"Blue Lives Matter" Is the Inevitable Endpoint of Hate Crime Laws

This week, Louisiana became the first state to enact a “Blue Lives Matter” law, which makes attacking police a hate crime. Now, New York is considering a similar law. This is the inevitable political evolution of our well-intentioned but misguided hate crime laws.
Letters From Death Row: Texas Inmate Jeff Wood, Scheduled to Die This Month
We periodically publish letters from death row inmates who are approaching their execution dates. Today we hear from one of the few Americans scheduled for execution despite never personally killing anyone.
Both Political Parties Say They Want to Regulate the Banks. Will We Regulate the Banks?
This year, both the Democratic and the Republican platforms say they want to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, which separates commercial and investment banking and is generally hated by banks. So what do the real “insiders” think will happen?
Airbnb, Just Pay Your Taxes and Follow the Law and Shut Up
Airbnb is set for a new round of fundraising that would value the company at $30 billion. How do we regulate this ephemeral behemoth before it swallows our urban real estate markets whole?
After a 4-4 ruling following the death of Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court says it will not reopen the Friedrichs case about public union dues, which means that public unions are safe, for now. Please laugh in Chris Christie’s stupid face today, if you see him.
"Fuckman-Ass" Judge and "Donkey-Dicked" Murder Suspect Are America's Greatest Comic Duo
Laurel and Hardy. Aykroyd and Belushi. Nixon and Haldeman. Soon these names will be joined by “Fuckman and Donkey Dick,” better known as Judge Bryant Durham and alleged killer Denver Allen, whose performance in a Georgia courtroom last week easily ranks them among America’s most legendary comedy teams.
New Startup That Sends Dossiers On Your Private Social Media Profiles To Potential Landlords Should Be Illegal
A new startup wants to take a “deep dive” into the private social media activity of prospective tenants—their chats, check-ins, how many times they’ve posted words like “pregnant” or “loan”—and score their “personality” for their potential landlord. Why would anyone let this happen? Because “people will give up their…
San Francisco NIMBYs May Be Sacrificed So That Housing Can Live
Nowhere is America’s affordable housing crisis more acute than in the California Bay Area. The problem: piss poor planning. Incredibly, an actual solution may be at hand.
It Sounds Crazy, But You Might Be Able to Sue Your Bank Again Soon
One thing that is too boring for anyone to pay attention to and also will potentially destroy your life is the rise of “forced arbitration” rules that make it extremely hard to sue corporations. But the tide may be turning.
Uber Gets Off Easy
This week, Uber settled two major lawsuits challenging its treatment of drivers as independent contractors, rather than actual employees. It got off very, very cheap.
A new ACLU report shines a light on the bizarre and troubling netherworld of South Carolina’s “summary courts,” which “refuse to provide counsel to the poor at all stages of the criminal process, and force defendants who can’t afford to pay fines to instead serve time in jail.”
Thousands of Prisoners Are Doubled Up in Claustrophobic Solitary Cells
Solitary confinement is torture. Confinement in a solitary cell with a cellmate? That my be even worse.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Wrote College Op-Eds Railing Against "Queers"
Last year, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker appointed a judge named Rebecca Bradley to his state’s Supreme Court. It may or may not bother you that she wrote college newspaper columns decrying “immoral” “queers” with AIDS.
Black Former Law Students of Antonin Scalia Recall Unfair Treatment at the University of Chicago
While on the Supreme Court, Justice Antonin Scalia, who died this month at 79, worked to make society less just for black Americans, railing against affirmative action and seeking to undermine the Voting Rights Act. His admirers would attribute this not to rank bigotry, but to his textualist legal philosophy.…
There Is No Way in Which the War on Drugs Is Not a Failure
It has been clear for many years that America’s “War on Drugs” is a failure from a moral perspective. For you hard-headed realists, it is worth remembering that it is a failure from an economic perspective, as well.
