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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.

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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.]

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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.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on June 19, 2016 12 Comments
Last month, I wrote about Harry Reid's statement that he is "fairly certain" the Democrats will retake the Senate this year, and as I noted, it is a very real possibility given a number of factors.  The Democrats need win only five seats to retake the Senate (four if Hillary wins the WH), the Republicans are defending 24 seats to the Democrats' 10, and many of the states in play—Florida, Wisconsin, Illinois, New Hampshire—went to Obama in both 2008 and 2012. As we consider and discuss the importance of the Supreme Court and who will be nominating the next Justice who will replace Justice Scalia—and potentially two (or more) others—during his or her term, it may be a good idea to think about the Senate races across the country and to do what we can to ensure that the Senate is not lost to Democrats. No matter who wins the general and nominates the next Justice/s, the Senate is still the body that confirms a presidential nomination to the Court.  A Democrat-controlled Senate, I think we can all agree, would be a disaster on many levels, but particularly so in light of the upcoming Supreme Court nominee/s.

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 19, 2016 20 Comments
As we've documented countless times at College Insurrection, many students in America today have a flawed understanding of free speech and other Constitutional subjects. There once was a time when it was safe to assume students were taught about the Constitution and America's other founding documents, but the behavior on many campuses today suggests that's no longer happening. South Carolina just passed a new law to remedy this situation. The Daily Signal reports:
This New Law Ensures South Carolina Students Will Study the Founding Documents Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican, signed a South Carolina House bill into law that implements the study of U.S. founding documents into the state’s public high schools.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 19, 2016 9 Comments
I have been following the antics of 17 state attorney generals who formed (AGs United for Clean Power), which intends to promote the progressive climate change agenda by targeting the fossil fuel industry using racketeering statutes. Recently, thirteen Republican members of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee Republicans sent letters to 17 state attorneys general and eight environmental groups requesting documents related to the groups’ coordinated efforts to deprive companies, nonprofit organizations, scientists and scholars of their First Amendment rights and their ability to fund and conduct scientific research free from intimidation and threats of prosecution. Now, a coalition of Republican AGs, headed up by Alabama's top cop, Luther Strange, issued a letter promising retaliation in kind, directed at "AGs for Clean Power. Call this rebuke fighting fire with fire!

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 19, 2016 5 Comments
The state of Rio, not the city, continues to topple as the governor declared a "state of public calamity" only 50 days before the 2016 Summer Olympics kick off. The state spent over $2.8 billion alone "on a 10-mile extension to Rio’s subway to link a series of wealthy beachside neighborhoods in time for the Olympics." But now they cannot afford to pay for public expenses. Maybe they shouldn't rely on the government for everything? But I digress. From The Wall Street Journal:
By declaring a state of calamity, interim Gov. Francisco Dornelles authorized his subordinates to adopt “exceptional measures necessary for the rationalization of essential public services” to meet Rio’s commitments for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The move further allows the government to skip the bidding process to hire some contractors and loosens minimum spending requirements on mandatory items like education and health care. An official in Brazil’s Finance Ministry said the decree would also enable Rio to obtain federal resources more quickly.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on June 19, 2016 30 Comments
Hillary Clinton: the patriotic choice for president? That seems the implication of Chuck Todd's challenge to Paul Ryan in an interview aired on today's Meet The Press. When Ryan told Todd that as Speaker of the House, he was supporting Trump, Todd retorted: "you just made a case though for party over country." How absurd! As Ryan rightly went on to explain to Todd, "No I didn't! I know Hillary Clinton won't agree with anything we want to do. She'll put a bad judge on the Supreme Court. She won't agree with any of the conservative reforms we're trying to do." But in the mind of Chuck Todd and others in the MSM, supporting the Dem candidate isn't merely preferable, it's the only decent, American thing to do!
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