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Posted by Andrew Branca on March 09, 2015 26 Comments
I covered the federal court ruling in Mance v. Holder in some detail last month, and if you haven't yet had an opportunity to get up to speed on that decision it might be useful to take a moment to click over: Federal Court: Handgun Transfer Ban Unconstitutional. (That post includes the full-length ruling.) In brief, in Mance v. Holder US District Court Judge Reed O'Connor found that the federal interstate handgun transfer ban was unconstitutional on its face--specifically, the provision that requires an out-of-state handgun purchaser to transfer the handgun through several FFLs before taking possession. Most interestingly, Judge O'Connor found the requirement to be an unconstitutional infringement of the 2nd Amendment under both strict and intermediate scrutiny, as well as an unconstitutional infringement of the 5th Amendment under strict scrutiny. As observed in our earlier post on the subject:
Based on its conclusion that the federal handgun transfer ban was, both facially and as applied to the facts of this case, unconstitutional under both strict scrutiny and intermediate scrutiny, the Court granted the Plaintiff's motion for Summary Judgment (thus granting them victory without having to go to trial), and enjoined the Defendants (AG Holder and ATF(E) Director Jones) from enforcing those provisions of the federal handgun transfer ban.

Posted by Amy Miller on March 09, 2015 3 Comments
Obama's big government health care takeover has taken another hit---albeit a small one---to its provisions mandating the coverage of contraception. Notre Dame v. Burwell seemed dead last year, when the Seventh Circuit threw out a lawsuit laying out the University of Notre Dame's religious objections to Obamacare's contraception mandate. Notre Dame brought their objection in the wake of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which allowed religious organizations to opt out of the mandate and pass responsibility for paying the costs of contraception to insurance companies. The institution argued that this still placed a burden on exempt religious institutions, because even when opting out, those institutions still have to authorize the coverage. The last time the Seventh Circuit considered this case, SCOTUS had not yet ruled in the landmark Hobby Lobby case, which authorized closely held corporations to seek religious exemptions from the contraception mandate. The Seventh Circuit ruled that Notre Dame failed to show a sufficient burden against the rights of religious institutions; but SCOTUS has now tossed out that ruling completely, and have ordered the appeals court to review the case in light of the Hobby Lobby ruling. Reuters has more background:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 09, 2015 12 Comments
We have posted several times about what it is like to be Walking While Jewish in various places in Europe, including Paris, Copenhagen, and Malmö, Sweden. The fact is that in many places in Europe, it is dangerous to be seen Walking While Jewish. Including in Britain, as The Daily Mail demonstrated (h/t Isreally Cool):
With as many as 45 per cent of British Jews fearing they 'may not have a future in Britain', according to a survey by the Campaign Against Antisemitism - and following an experiment by Israeli Zvika Klein on the streets of Paris, British journalist Jonathan Kalmus decided to test the levels of prejudice in two British cities with shocking results. Volunteers in Copenhagen and Rome also suffered some abuse, as well as welcoming reactions, while Jewish journalists in Stockholm and Berlin walked for hours without incident. 'You Jew' was the anti-Semitic scream which came from a passing car. My shaken wife tried to explain it away to my seven-year-old daughter as a very large sneeze. They were simply playing in a local park in Manchester a few weeks ago when the incident ripped through what should have been a peaceful and wholesome time for any mother and child.

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Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 09, 2015 27 Comments
Put another feather in his cap, Scott Walker today signed Right to Work legislation in Wisconsin, becoming the 24th State to do so. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported prior to the signing:
Gov. Scott Walker will sign so-called right-to-work legislation on Monday morning at Badger Meter in Brown Deer after the Assembly passed the measure Friday morning following almost 24 hours of debate. The measure bans labor contracts that would make it mandatory for workers to pay union fees. The legislation zoomed into play this year, pushed by GOP legislators, after Walker brushed aside the issue as a distraction during his re-election campaign last year. Now as a presumed 2016 presidential hopeful, the pending change in law could add polish to Walker's record on business. Twenty-four states have right-to-work laws. Supporters say that workers shouldn't be forced to pay a group if they don't believe in it. They say the change could provide a spark to the Wisconsin economy. Opponents say businesses and unions should be left alone to negotiate labor contracts. They say the law change isn't about worker rights but more about driving down wages and exerting more control over the workplace.
Here are some images from the signing:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 09, 2015 3 Comments
On Sunday, March 1, 2015, we provided on-scene coverage of Code Pink's "Shut Down AIPAC" protest. The most notable feature of the protest was the waving of Hezbollah flags. Code Pink managed to get some press coverage even though it didn't shut down AIPAC, or even an itsy, bitsy part of AIPAC, because five protesters were arrested, including two from Ithaca, my current place of residence. One of the arrestees, Ariel Gold, may be familiar to readers from prior coverage of Gold's efforts to have GreenStar Food Coop in Ithaca boycott Israeli products and products co-owned by Israelis, such as Sabra and Tribe Hummus. Gold is employed as a professional organizer for Friends of Sabeel - North America, a group which works to weaken American Christian support for Israel, and is a leader of Ithaca Jewish Voice for Peace. You may recall that when I spoke on local progressive radio against the boycott movement, Gold called into the control room to complain about me in the middle of the interview! Publicity, of course, was the real goal of the Code Pink protest. If all you knew about the arrests was the press coverage, you'd think that the arrests were not the goal, but the byproduct of protesting. Much as the Pallywood fake or staged photo ops are used to gin up press coverage against Israel, however, so too were the arrests at AIPAC. It was pure Pallywood, arrests contrived for the cameras. They weren't arrested for protesting. They were protesting to get arrested for publicity. Don't take my word for it. A Legal Insurrection reader who saw our coverage of the protest sent along a video of Gold speaking at a post-arrest event, in which she admitted it was all a set up:

Posted by Mike LaChance on March 08, 2015 26 Comments
The Justice Department has confirmed that the entire notion of "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" was completely false. That hasn't stopped one CNN host from keeping the meme alive, if only in a "symbolic" way. Transcript and video via Real Clear Politics:
ANA CABRERA, CNN: You’re part of this Hands-Up-Don’t-Shoot coalition. Have you had a chance to read the Justice Department's findings on Michael Brown's death, as they pertain to Darren Wilson? MONTAGUE SIMMONS, DON'T SHOOT COALITION MEMBER: I’ve had a chance to take a glance, yes. ANA CABRERA: Has it changed your view of Darren Wilson at all, the fact he was cleared in this incident? MONTAGUE SIMMONS: Not at all. Unfortunately, the findings were expected -- meaning that usually in these cases we've seen law enforcement, and the voice of the officers involved, are given much heavier weight than [other] witnesses. Even though we've seen countless witnesses come forward and testify that his hands were up, they're still giving a greater weight to law enforcement's findings. Even if his hands weren't up in this case, he was not -- he should even have been executed in the way he was. ANA CABRERA: Obviously the whole catch phrase hands up don't shoot takes on a much more symbolic meaning moving forward.
Watch the video: CNN has taken a keen interest in the idea of "hands up, don't shoot" from the beginning.

Posted by Amy Miller on March 08, 2015 12 Comments
Today was International Women's Day, and it came and went with the kinds of video and hashtag activism that usually define tribute days. Amongst all the shareables about glass ceilings, pay gaps, and leaning in, shone through one fantastic example of how real gender-based discrimination makes its way into the spotlight in societies that don't demand equality. London-based Islamist sheik Hani Al-Seba'i really didn't know what he was getting into when he tried to play gender politics during an interview with Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed TV anchor Rima Karaki. Watch: More from the Telegraph:
Al-Seba'i was being asked about reports that some Christians are joining Islamic State fighters, when he went off on a tangent and started talking about the history of Christian involvement in the Middle East. "Dr Al-Seba'i, let's focus on the present," Karaki suggested, adding that time for the discussion was limited. "Listen, don’t cut me off. I will answer as I please … what kind of behaviour is this?" Dr Al-Seba'i asked. When Karaki reiterated the time constraints, Al-Seba'i lost his temper and told her to: "Shut up, so I can talk." "It’s beneath me to be interviewed by you, you are a woman who ..." he continued, before his microphone was cut off. "Either there is mutual respect, or the conversation is over," Karaki said, as she terminated the interview.
Twitter loved it:

Posted by Mike LaChance on March 08, 2015 32 Comments
Trey Gowdy appeared on Face the Nation today and explained that the emails Hillary has turned over paint an incomplete picture. Katherine Connell of National Review:
Gowdy: ‘There Are Huge Gaps’ in E-mails Clinton’s Turned Over to Benghazi Committee Representative Trey Gowdy (R., S.C.), chairman of the House committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attack, said that there are “gaps of months and months and months” in the e-mails that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton has handed over to the committee so far. Gowdy, who has issued a subpoena to the State Department seeking Clinton’s remaining e-mails, told Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation Sunday that “there are huge gaps” in the e-mails she has made available. “If you think to that iconic picture of her on a C-17 flying to Libya, sunglasses on — she has her hand-held device in her hand — we have no e-mails from that day,” he said. “In fact we have no e-mails from that trip.”
Watch the exchange:

Posted by Andrew Branca on March 08, 2015 94 Comments
Stop me if you've heard seen this one before: the now tiresome and wholly predictable cycle of news coverage when a white police officer shoots and kills an unarmed black teenager: Step 1: Build the false narrative. Mainstream media outlets report that a police officer has shot an unarmed black teenager, and provide extensive coverage of the victim's grieving family alongside flattering photographs and background stories of said teenager. The event is followed within hours--hours!--by well-organized protests, family spokespersons, and (naturally) lawyers (these last two typically combined). Step 2: Watch the false narrative implode.  These mainstream media reports are inevitably followed by factually correct and comprehensive reports of the victim's violent and criminal background and actions at the time of the shooting. These facts place responsibility for his death squarely on the victim's own shoulders, and make it clear that the police acted appropriately. Sounds familiar, right? In case you've not yet had enough of that cycle, allow me to introduce you to the late Tony Robinson, the "unarmed black teenager" who was shot and killed by a veteran Wisconsin police officer this past Friday evening (so, not even 48 hours prior to the writing of this post).

Step 1: Build the False Narrative

Let's take a look at  how NBC covered this shooting in a post headlined: Black Teen Tony Robinson Shot Dead by Cop in Madison, Wisconsin, Was Unarmed. First, their lede:

Posted by Amy Miller on March 08, 2015 32 Comments
Saturday Night Live has a history of lampooning the right candidate at the right time. Whether on purpose, or just as a result of tapping into the zeitgeist and saying what the majority of their fan base is thinking, the SNL players have taken out political power players from Sarah Palin to George W. Bush; and now, they're setting their sights on the most high profile would-be candidate in American politics. Hillary Clinton, welcome to 30 Rock. Kate McKinnon's latest cold open portraying Hillary Clinton as a (jocularly) manipulative but (completely not) relatable (possible!) candidate could be the beginning of another Tina Fey-esque assault on a less-than-desirable figurehead. You be the judge:
"This is not how Hillary Clinton goes down! I mean, what did you think my e-mails said? 'Hi, it's Hillary, I really screwed up on Benghazi today.' Please. HEH HEH HEH! I wasn't born yesterday; I was born 67 years ago and I have been planning on being president ever since. There will be NO mistakes in my rise to the top---if I decide to run!?
If I were Hillary, I'd be in my war room right now, because Kate McKinnon has managed to turn a cutthroat, cold, calculating, and malicious career politician into a complete joke---that also makes you a little bit nervous. Oh, and pay attention---they mention Elizabeth Warren. Not subtle.

Posted by Amy Miller on March 08, 2015 4 Comments
Didn't take long to drop some "we're still working on this" language, did it? The Obama Administration may have played their high-profile troubles over the pending Iran nuclear deal as a grudge match between the U.S. and Israel, but the Israelis aren't the only ones with questions about the President's "all or nothing" deal. France has a history of raising questions about how far the international community is and has been willing to go to gain concessions from Iran regarding its nuclear program. Recently, the French have publicly raised concerns that commitments made by Iran don't go far enough to ensure that any future nuclear program will make allowances for a system of inspections and verifications ensuring that the program is compliant with international standards. Secretary of State John Kerry has been busy over the weekend running damage control over France's most recent objections. Via Reuters:
"We are on the same page," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters after talks with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in Paris. "If we didn’t think that there was further to go, as Laurent said, we’d have had an agreement already," Kerry added. "The reason we don't have an agreement is we believe there are gaps that have to be closed, there are things that have to be done to further strengthen this; we know this." The goal of the talks is to persuade Iran to restrain its nuclear program. In exchange, Iran would get limited relief from sanctions that have crippled its economy. EU's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, says the next two weeks will be crucial: "In the coming few days, there will be intense work from all sides to bridge the gaps that are still remaining and to make sure that this historic opportunity is not missed."
Watch:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 08, 2015 13 Comments
The former first lady's situation seems to worsen by the day. First it was revealed that Hillary had a private email account for the duration of her tenure as Secretary of State. Then it was discovered that her private email account was run through servers reportedly in her home. And no one in Obama's administration seemed to have been aware that Mrs. Clinton was operating an extra-governmental account. Or at least that's the current story. When asked if they could prove with certitude that no classified information was exchanged via Hillary's private email, the State Department replied, "that's not a pertinent question." Late last week, the State Department changed their story saying it was up to each Secretary to determine what was relevant and then submit that information back to the DOS for record keeping. Email problems aren't the only obstacle the Clinton's must overcome ahead of a 2016 Presidential run. Former President Bill Clinton came out in defense of the Clinton Foundation yesterday, an organization that accepted donations from foreign governments like Saudi Arabia while Hillary served as Secretary of State. "I believe we've done more good than harm," President Clinton said. Rewind to 2011. February 15, 2011, then Secretary Clinton spoke about Internet Freedom at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. 2011 Hillary made a great case for why 2015 Hillary should disclose her emails to the public. Take a look:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 07, 2015 4 Comments
Members of both political parties descended upon Selma, Alabama earlier today. Partisan politics were shelved as members of Congress were unified in remembering the sacrifice of those who marched for freedom. So how did Republicans commemorate the day? Take a look:
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