There’s much more at stake than cake

Erwin Chemerinsky writes for Daily Journal (registration required), Nov. 14, 2017 This should be an easy case for the Supreme Court. Businesses should not be accorded a constitutional right to discriminate based on sexual orientation or race or sex or religion.

These people think Trump is too liberal on climate

Holly Doremus quoted by The Washington Post, Nov. 13, 2017 That argument — about the costs of cutting emissions — could be gaining traction in Pruitt’s EPA, said Holly Doremus. …  “The EPA is sympathetic to that argument now in a way that it wasn’t in 2009,” she said.

Republican Party’s tax plan could raise taxes for graduate students

Eric Rakowski quoted by The Daily Californian, Nov. 12, 2017 “I’d say no, (protecting educational tenets is) not going to be a high priority,” Rakowski said. “(There are) other things that are going to get the attention. I don’t think that students have a sufficiently powerful lobby.”

Experts weigh in on use of paralytic drug in executions

Megan McCracken quoted by Reno Gazette Journal, Nov. 9, 2017 “From a legal perspective, we know it’s beyond question that if the person is conscious or aware, that would lead to an excruciating death,” McCracken said. “That would violate the Constitution.”

Us vs. them: the sinister techniques of ‘Othering’ – and how to avoid them

john a. powell writes for and Ian Haney López quoted in The Guardian, Nov. 8, 2017 The opposite of Othering is not “saming”, it is belonging. And belonging does not insist that we are all the same. It means we recognise and celebrate our differences, in a society where “we the people” includes all the […]

What explains U.S. mass shootings? International comparisons suggest an answer

Franklin Zimring and Gordon Hawkins study cited by The New York Times, Nov. 7, 2017 The United States is not actually more prone to crime than other developed countries, according to a landmark 1999 study by Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins. … American crime is simply more lethal. … They concluded that the discrepancy, […]

Donald Trump is acting like a dictator by blocking critics on Twitter, law scholars say

Erwin Chemerinsky brief cited by Independent, Nov. 7, 2017 The group, which includes Erwin Chemerinsky …  said: “Cultivating a false sense that political leaders are adored by the public is critical to warping the public’s understanding of how those leaders are really viewed by the public and, in turn, to quashing democratic impulses.”

Some believe access to internet is so crucial, it is a human right

Ann Ravel quoted by Press-Telegram, Nov. 7, 2017 Ann Ravel … said the latter type of right hasn’t been bestowed upon internet access. “The courts have not enunciated this as a basic legal right,” Ravel said. “And as far as I know legislatures have not so indicated either.”