A Farewell to Pants
In the least surprising development of the week, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has affirmed the order dismissing the case of Pants Judge v. District of Columbia, meaning that Roy L. Pearson, Jr., has lost again. This…
Constitutional Law
Airport Worker Caught Taking Picture of Scanner Screen Showing Female Worker “Naked”
Hold it — I distinctly remember being told that under TSA rules this could not happen. It did? Well, at least we can be thankful that the scanners aren't actually capable of storing or sending the images they take of…
Stop the Sag, Says State Senator
On Sunday, New York state senator Eric Adams announced the start of the latest campaign to raise the pants of America's youth. Adams described the "Stop the Sag!" campaign as a major effort to fight what he called the "insidious…
Strip Searches Lead to Discovery of Comical String Cite, Among Other Things
In February, the Ninth Circuit ruled that police have qualified immunity from civil-rights claims based on a department policy of strip-searching all arrestees (not convicts, just arrestees) who will be put into "general population." Bull v. City and County of…
Please Fill Out This Form If Planning to Overthrow the Government. Thank You.
Oh, paranoid Americans obsessively concerned with security issues. . . . Will your font of genius-level freedom-raping ideas ever run dry? In South Carolina, anyone engaged in "subversive activities" must now register with the Secretary of State. Failure to comply with the Subversive…
Man Cited for “Rocking Out” to John Denver Tunes
Responding to what must be the first and only nuisance complaint ever based on the music of John Denver (based on its volume, anyway), police in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, ticketed a man on January 13 after neighbors complained the Denver…
Judge Randomly Drug-Screened Courtroom Spectators, Complaint Alleges
The term "due process" is hard to define exactly, but one thing it doesn't mean is "we do this all the time," a lesson that a judge in Tennessee learned the hard way. Judge Durwood Moore was censured last year,…
Police Dog: The Meat-Smuggler’s Nemesis
In August, police in Framingham, Massachusetts, responded to a report that a gas station had been robbed. They brought along a tracking dog and released it in the direction in which witnesses said the robber had gone. Just a few…
Marriage Illegal in Texas, Says Candidate
Barbara Ann Radnofsky, formerly a partner with Vinson & Elkins and now a Democratic candidate for Texas Attorney General, has pointed out the uncomfortable fact that a 2005 amendment to the state constitution, which was designed to ban gay marriage, may in fact…
Washington Honking Case Taken Up by State Supreme Court
I am very pleased.