Ignorantia Juris

A lot of people are talking about the drug raid on a Maryland mayor (that’s just two, trust me, there are more).  The raid where the cops shot the mayor’s dogs, pretended to have a no-knock warrant, and now admit that it is a possibility that the drugs were supposed to be intercepted en route by a hidden party, having nothing to do with the actual targets of the raid.  A few have brought up the fact that this conduct is not covered by the Exclusionary Rule, and that Justice Scalia has stated that a “new professionalism” … Continue Reading

Via Reason, Gun-toting in Georgia.

I do love that no one cared, no freaked out, nothing.  You know why?  Because it is an inanimate hunk of metal.

The Volokh Conspiracy is talking about secession and stupidity, and making some … interesting … arguments about secession being a viable option.

I agree that the constitutional/legal issue of secession has not been dealt with.  That being said, it is well nigh impossible to imagine circumstances in which the U.S. Government would allow a peaceable secession.  But the point that really interests me is this:
To avoid confusion, I should emphasize that I think that the federal government was right to suppress the Confederates’ efforts to secede. But not because secession is always illegal and impermissible. Rather, the Union was … Continue Reading

Heirs to the Knights Templar have filed suit against the Pope.

via Charles Stross.

Blonde Justice on young prosecutors.  It’ll make you cry.

So says the Economist.

I’m doing my part.  Without, incidently, having the city counsel shut down an local fast food eateries.

John McCain delivered a speech advocating the use of Surge-style tactics to fight crime.

This is by far the scariest thing I’ve read in the last few months.  And I read World War Z in July.
You go into neighborhoods, you clamp down, you provide a secure environment for the people that live there, and you make sure that the known criminals are kept under control. And you provide them with a stable environment and then they cooperate with law enforcement.
And you frighten innocent people.   And you waste resources.  And you piss all over the concept … Continue Reading

Reform Warrior Ted Frank has a post up, about a case out of Missouri.  He uses it as parable about plaintiff’s lawyer’s dirty tactics and greed.  But there is something missing.
Wayne Davis, Jr., had a .203 blood-alcohol level, when he drove his pickup across the center line of a Camden County, Missouri, highway on March 24, 2000, and crashed head on into the compact car of Edward and Virginia Johnson.

You’ll be happy to hear that the Johnsons didn’t try to blame the beer company or the auto manufacturer, and simply sued Davis. Davis’s insurer, Allstate, contacted the Johnsons’ … Continue Reading

These two links go hand in hand, certain governments are examining the possibility of searching media players at customs for pirated video at the behest of major media companies, and an Arizona federal court has ruled that if the End User License Agreement of software says it is License, even if you think you bought it and it appears to an outside observer you bought it, then it is a license and you don’t own it.  The former leads directly to the latter; media companies believe that after you have paid them, they still control the … Continue Reading

Order the lobster bisque.