Willem Van Spronsen, 69, of Vashon Island, Washington, attacked an ICE Detention Center in Tacoma earlier today with incendiary devices and while armed with a rifle. He was killed in a shootout with police.

(more…)

Earlier this week, the Court of Appeals for the 2d Circuit ruled against Donald Trump in a lawsuit asserting that his blocking some people from viewing his Twitter account was unconstitutional.

(more…)

The U.S. Department of Justice is holding a Summit on Combatting Anti-Semitism on July 15 in D.C.

I was asked to speak at the event. The full Agenda and speaker list is at the bottom of this post.

(more…)

I’ve written many times about “The Flight 93 Election,” the September 5, 2016, article in the Claremont Review of Books, by Michael Anton, writing at the time under the pseudonym Publius Decius Mus.

The thrust of the concept of the Flight 93 Election was that whatever Trump’s faults, the alternative was definitively...

The $11 million compensatory and $33 million punitive damage verdicts won by Gibson’s Bakery and its owners against Oberlin College later were reduced to $25 million under Ohio tort reform caps.

But...

The Washington Post and ABC News just released a poll, and it’s not good news for The Washington Post and ABC News.

ABC News headlines the poll: Trump reaches career-high approval, yet faces a range of re-election risks: Poll:

(more…)

Reviewing the intense public relations campaign launched by Oberlin College after the $11 million compensatory and $33 million punitive damage verdicts (later reduced to $25 million under Ohio tort reform caps), I felt an “intervention” by someone who “truly cares” about Oberlin College was needed:

(more…)

Things seem bad for Oberlin College, after the $11 million compensatory and $33 million punitive damage verdicts (later reduced collectively to $25 million under Ohio tort reform caps) in favor of Gibson’s Bakery and its owners.

But it could have been worse. Much worse.

(more…)

After the recent Supreme Court decision ruling that the Commerce Department had not given a sufficient explanation for a Census citizenship question, there still was a possibility that the Trump administration could pursue a new explanation. After all, the question itself was held substantively lawful, it was...

The next phase in the Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College case is the award of attorney’s fees to the Gibsons. A hearing is scheduled for July 10. Dan McGraw will be at the hearing for us, and we will preview the issues once motion papers are filed and available.

...

After the massive $11 million compensatory and $33 million punitive damage verdicts (later reduced to $25 million under Ohio tort reform caps) against it for defaming Gibson’s Bakery and its owners, Oberlin College could have done some soul searching as to its own conduct in nearly destroying a 135-year-old family business. Indeed, the purpose...

In the Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College case, the Court has entered a Judgment (pdf.)(full embed at bottom of post) calculating the damages owed by the defendants after applying the statutory tort reform caps.

The total amount (inclusive of compensatory and punitive damages) is: David R....

In a complicated ruling, the Supreme Court substantially upheld the inclusion of a census question regarding citizenship, but procedurally held that more inquiry was needed into C0mmerce Dept. reasoning in seeking to add the question.

So the bottom line...

In one of the major cases of this term, the Supreme Court has refused to provide a role for federal courts in deciding so-called partisan gerrymandering cases. That is, cases in which the federal courts pass judgment on the political process that gave rise to sometimes unfair districts benefitting one party...

Oberlin College has been on a crisis management public relations campaign to create a narrative that it is the victim in the Gibson’s Bakery case because it was held liable for student speech. In a series of scripted public statements, Oberlin College’s president Carmen Twillie Ambar

The first night of the Democratic Debate was unimpressive. Most of the candidates were trying to out-liberal the others. It was all so, shall we say, unimpressive.

The moderators clearly favored Elizabeth Warren, repeatedly going back to her for questions, particularly at the beginning.

(more…)

The massive $11 million compensatory and $33 million punitive damage verdicts in favor of Gibson’s Bakery and its owners have...