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June 2016

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on June 21, 2016 16 Comments
Four gun control measures—two sponsored by Democrats, two by Republicans—failed in the Senate on Monday. USA Today provides a brief overview of each amendment (to a DOJ spending bill):
► An amendment by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., would allow the attorney general to deny a gun sale to anyone if she has a "reasonable belief" — a lesser standard than "probable cause" — that the buyer was likely to engage in terrorism. The proposal is popularly known as the "no-fly, no-buy" amendment, but wouldn't just apply to people on the "no fly" terrorist watch list. ► An Republican alternative by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, which would require that law enforcement be alerted when anyone on the terror watch list attempts to buy a weapon from a licensed dealer. If the buyer has been investigated for terrorism within the past five years, the attorney general could block a sale for up to three days while a court reviews the sale. ► An amendment by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, would make it more difficult to add mentally ill people to the background check database, giving people suspected of serious mental illness a process to challenge that determination.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 21, 2016 17 Comments
A Floridian woman shot and wounded a naked, poop-covered home invader Sunday night. 27-year-old Victor Etherington, who, according to deputies was intoxicated, demanded entry to an Ocala residence. The homeowner (name still unknown), not recognizing him, told him to leave. The poopetrator kicked in the door, prompting the woman to take refuge in her bedroom, grab a .22, and call 911. Etherington chased her upstairs, removed his soiled shorts and forced his way into the closet, and that's when the homeowner shot him once in the gut. When police arrived on the scene, they found Etherington in his birthday suit, bleeding, covered in poop, hiding behind the bedroom door.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on June 21, 2016 6 Comments
As the U.S. disengages from Latin America as part of President Obama’s broader policy of reducing American presence in the world, Iran is moving in fill parts of that geopolitical vacuum, says a report published by Washington D.C. based Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS). The report used documents and legal wiretaps related to the circumstance surrounding the death of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman who died of a bullet shot on January 19, 2015, a day before he was going to testify before Argentina’s Congress about Buenos Aires Jewish community center bombing carried out by Iranian terrorists. The report cited by the Wall Street Journal shows how the death of Argentine prosecutor “paved the way for [Iran] to move into a new phase of its information and intelligence operations in Latin America.” WSJ concluded that unfettered access for international financial system and assets worth $150 billion given to Iran as the result of Obama-Kerry Nuclear Deal “will increase Iran’s penetration of the Western Hemisphere.” The revelation comes just days after a senior Israeli diplomat in New Delhi warned of a concrete threat of Iran-sponsored terrorism targeting Israelis in India and abroad. In February 2012, Iranian terrorists carried out a bomb attack targeting Israeli mission in New Delhi.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on June 21, 2016 15 Comments
Imagine you're a real reporter—not a thinly-disguised member of the Dem cheerleading squad—and you had the opportunity to question President Obama's spokesman this morning. Wouldn't you have wanted to know the degree to which President Obama and his minions were complicit in the fiasco of the redaction of the Omar Mateern tapes, removing most of his proclamations of allegiance to ISIS, Allah, etc? But when the Morning Joe crew interviewed Josh Earnest, not a word about the Mateen tapes, or anything else that might have jostled Josh's feathers. To the contrary, the interview was one long set-up, giving Earnest the chance to sanctimonously wring his hands over the rejection by the Republican Senate of various gun control measures. Most bathetic of all was Mike Barnicle. Barnicle prefaced his question by saying "I'm going to ask you to do something that's probably difficult given your role as White House spokesperson." For a fleeting second one imagined Barnicle was about to challenge Earnest with an uncomfortable question. Hah! "Give us a feel for the president as a human being, okay? As a father, as a parent, as a citizen because we all know what happened in Orlando." Hard-hitting stuff, Mike!

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 21, 2016 31 Comments
A 19 year old man was arrested at a Trump rally in Las Vegas over the weekend when he tried to grab a gun from a police officer. The man, now identified as Michael Sandford, is originally from the UK and has admitted to authorities that his intention was to kill Donald Trump. The Daily Mail reports:
Protester, 20, grabbed a policeman's firearm at Las Vegas rally and said he wanted to KILL Donald Trump, after driving from California and learning how to shoot on a gun range the day before A British man arrested at a Donald Trump rally in Las Vegas told authorities he tried to grab an officer's gun so he could kill the billionaire Republican presidential candidate. Anti-Trump protester Michael Steven Sandford, 19, who appeared in court on Monday, even went to a gun range on Friday so he could learn how to shoot.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 21, 2016 3 Comments
Earlier this year, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs released a report on the so-called Knife Uprising (Intifada), The Knife and the Message: The Roots of the New Palestinian Uprising (pdf. version here). The report explored various aspects behind the Palestinian violence, which included shooting and car rammings, among other tactics, with a focus on knife stabbings. Children and young adults were both the target of incitement, and predictably therefore, the main participants in violence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qqyyM2R5Ms Here is an excerpt from the Executive Summary:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 20, 2016 22 Comments
There were two big developments today in the attempt to shut down debate about Islamic terrorism. First, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch fulfilled her promise to excise from the transcript of the Orlando terrorist's 911 police tape all references to Islam and ISIS. After intense and near universal criticism and mockery from across the political spectrum, DOJ relented and included the references. Second, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which the United Arab Emirites declared a terror group, released a report titled Confronting Fear: Islamophobia and its Impact on the U.S. 2013-2015. The Report, produced jointly with the U.C. Berkeley Center for Race and Gender, was published on a website run by CAIR called Islamophobia Monitor, with the url islamophobia.org. A pdf. of the report is here The report has a laundry list of groups that CAIR claims spread hate of Muslims, then combines their budgets for 20113-2015, and declares that $205,000,000 was spend promoting Islamophobia (emphasis mine):

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 20, 2016 11 Comments
Truly, the 21st century is not turning out as I envisioned. We have been closely following the #FlintWatercrisis. After relying on science, technology, and public policy for decades to guarantee safe drinking water, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency head Gina McCarthy just wrote a letter to Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and Flint Mayor Karen Weaver explaining why the region's water woes are going to continue into the foreseeable future.
...Among the problem areas identified by McCarthy:
  • Flint's water system is oversized for its current and projected water demand, leading to water not moving through the system as designed. This standing water in pipes can erode the residual chlorine that protects against pathogens.
  • "The water treatment plant is not adequately staffed, operated or administered to reliably deliver safe drinking water for years into the future," McCarthy stated. Additional "experienced and expert operators" and improved standard operating procedures and preventive and corrective maintenance programs are needed.
  • The EPA administrator also was critical of city leadership. "Flint needs a city administration that can provide stable, reliable and quick administrative support essential to a well-functioning drinking water system," she stated in her letter....
So while the EPA is struggling to deal with the lead in Flint's water system, another government agency has issued a troubling report on an aquatic contaminant that has become ubiquitous in the public water system: Synthetic estrogen from contraceptives.

Posted by Sarah Rumpf on June 20, 2016 9 Comments
Happy SCOTUS Opinion Day, Legal Insurrection readers! We've got several opinions coming out today. Still waiting for some of the most controversial ones -- three Texas cases dealing with abortion, affirmative action, and immigration -- but this morning's opinions cover some serious constitutional rights. In day's first opinion, Taylor v. United States, the Court continued to follow a broad interpretation of the Commerce Clause in ruling that it was proper for the federal government to prosecute a criminal defendant, David Taylor, who was part of a Virginia gang that robbed drug dealers. The crimes at issue were two home invasions that targeted marijuana dealers. Taylor and his fellow gang members demanded drugs and money from the occupants of the homes, but in both cases, walked away without any drugs and only a small amount of money, jewelry, cell phones, etc.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on June 20, 2016 6 Comments
The number of illegal aliens flooding into the country has been alarming for quite some time and more so in the past couple of years.  This year, however, is shaping up to be a banner year with the number of illegals streaming across the border already topping the number for the entirety of last year, though not quite at 2014 levels. The Washington Times reports:
The number of illegal immigrant families jumping the border so far this fiscal year has already topped all of 2015, according to Homeland Security statistics released Friday that show the administration’s border problems continue to grow. Some 6,788 people traveling as families were caught on the southwest border in May — a leap of more than 20 percent over April, and putting the total for the first eight months of the fiscal year at nearly 45,000. That’s already well above the 2015 yearlong total of fewer than 40,000, though it’s short of the record pace set in 2014, when a massive surge exposed massive holes in the U.S. immigration system.
To add to the problem, illegal alien adults are purportedly abducting children as they head for our southern border so that they can pose as "families" . . . all the better to take advantage of Obama's lax "catch and release" policies for illegal immigrant families.

Posted by Sarah Rumpf on June 20, 2016 26 Comments
Monday, the Supreme Court issued a 5-3 ruling in Utah v. Streiff that's raising eyebrows for its implications for Fourth Amendment protections. In Streiff, the defendant was stopped and questioned by a police officer in a parking lot near a house that an anonymous tipster had claimed was being used to sell drugs. The officer asked the defendant for his identification and called in to a police dispatcher, who told the officer that Streiff had an outstanding warrant out for his arrest for a traffic violation. The officer arrested Streiff and searched him, finding methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. The main legal enforcement method for the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on illegal searches and seizures is the "exclusionary rule," which stops prosecutors from using any evidence that's obtained from police activity that is found to violate the Fourth Amendment. The Court has long interpreted this as excluding not just "primary evidence obtained as a direct result of an illegal search or seizure," but also "evidence later discovered and found to be derivative of an illegality," as the Court wrote in Segura v. United States, a 1984 case.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 20, 2016 32 Comments
The FBI kept in Omar Mateen's pledge to the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in the 911 transcript, but omitted the terrorist group's name. Mateen called 911 before he murdered 49 people at Pulse, a popular gay club in Orlando, FL. From the FBI news release:
Orlando Police Dispatcher (OD) Shooter (OM) OD: Emergency 911, this is being recorded. OM: In the name of God the Merciful, the beneficial [in Arabic] OD: What? OM: Praise be to God, and prayers as well as peace be upon the prophet of God [in Arabic]. I let you know, I’m in Orlando and I did the shootings. OD: What’s your name? OM: My name is I pledge of allegiance to [omitted]. OD: Ok, What’s your name? OM: I pledge allegiance to [omitted] may God protect him [in Arabic], on behalf of [omitted]. OD: Alright, where are you at? OM: In Orlando. OD: Where in Orlando? [End of call.]

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 20, 2016 11 Comments
According to the New York Times, Trump's campaign has fired their campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. Maggie Haberman reports:
“The Donald J. Trump Campaign for President, which has set a historic record in the Republican primary having received almost 14 million votes, has today announced that Corey Lewandowski will no longer be working with the campaign,” the campaign spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, said in a statement. “The campaign is grateful to Corey for his hard work and dedication and we wish him the best in the future.”

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on June 20, 2016 84 Comments
As Joseph Heller famously wrote in Catch-22, “just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you." On today's Morning Joe, Mark Halperin reported that GOP elites are indeed trying to "orchestrate" a "grassroots, organic" revolt against the presumptive nominee. An "orchestrated grassroots, organic" revolt? Oxymoron, anyone? Halperin went on to state "Trump is right: there are people plotting against him."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 20, 2016 13 Comments
(This post will be "sticky" for a while.) It's that time of year when we ask readers to help keep us doing what we do. Reader donations and other help (e.g., using our Amazon link) are extremely important to us. We've discussed before that we don't use the most obtrusive but best paying ads (e.g. pop-ups, pop-unders, pop-overs) in order not to ruin the reader experience, which makes reader support even more important.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 19, 2016 49 Comments
I opposed the confirmation of Loretta Lynch to be Attorney General because her confirmation hearing testimony led me to believe that she would be too political in her handling of the job, just as Eric Holder had been. On the Sunday morning shows today Lynch demonstrated, once again, a troubling politicization of the function of the Department of Justice. Lynch announced that the audio of the 911 calls from Orlando terrorist Omar Mateen will not be released, and the transcripts will remove the portion where he pledged allegiance to ISIS. Real Clear Politics reports, Lynch: "Partial Transcript" Of Orlando 911 Calls Will Have References To Islamic Terrorism RemovedShare Video:

Posted by Miriam Elman on June 19, 2016 5 Comments
Since 1967 — when Israel liberated the Jewish holy sites in eastern Jerusalem — the Temple Mount has been administered by agreement through the Islamic Waqf, a Jordanian-funded trust which oversees the site’s day-to-day religious functions. The Temple Mount is the most sacred site in Judaism, sanctified as the place where the Jewish Temples existed in biblical times. It’s a place where Jews should have basic rights, including the freedom of movement and worship. But as we’ve noted in several prior posts (see here, here, here) because of the profoundly discriminatory “status quo arrangement” set in place in 1967 and subsequently upheld by Israel’s courts, Jews are prohibited from praying there for fear of potentially upsetting Muslim worshippers, stirring up tensions, and triggering violent Muslim backlashes.
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