Mar 16, 2016 | President Obama, Supreme Court and Other Judicial Issues
Published: The Daily Dot (March 16, 2016) President Barack Obama announced his appointment to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court on Wednesday. His choice is Merrick Garland, one of the most conservative judges ever chosen by a modern Democratic president. The Internet doesn’t seem particularly impressed. Perhaps this is because Garland doesn’t have much in the way of a...
Feb 22, 2016 | Civil Liberties, Internet Culture, Supreme Court and Other Judicial Issues
Published: The Daily Dot (February 22, 2016) When it comes to the field of cyber law, it’s rather ironic that the next Supreme Court justice will replace the late Antonin Scalia. After all, the famous constitutional originalist revealed in 2012 that, if he had his druthers, his successor would be University of Chicago law professor Frank Easterbrook, a man who once compared studying Internet law...
Feb 14, 2016 | Civil Liberties, Internet Culture, Supreme Court and Other Judicial Issues
Published: The Daily Dot (February 14, 2016) Say what you will about Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia–and pundits and people on both the left and the right have been doing just that since his passing on Saturday–but when it comes to Internet freedom, he may have been one of the great legal minds of our time. Let’s start with a 2005 case in which an Internet service provider named Brand X...
Sep 25, 2015 | Criminal Justice/Prison-Industrial Complex, mic, Race and Racism, Supreme Court and Other Judicial Issues
Published: The Daily Dot (September 25, 2015) Back in October, 59-year-old Wayne County Jail inmate Abdul Akbar suffered multiple bodily injuries—after prison guards tried to restrain him. Reports obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request claim that Akbar became violent after he overslept and missed breakfast, destroying a computer and resisting guards’ orders when they tried to...
Aug 11, 2015 | Elections, Plutocracy, Supreme Court and Other Judicial Issues
Published: Question of the Day (August 11, 2015) The United States election system may not be fatally flawed, but in many ways it’s on life support. Here are five reasons why that is the case: 1. We make it harder for people to vote. For one thing, as Eric Black explained in an article for MinnPost, most democratic nations don’t require citizens to register to vote — it happens automatically....
Aug 6, 2015 | mic, Supreme Court and Other Judicial Issues
Published: Daily Dot (August 6, 2015) Sandra Bland’s family is looking for answers—following the 28-year-old’s untimely and mysterious death in a Texas jail cell—and they believe a lawsuit is their last best hope. While they believe it’s “possible” Bland took her own life, the family filed a federal suit this week to help provide closure in the case that’s taken social media by storm....
Jul 6, 2015 | Criminal Justice/Prison-Industrial Complex, Death Penalty, mic, Original Source Salon.com, Science and Technology, Supreme Court and Other Judicial Issues
Jun 27, 2015 | Gay Rights and Other LGBTQIA Issues, Love and Dating, mic, Supreme Court and Other Judicial Issues
Published: Good Men Project (June 27, 2015) Matt Rozsa dismisses the top three arguments against #MarriageEquality so everyone can embrace the change. ___ Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex couples throughout America have the right to get married, it’s time to confront the inevitable backlash that has already begun to erupt: From homophobes complaining that their civil liberties...
Jun 12, 2015 | Elections, Elections - Other, Plutocracy, Supreme Court and Other Judicial Issues
Published: Daily Dot (June 12, 2015) A new Iowa group wants to teach the Internet about the evils of money in politics. Called “Iowa Pays the Price,” the Washington Times reports that “the group plans to spend about $500,000 on an educational campaign that will include social media and online videos.” However, the Internet seems to already share the sentiment. Last week, a comprehensive survey...
Mar 6, 2015 | mic, Race and Racism, Supreme Court and Other Judicial Issues
Published: Daily Dot (March 6, 2015) Michael Brown's parents announced this week that they are planning on filing a civil wrongful death lawsuit over their son's death “very shortly.” Coming on the heels of the ongoing lawsuit against New York City by Eric Garner’s family, it’s easy to inaccurately characterize this story as a symptom of our nation’s allegedly lawsuit-happy society (although...