Weekend Law Roundup
Time to clean out the aggregator:
ITEM: California judge rules that women cannot be prosecuted for indecent exposure because the law reads “exposes his person.” Good grief. Read that way, the law would be unconstitutional gender discrimination in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. Prosecutor notes that another section of state law says that “words used in the masculine gender include the feminine and neuter.” Too bad New York’s highest court wouldn’t invoke that basic principle when refusing to sanction gay marriage. (More coverage at How Appealing.)
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ITEM: Federal judge upholds Colorado smoking ban in which casinos bought an exemption via the Politics of Pull — their “unique constitutional and statutory status in Colorado,” he calls it. Smoking bans qua infringements of property rights are bad enough; smoking bans for only those who are not politically connected are even more obnoxious.
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ITEM: Federal government bans Vegemite, to the horror of Australian expats. It seems that the U.S. bread industry has bought, via the Politics of Pull, the exclusive right to add folates to its products; hence folate-laden Vegemite is now contraband in the U.S. One wonders whether the Feds will censor the Men at Work song too. One also wonders whether ultra-conglomerate Kraft and its super-ultra-conglomerate parent, Altria, will buy an exemption from Congress. (Source. Related post here.)
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ITEM: Department of Justice sues Philadelphia for violating the Voting Rights Act by not providing enough help to non-English speakers. My opinion is unchanged: The right to vote is coupled with the obligation to learn English. You want a translator? Then bring your own.
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ITEM: Federal appellate court rules that the Fremont Experience (photos) in downtown Las Vegas is still a “street” and therefore a “traditional public forum” for First Amendment purposes, even though the City of Las Vegas had closed the area off to vehicular traffic and hired a private company to convert the area into a more inviting tourist destination. Sounds about right, but if Las Vegas had sold (i.e., privatized) the area outright, then the analysis would have been different, despite some disturbing language in the decision suggesting otherwise.
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ITEM: Anti-gay bigot gets fired from Cargill for insubordination after repeatedly refusing to remove anti-gay-marriage message from his pickup truck parked on company property. Anti-gay bigot activists crying — get this — discrimination. Anti-gay hack politicians getting uppity. Of course, the fact that Cargill is a private company and that the parking lot is private property and that the bigot wasn’t actually discriminated against for being straight all get conveniently overlooked. (Source.)
Similar Posts:
- Litigation Roundup
- On the Nebraska Same-Sex Ruling
- Linkfest — Special “Gays Be Everywhere” Edition
- Linkfest: Gay Politics Roundup
- “This Land is Private Land, This Land is Public Land”
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