensible to some. There must be some other reason! Those that were kind enough to concede the shellacking tried their best to undermine its meaning. And so we present the 10 most delicious liberal election headline disasters. Extra credit to Salon who is kicking butt and taking names in the "Bitter Loser" category.

1. It was nice knowing you, polar bears.

Screen Shot 2014-11-06 at 5.53.49 PM

2. Hey, whatever helps you sleep at night.

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Posted by Amy Miller on November 06, 2014 11 Comments
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was passed in an effort to reform the finance and governance structures in corporate America. Although the language of the Act is notoriously broad, it has mostly been applied to those in the corporate world who make missteps during investigations into their financial practices. Then, of course, there are times when white collar crime statutes are used to prosecute fishermen who throw back undersized fish. In 2007, a search of the Miss Katie fishing vessel revealed that the crew had caught and retained 72 undersized red grouper. The vessel's owner, John Yates, was cited, and told to take the 72 grouper to port for seizure. Instead, Yates put the fish back in the water and replaced them with bigger fish. A port inspection revealed only 69 undersized fish, leading to officials' discovery of what Yates had done. Prosecutors indicted and convicted Yates under a provision of Sarbanes-Oxley that provides a maximum punishment of up to 20 years for the destruction of “any record, document or tangible object” in order to obstruct an investigation. The case wound its way through the system before landing on the dias at the Supreme Court---and it looks like the entire panel is skeptical not of the prosecutor's classification of fish as "evidence," but of the prosecutor's decision to prosecute under Sarbanes-Oxley.

Posted by Amy Miller on November 06, 2014 15 Comments
Democrats who had hoped for at least a week to sleep off their election night hangovers are getting no rest after the latest disclosure of court documents by advocacy group Judicial Watch. Judicial Watch has spent a great deal of time and resources seeking information about the IRS targeting of conservative groups. In September, Judicial Watch asked the court for permission to conduct discovery into how "lost and/or destroyed" records might be recovered; the IRS is fighting transparency efforts, but their latest response to the discovery request contains inconsistencies that could pull the rug out from under IRS officials responsible for the cover up. Via Judicial Watch:
Judicial Watch lawyers reviewed the IRS court filings and concluded that the agency “did not undertake any significant efforts to obtain the emails.” IRS attorneys conceded that they had failed to search the agency’s servers for missing emails because they decided that “the servers would not result in the recovery of any information.” They admitted they had failed to search the agency’s disaster recovery tapes because they had “no reason to believe that the tapes are a potential source of recovering” the missing emails. And they conceded that they had not searched the government-wide back-up system because they had “no reason to believe such a system … even exists.”
But what's this? The inconvenient truth, documented for all time courtesy of court filings? [Emphasis in bold mine:]
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