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Posted by Mike LaChance on March 17, 2016 13 Comments
Dr. Ben Carson is no longer running for president but he's had a rough couple of days in the spotlight due to his support for Donald Trump. First, Carson was grilled by a reporter for standing by Trump who at one point in recent months compared Carson to a child molester. Carson's response was baffling.

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Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on March 16, 2016 5 Comments
In a rather surprising move, Russia's president Vladimir Putin announced Monday that he would begin withdrawing troops from Syria the very next day.  Those of us watching the Middle East carefully were not only surprised by the move but also intensely curious about possible motivations and what the move will ultimately mean in the region, particularly with regard to Israel. Tuesday, retired U. S. Army lieutenant colonel Ralph Peters offered a compelling analysis of Putin's move and of what it means not only in the Middle East but, ultimately, for the United States. Positing that Putin has quickly seen—Russia's been in Syria only since September—that the power that will emerge in the region will be Iran's, not Russia's, Peters concludes that Putin's decision was based in cold, hard reality. In his article, "The Syrian War Just Taught Putin to Worry About Iran," for the The New York Post, Peters writes:

Posted by Jonathan Levin on March 16, 2016 26 Comments
Last week's protests and mini-riot that prompted Donald Trump to cancel a rally in Chicago were the latest example of a concerted effort to disrupt candidates' campaigns. As Trump edges closer to locking up the Republican nomination, such agitation will likely grow more frequent and more extreme. The questions, then, are what limits hecklers from interrupting campaign events, and does enforcing those limitations work.

Legal Restraints on Hecklers

Two preliminary matters, though. First, although there is some First Amendment protection for "speech" in the form of physical action, it is inapplicable for this conversation.  Storming the stage is not protected speech; it is likely assault.  If a protester crosses the line and lays hands on a candidate or somebody attending an event, that would be battery, at a minimum.

Posted by Miriam Elman on March 16, 2016 4 Comments
This past Monday, in a rare example of bipartisanship, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously (393 to 0) passed a non-binding resolution declaring the horrors committed by the Islamic State against Christians and other religious monitories to be genocide and crimes against humanity. The State Department has until tomorrow (March 17) to decide whether it wants to make a similar classification of ISIS’s atrocities, as required by Congress. Written into the omnibus spending bill passed in December, the deadline is congressionally mandated. But, as of this writing, it would appear that Secretary of State John Kerry is still having some difficulty seeing what everybody else sees.

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Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 16, 2016 53 Comments
A 21-year-old University of Virginia student was busted for swiping a political slogan sign while visiting North Korea. He was arrested, run through a kangaroo court where he apologized for allowing the U.S. administration to, "lure him into" the heinous crime of stealing a sign to demoralize Korean workers, and then sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

Posted by Andrew Branca on March 16, 2016 33 Comments
The Maryland court system has re-scheduled the trials of the six officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, reports ABC News. These trials had been delayed while the state's highest court decided whether one of the officers, William Porter, could be compelled to testify against the others, despite the fact that he was to be retried after his first trial resulted in a hung jury.  Last week that court ruled that Porter could be so compelled, allowing the remaining trials to move forward. The trial dates for each officer, and the charges against them, are as follows (in chronological order):

Officer Edward Nero:  May 10

Officer Nero was primarily involved as one of the arresting officers, and is charged with assault and reckless endangerment. [caption id="attachment_164896" align="alignnone" width="500"]Officer Edward Nero Officer Edward Nero[/caption]

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 16, 2016 125 Comments
There was supposed to be a Fox News Republican Debate Monday night. That was until Donald Trump did well last night, and decided he didn't need another debate. Trump says he didn't even know about the debate, even though everyone else did, and won't participate because he is speaking before AIPAC: Except that as of yesterday his speech was not scheduled for a specific time slot:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 16, 2016 40 Comments
Numerous news reports indicate that at 11 a.m. this morning Obama will hold a press appearance to introduce Merrick Garland, currently Chief Judge of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, as his nominee to fill the vacancy created by the death of Antonin Scalia. We will add additional information regarding Garland soon. Not that it likely matters, since Republicans in the Senate have promised not to act on any nomination until the next president. Though, wondering if that will change if Trump is the Republican presidential nominee and it becomes obvious he will lose the presidency and Republicans might lose the Senate, in which case Garland may be less bad than whoever Hillary picks. I predict some wobbling. But first, the really important question: Do you really think he looks like me? https://twitter.com/alwaysonoffense/status/710107700558958592

Posted by Mike LaChance on March 16, 2016 15 Comments
It's amazing to see a politician who urged his supporters to argue with others and get in their faces, who told people to vote for revenge and whose party called Republicans hostage takers and terrorists suddenly concerned about political rhetoric. The Associated Press reports:
Obama Dismayed by Vulgarity, Violence of Campaign President Barack Obama said Tuesday he was dismayed by "vulgar and divisive rhetoric" directed at women and minorities as well as the violence that has occurred in the 2016 presidential campaign, a swipe at Republican front-runner Donald Trump that also served as a challenge to other political leaders to speak out and set a better example.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 16, 2016 21 Comments
Several savvy Legal Insurrection readers noted that Californians who flee our progressive paradise have the nasty tendency to take their politics with them. In light of the success business mogul and pugnacious political candidate Donald Trump has had in the GOP primary, Governor Jerry Brown may have stumbled upon a solution that should bring joy to many Americans.
Gov. Jerry Brown, mocking Donald Trump for his plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, suggested Monday that if the Republican frontrunner wins the election, California might have to take protective measures of its own. “If Trump were ever elected, we’d have to build a wall around California to defend ourselves from the rest of this country,” Brown told labor organizers at a dinner in Sacramento.
This idea may now have a lot more appeal to the citizens in our remaining 56 states, as the Golden State's crime rate has spiked.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 15, 2016 91 Comments
Donald Trump had a good night, but he's still far from what it takes to win what is required -- a majority of all delegates. Here is the delegate count as of approximately 11:45 p.m. Eastern tonight. It will change somewhat because the delegate allocation calculations are not simple. Republican delegate count 3-15-2016 Trump supporters -- and some in the *conservative* media -- want to pretend that having a plurality of delegates or raw vote entitles Trump to the nomination. But it doesn't.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 15, 2016 54 Comments
It's Super Tuesday (Part 3)! Welcome to our live results feed. We'll post results as they become available.

Updates:

https://twitter.com/ABCPolitics/status/709891940515446785

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 15, 2016 28 Comments
Melissa Click, the Missouri professor who famously advocated for "using muscle" against student journalists at a campus protest has lost her termination appeal. Following the encounter that was captured on tape, Click was charged with third-degree assault and suspended with pay before being canned. The Wall Street Journal reports:
The board of curators said the appeal, which Melissa Click filed shortly after her Feb. 24 firing, “brought no new relevant information.” Ms. Click’s job paid $58,000, and she was up for tenure this year.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 15, 2016 34 Comments
In assessing why the Michelle Fields - Corey Lewandowski dispute had such media legs, I previously assessed that there was a great dislike of Breitbart News among other media types and bloggers in part because of its treatment of employees, The Michelle Fields controversy is only barely about Michelle Fields:
Breitbart News has a reputation for having particularly sharp elbows as to employees. And many of us know those employees and former employees and have heard stories. That doesn’t mean Breitbart News does anything it’s not legally entitled to do, but, for example, people being locked into strict contracts seems pretty rough in a business where people float around a lot for relatively little pay. The Dana Loesch lawsuit created a lot of ill will among conservative bloggers.
Non-disparagement clauses -- in which parties agree not to criticize each other -- long have been rumored to be part of Breitbart News employee contracts. Indeed, there was a suggestion in the Breitbart News post about Ben Shapiro -- which was taken down with an apology -- that there might be legal action based on contractual provisions:
Shapiro, a Harvard lawyer and member of the State Bar of California, apparently violated virtually every clause in his employment contract during an appearance on The Kelly File last Thursday evening.
Now Politico reports that unnamed former employees have been getting cease and desist letters:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 15, 2016 13 Comments
In late February we reported that the court in the FOIA case seeking State Department records as to Huma Abedin granted Judicial Watch's motion for discovery, and required Judicial Watch to submit a discovery plan:
In a ruling sure to keep the Hillary Clinton email scandal alive through the summer, if not longer,  a federal just has granted Judicial Watch the right to take discovery as to whether Hillary’s home server was part of an effort to evade the Freedom of Information (FOIA) law by shifting federal records off-site and into the sole control of Hillary, her attorney’s and consultants.... Given the difficulty of obtaining records, particularly in light of the destruction of at least some records maintained on Hillary’s home server, led Judicial Watch to seek discovery, including depositions of key officials. Such discovery is not routine in FOIA cases, and good cause needs to be shown to obtain discovery.... The Court granted the motion today, via two Minute Orders (meaning orders reflected on the court docket sheet, not separate documents:
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