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Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 17, 2015 54 Comments
In a decision which is to have a profound impact on both the immigration debate and the currently stalled funding of the Department of Homeland Security, a federal court judge in Texas has issued a Temporary Restraining Injunctive Order preventing implementation of Obama's Immigration executive action. The Order and 123-page Opinion are embedded in full below. From a political perspective, if Obama is enjoined from enforcing his immigration executive action, how can Congress fund an illegal act? Or if it were funded, thereby relieving the current continuing resolution stalemate, Obama could not enforce it. Either way, this may provide Congress a way out of the jam just days before the funding deadline. What this allows Republicans to do, is pass a 30 day spending bill without any limitations on the argument that the immigration plan cannot be acted upon anyway, and wait and see how the courts rule. IF the courts refuse to put the injunction on hold, or if the courts uphold the injunction on the merits, then there is no need to worry about defunding the executive action. If an appeals court reverses, then the Republican leadership can say that it has already been upheld as lawful so there is no legal basis for the claim it is unconstitutional. This could be a victory at least to get over the current impasse, although it may not be a long term solution. The case involves 26 states (originally 17) led by Texas. Here is part of the TRO:
The United States of America, its departments, agencies, officers, agents and employees and Jeh Johnson, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; R. Gil Kerlikowske, Commissioner of United States Customs and Border Protection; Ronald D. Vitiello, Deputy Chief of United States Border Patrol, United States Customs and Border Protection; Thomas S. Winkowski, Acting Director of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and Leon Rodriguez, Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services are hereby enjoined from implementing any and all aspects or phases of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents ("DAP A") program as set out in the Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson's memorandum dated November 20, 2014 ("DAPA memorandum"), pending a final resolution of the merits of this case or until a further order of this Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit or the United States Supreme Court.
The Court frames the issue in the case as follows:
The ultimate question before the Court is: Do the laws of the United States, including the Constitution, give the Secretary of Homeland Security the power to take the action at issue in this case? [Opinion, at 4]
It took the court over 100 pages to get to the answer: No.

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Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 16, 2015 5 Comments
Lesley Sue Goldstein, better known as Lesley Gore, was featured for a week in our Video of the Day series in December. She's best known for "It's My Party" but that was just a part, and not even the best, of her music. Fox News reports:
Singer-songwriter Lesley Gore, who topped the charts in 1963 at age 16 with her epic song of teenage angst, "It's My Party," and followed it up with the hits "Judy's Turn to Cry," and the feminist anthem "You Don't Own Me," died Monday. She was 68. Gore died of lung cancer at New York University Langone Medical Center in Manhattan, according to her partner of 33 years, Lois Sasson. "She was a wonderful human being — caring, giving, a great feminist, great woman, great human being, great humanitarian," Sasson, a jewelry designer, told The Associated Press. Brooklyn-born and New Jersey-raised, Gore was discovered by Quincy Jones as a teenager and signed to Mercury Records. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a degree in English/American literature. Gore's other hits include "She's A Fool," ''Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows," ''That's the Way Boys Are" and "Maybe I Know." She co-wrote with her brother, Michael, the Academy Award-nominated "Out Here On My Own" from the film "Fame."
Here are two of my favorites:

Posted by Amy Miller on February 16, 2015 35 Comments
Obama Administration officials are feeling the heat from the downward spiral of its figurehead health care legislation, and they're looking for allies in what is arguably the most unlikely place on Earth---the Church. Unlikely indeed, considering religious organizations (and organizations run by religiously-minded entrepreneurs) have been engaged in an all-out war over Obamacare's various mandates since before the thing was signed into law. Officials charged with making sure Americans enroll for coverage have always thought of religious organizations as outlets for promotion, but they've recently stepped up their game and started re-pushing pre-made educational materials to churches. The Weekly Standard explains:
These materials are part of the "Second Sunday & Faith Weekend of Action Toolkit," which is available on the website of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). From the beginning, HHS has sought to develop partnerships with faith-based organizations to promote the Obamacare. This "toolkit" has been available since 2013. However, the details of these partnerships have largely escaped the attention of the national media. The Second Sunday & Faith Weekend of Action program encourages churches to use the second Sunday of each month during open enrollment to hold informational meetings and sign-up events.
They've even provided a bulletin insert---how convenient! unnamed-8_3.preview

Posted by Andrew Branca on February 16, 2015 28 Comments
On Wednesday, February 11, the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (BATFE) suffered a humiliating federal court defeat that struck at the very core of its power.  In response, it took the DOJ and the BATFE only two days to petulantly strike back at gun owners in the form of a late Friday order intended to ban a major type of ammunition for the single most commonly purchased rifle. (The BATFE's "framework notice" released Friday evening is embedded at the bottom of this post.) Last week's federal court summary judgment against the government in Mance v. Holder struck down a key provision of the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) requiring all interstate handgun transfers to pass between FFLs in each state was struck down as an unconstitutional infringement of the 2nd Amendment under both strict and intermediate scrutiny, as well as on 5th Amendment Due Process grounds. (We covered that decision in detail right here at Legal Insurrection: Federal Court: Handgun Transfer Ban Unconstitutional, and the PDF of that court order can be found at that link.) Never before had the Gun Control Act of 1968 been so grievously wounded, and the BATFE's authority so profoundly shaken, and lawful American gun owners were appropriately ecstatic. Like any wounded beast, of course, the BATFE faced an existential imperative to reassert their authority, and late Friday afternoon (in a move that's long ago become standard operating procedure for the Obama administration) they did so with a vengeance.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 16, 2015 8 Comments
Chicago's Mayor can't be bothered with first person pronouns. At least not when it comes to his Twitter account. Not all politicians have social media pros running their accounts for them. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn runs his own Twitter account. And former Texas Governor, Rick Perry, also personally tweets from his account. And who can forget Senator Grassley's infamous tweets? Like most elected officials, Emanuel probably has someone running his account for him. But for some unknown, yet hilarious reason, whomever is managing the good Mayor's account has opted to go third person. Chris Ziegler from The Verge pointed out:
I'm especially amused by the Twitter feed of Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, for some reason. Maybe it's the frequency of third-person tweets; maybe it's the fact that he usually refers to himself simply as "Rahm," not something more formal like "Mayor Emanuel." It's just Rahm talkin' about Rahm. Rahm on Rahm.
Rahm, Rahm, and more Rahm:

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Posted by New Neo on February 16, 2015 11 Comments
So now we know the identity of Copenhagen shooter Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, whose crime has mirrored the recent terrorist attacks in Paris but with a smaller death total and a single perpetrator. More details will no doubt emerge, but already it seems fairly clear what's going on here: a continuation of the assault on the West's freedom of speech, perpetrated by a fundamentalist Muslim terrorist (or one in sympathy with fundamentalist Muslim terrorists). The idea is to silence what they see as blasphemy against Islam, as well as to exert a chilling effect on anyone who would sympathize with or support such freedom of speech. In addition, it is an attack on Jews and those who would protect them. The goal? Non-Muslims should not be free to criticize Islam in ways that the group deems blasphemous; Jews would not be free to practice Judaism; and the penalty for both crimes would be death. The moment when the West should have become aware of the growing seriousness of the threat to Western free speech was the 1989 fatwa against author Salman Rushdie. Perhaps some people were able to minimize it at the time by reminding themselves that Rushdie had been born a Muslim in India, which made him an apostate when he renounced the religion. But he was definitely a Westerner, having lived in Britain since the age of fourteen, and his books were written in English and aimed at a Western audience. To refresh your memory:
Many Muslims accused Rushdie of blasphemy or unbelief [for his novel The Satanic Verses] and in 1989 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie. Numerous killings, attempted killings, and bombings resulted from Muslim anger over the novel. The Iranian government backed the fatwa against Rushdie until 1998, when the succeeding government of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said it no longer supported the killing of Rushdie. However, the fatwa remains in place.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 16, 2015 11 Comments
Egyptian warplanes have bombed ISIS strongholds in the neighboring country of Libya.
Egypt’s air force bombed ISIS targets in Libya at dawn on Monday, a day after the militant group released a video purporting to show the execution of 21 Egyptian Copts there. "Your armed forces on Monday carried out focused air strikes in Libya against Daesh camps, places of gathering and training, and weapons depots," the military said in a statement, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS. It was the first time Egypt confirmed launching air strikes against the group in neighboring Libya, suggesting President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is ready to escalate his battle against militants seeking to topple his government.
The airstrikes killed 50 militants and destroyed training bases and weapons stockpiles. Egyptian Copts featured in the video that preceded the strikes had been working in Libya and were kidnapped over the course of 2 months, then beheaded by the terror group. Shortly before the jets took off, Egypt's President Abdel el-Sisi said Cairo “reserved the right to respond in any way” to the butchery.

Posted by Amy Miller on February 16, 2015 15 Comments
Almost immediately after news of the Chapel Hill shootings broke on major media outlets and social media, talking heads on the left seized the opportunity to turn the brutal murders of three muslim human beings into a political debate: And then this, just a couple of hours later:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 16, 2015 11 Comments
"Walking while Jewish" is a phrase I have been using quite a bit lately, when it comes to the rise of anti-Semitic street harassment and violence in Europe, often masquerading as anti-Zionism and frequently by Muslim young men. A Swedish reporter made a film recently of how he was harassed in Malmö, Sweden, while walking with a Kippa (Yarmoulke), and we have discussed Kippah Walks to protest street harassment in Copenhagen. An Israeli film crew from NRG news produced a video 10 Hours of Walking in Paris as a Jew (embedded below). The NRG website explains many of the comments, some of which are on the video, some of which are not:
"Go f*** from the front and the back," "Viva Palestine," "Hey you, with the kippa, what are you doing here?" these were only a few of the remarks sent my way as I was walking through the streets of Paris wearing a tzitzit and a kippa. Welcome to Paris 2015, where soldiers are walking every street that houses a Jewish institution, and where keffiyeh-wearing men and veiled women speak Arabic on every street corner. Walking down one Parisian suburb, I was asked what I doing there. In modern-day Paris, you see, Jews are barred from entering certain areas.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 15, 2015 2 Comments
Basil Joffe is the brother of Edward Joffe, who was killed in the 1969 Super Sol supermarket bombing in Jerusalem for which Rasmea Odeh was convicted. The evidence of Rasmea's guilt is overwhelming. When she immigrated to the U.S., Rasmea concealed her conviction in Israel and her 10-year incarceration (her life sentence was commuted in 1979 in a prisoner swap for an Israeli soldier captured in Lebanon.) Rasmea was convicted in November 2014 in federal court in Detroit of unlawfully procuring naturalization. She faces sentencing on March 12, 2015. The evidence of Rasmea's guilt for both the bombing and the immigration fraud is overwhelming, as detailed in Rasmea Odeh rightly convicted of Israeli supermarket bombing and U.S. immigration fraud. Rasmea's supporters have launched a national letter writing campaign to the Judge asking for leniency. As happened at the trial, Rasmea's supporters are planning protests and demonstrations leading up to and at the sentencing. Basil and his daughter, Terry Benaryeh, attended the trial. Terry wrote a guest column at Legal Insurrection, Rasmea Odeh is no hero:
It is with much sadness, disappointment, and frustration that I write to you today. I spent last week attending the Immigration Fraud Trial in Detroit of Rasmieh Odeh. I sat in that courtroom with my father (alone in our row) surrounded by supporters of Odeh. We endured days of hateful looks and the rehashing of a traumatic event that changed my family forever.

Posted by Andrew Branca on February 15, 2015 32 Comments
It has long been standard prosecutorial practice in Massachusetts to put any use of deadly force in claimed self-defense in front of a jury.  The attitude of prosecutors is that it might have been lawful self-defense, but it might not have been, so they're going to make you prove it to a jury before they'll cut you loose. Of course, with a trial defense of a murder (or similar) charge easily running into tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, this policy has the effect of "making the process the punishment."  Even if acquitted, one's life is largely destroyed economically, and likely emotionally. Even here in the Commonwealth, however, there is the occasional act of self-defense that is so obviously justified that the authorities are simply unwilling to present it to a jury as legitimate grounds for long-term incarceration. Once such case occurred last week in Springfield MA, a town I personally would never visit unless armed, hence my very rare visits--and then only to go to the Smith & Wesson facility still located there.   Indeed, it was such an open-and-shut case of lawful self-defense, even by Massachusetts standards, that the police announced within hours that they did not intend to bring charges against the defender.

Posted by New Neo on February 15, 2015 12 Comments
Is there anyone on Earth who is surprised at this news?
President Obama’s temporary deportation amnesty will make it easier for illegal immigrants to improperly register and vote in elections, state elections officials testified to Congress on Thursday, saying that the driver’s licenses and Social Security numbers they will be granted create a major voting loophole. While stressing that it remains illegal for noncitizens to vote, secretaries of state from Ohio and Kansas said they won’t have the tools to sniff out illegal immigrants who register anyway, ignoring stiff penalties to fill out the registration forms that are easily available at shopping malls, motor vehicle bureaus and in curbside registration drives.
The article contains quotes from various Democrats with the usual disclaimers, such as the idea that no one will actually do this so there's nothing to worry about. But it seems odd to assume that those who've already lived here illegally for years would all be so very loathe to risk breaking another law, especially if someone with an interest in their doing so were to offer them some cash for their troubles. Not to mention the fact that there are probably some amnesty recipients who might misunderstand the law and think that their new status confers on them the bona fide right to vote. Is the chance to register to vote really an unintended "loophole" through which the purpose of the amnesty order can be evaded? It is certainly possible it's a feature rather than a bug as far as Obama and the Democrats are concerned. In any event, there was and will be no effort by the Democratic Party or Obama to make it impossible for illegals with amnesty to vote, although this could have been done. The fact that the secretaries of state "don't have the tools to sniff out illegal immigrants who register" is no accident; they've been kept from having them.

Posted by Andrew Branca on February 15, 2015 76 Comments
When a 72-year-old retired school teacher faces a 10 year felony sentence (a likely life sentence) for possession of an unloaded 18th century flintlock pistol, one knows immediately that we can only be talking about a handful of states in which such a travesty can happen.  In this case, not surprisingly, it's the "Garden State" of New Jersey. (h/t Sebastian over at the Shall Not Be Questioned blog.) Gordon Van Gilder, who taught in the New Jersey school system for 34 years, is a collector of 18th century memorabilia.  He acquired a genuine antique flintlock pistol from that era, and had it unloaded and wrapped in a cloth in his glove compartment when he was pulled over for an alleged minor traffic violation.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 15, 2015 19 Comments
"Global warming" has long been bandied about as "settled science." However, in what can reasonably be termed as a "science-based crime", scientists have been caught adjusting their raw temperature data to enhance the supposed global warming effect. This fakery is really too bad for Professor Jacobson, who is spending the day shoveling the snow from Winter Storm Neptune.
The storm's predicted barometric pressure, a measure of the storm's intensity, "is typically observed with a Category 2 hurricane," the National Weather Service in Boston said. The heaviest snow will stretch from northeastern Massachusetts to coastal Maine with more than a foot expected, AccuWeather predicts. Wind gusts could approach 70 mph in some spots — strong enough to cause structural damage and widespread power outages, the weather service said.
You know a storm is going to be bad when it is given a name, and the state's governor makes a statement about it before the first flake strikes the ground.
“New Yorkers should take every appropriate precaution as subzero temperatures and blizzard-like conditions hit the state this weekend,” Cuomo said in statement. According to the National Weather Service, [Gov. Andrew] Cuomo said some areas of the state may experience some of the “coldest temperatures in generations.” Cuomo claimed that temperatures at LaGuardia Airport may drop to their lowest since 1943 and Central Park may experience its lowest temperature since 1888.
Back in California, I'll be strolling along the beach enjoying sunny weather. However, my state is also facing its own generational climate crisis -- a drought that is the worst in US history, and severe enough to earn the term "megadrought".
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