Phila. attorney specializing in political law (http://t.co/7rEUTptfqI); DailyKos featured writer; pop culture blogger. Opinions are mine alone.
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Sep 9, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Friends, please stop promoting this crap. It's another press stunt from an entities which does them all the time to try to raise money from unsuspecting anti-Trumpers. See, e.g., dailykos.com/stories/2017/6…
It really bothers me to see REVENGE OF THE NERDS listed at all, let alone as high as 8th, on a list like this. Anyone viewing the film with contemporary eyes should be horrified by it. vulture.com/article/25-bes…
The capsule summary says it's "a satisfying series of fulfilled wishes, the nerds get their, you know, revenge."
It's actually watching the Nerds behaving worse than the jocks: spying on, then selling nude pictures of sorority members. And more. (2/)
Aug 26, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
What a patriot sounds like: McCain, 2008 RNC: "And, finally, a word to Senator Obama ... you have my respect and my admiration. Despite our differences, much more unites us than divides us. We are fellow Americans, and that's an association that means more to me than any other."
"I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency, for its faith in the wisdom, justice, and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea."
Aug 23, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I never put this together before, but: as @ZephyrTeachout helpfully noted in 2009, part of the argument for why the Senate, not SCOTUS tries impeachments is that, in Gouverneur Morris's words, "The supreme Court were too few in number and might be warped or corrupted." (1/)
Delegate Roger Sherman specifically objected to SCOTUS trying impeachments as being improper "because the Judges would be appointed by him."
That's right, Originalists: the Framers didn't want SCT justices ruling on corrupt acts by the President who nominated them. (2/)
Aug 21, 2018 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
5-2 decision holds that defendant's gangsta rap video, threatening named police officers who were to testify against him in criminal case, is not protected under First Amendment. Convictions for terroristic threats/witness intimidation stand.
Oh, gosh, Justice Wecht's concurring opinion -- on the intent test for such a conviction -- is a fun dive through music. Must've been fun for his clerks. cc: @alyankovicpacourts.us/assets/opinion…
Aug 21, 2018 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
This is how you end the #VMAs. From 25 years ago:
Ok, this is going to send me down a #VMA nostalgia cascade. Nirvana, "Rape Me/Lithium/Krist Please Don't Do That! (at 4:10)", 1992 VMAs.
Aug 11, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Among its many triumphs, BLACKKKLANSMAN gives us Spike Lee's most effective closing montage since BAMBOOZLED. Is it melodramatic? Sure. But it is earned and necessary. Do read @aoscott's review. nytimes.com/2018/08/09/mov…
Also: if you didn't know John David Washington was Denzel's son, you'd know it pretty quickly anyway. There's a distinctive cadence, especially in some of the small talk, for which he is a clear and proud inheritor.
Aug 10, 2018 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Hey, Progressive Lawyers of Twitter: pick a folder, whether it looks boring or interesting. Dive in. Report back. #StopKavanaugh
Brett Kavanaugh, in an August 31, 1998 edit memo to his co-authors of the Starr Report, less than two weeks before its release. archives.gov/files/research…
Aug 9, 2018 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
The 3d Cir opinion on Chaka Fattah et al's corruption convictions is now online. Bottom line: while it overturns certain charges and reinstates others, the number of 10-year concurrent sentences he's still facing means no change in his jail time. www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/16439… (1/)
All the convictions relating to the illegal excess campaign loan from Al Lord and the various schemes to repay him and Tom Lindenfeld stand, including RICO. Convictions relating to the phony Porsche sale, for which the trial court judge directed acquittal, are reinstated. (2/)
And as @IsaacSpaceman has long-ago noted, they're not terribly good for Asian honorees, either.
Jul 13, 2018 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
If it's July 13 and I'm still a Philadelphian, there's some videos I'm obligated to promote, again. 33 years ago today, Live Aid. First, Ashford & Simpson welcome Philly's own Teddy Pendergrass back to the stage for the first time since his accident.
From Wembley, U2's starmaking Live Aid performance -- a/k/a "the one in which Bono gets lost and the band is forced to vamp for a long time and has no idea where he is,"
Jul 3, 2018 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
On this day in 1776, true American hero Caesar Rodney - his body withered by cancer of the jaw and asthma - completed an epic 80-mi horse ride from Dover to Phila, through a thunderstorm, to break the tie in Delaware's delegation and cast the decisive vote for Independence. (1/)
His vote was decisive because the delegates wanted a unanimous vote; Delaware was deadlocked and New York abstaining (courteously). And in so doing, he apparently forfeited the ability to ever travel to London where a physician was available to treat his particular cancer. (2/)
Jun 27, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Every competent judicial nominee can give the speech about oh-how-important precedent is. That's not enough. An express commitment to Roe itself is necessary.
Here's what then-Judge Clarence Thomas said in 1991.
Jun 27, 2018 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
I'll make it simple, @chuckschumer: shut the Senate down. No unanimous consent, no nothing. A Supreme Court nomination cannot reach the floor in 2018.
We are far too close to the 2018 midterms for a nominee to be considered. In the past 50+ years, only one (Souter) has been submitted to the Senate this late in an even-numbered year.
Jun 25, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
And with that, any kind of redistricing reform in Pennsylvania, be it nonpartisan or the GOP-crafted disaster to gerrymander judicial districts as well, appears to be dead for the 2021 cycle. cc: @PoliticsWolf@DKElections
This means that within the restrictions of the PA Constitution (textual + LWV vs Torres ruling), the General Assembly draws 2021 congressional map subject to Gov veto, and a five-member commision with tiebreaker chosen by Dem-majority PA SCT draws the state legislative map.
Jun 20, 2018 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Believe it or not, there is existing caselaw on mascot-related hot dog injuries. (1/)
In Coomer v. Kansas City Royals Baseball Corp., 437 S.W.3d 184 (2014), the Missouri Supreme Court ruled on whether the club could be held liable when mascot Sluggerrr hurled a hot dog at the eye of an unprepared fan, causing injury. Team argued it was an inherent risk at games.
Jun 14, 2018 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
SCOTUS, 7-2, rules Minnesota's ban on "political" clothing/paraphrenalia at polling places is too vague to be enforceable. Chief Justice for the majority, Sotomayor/Breyer dissent. supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf…
So I can't embed images today, but I can give the flyover in a few tweets. Bear with me:
Jun 5, 2018 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
I've read a lot of smart things about #MasterpieceCakeshop in the past 30h, and it's clarified my thinking. There is so much unresolved, but I want to tease out a few things which seem clearer to me:
1. This particular baker would lose before the Supreme Court if the case had originally been heard before a neutral arbiter. The record seems clear that he did not want to produce goods for any same-sex ceremony, even if it required no artistic/personal expression on his part.
Mar 14, 2018 • 21 tweets • 6 min read
If I have to, I'll explain. Promise. But the first important thing to know is that this is not a count tonight; it's unofficial and does not include absentee or provisional ballots. The formal count begins Friday, & overseas/military absentees have until next Tues to come in.
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Ok, thread time.
1. Almost all the voting in these counties is done on touchscreen machines. Westmoreland County has a mix of touchscreen and optical scan. So a recount won't change things much -- only the Westmoreland paper ballots & absentees/provisionals could.
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