A Stitch in Haste

Interesting:
A state appeals court ruled Wednesday that a western Pennsylvania township violated constitutional protections in forcing a sexually oriented business to close on minor holidays such as Flag Day.
…
The video and book store, Adultland XXX, faced the prospect of being shut down for a year because it conducted sales on Flag Day 2006. It previously [...]

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The District of Columbia's subway bureaucracy has announced that it will commence warrantless, suspicionless searches at subway entrances:
The program is modeled after one begun three years ago in New York that has withstood legal challenges. However, experts said it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of such searches, beyond assuring the public that police are [...]

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Students "do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate." Except when they do…
ITEM: When science class becomes "forensic science" class —
A science teacher at Comstock Middle School [in Dallas] is accused of trying to use a little bit of science to track down her missing belongings.
"She said some of the students [...]

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It's a long-standing principle in the law that "predatory" crimes should not be applied to those whom the law is meant to protect. So, for example, minors usually (though not always) cannot be prosecuted for statutory rape. Due process demands (or ought demand) that someone cannot simultaneously be the perpetrator and the victim of the [...]

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This was absolutely not the kind of "reform" I was hoping for:
The NYPD lieutenant from Long Island who authorized the use of a stun gun during a fatal police confrontation with a naked Brooklyn psychiatric patient committed suicide Thursday morning, police said.
On his 46th birthday, Lt. Michael Pigott of Sayville shot himself at Floyd Bennett [...]

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Just when you think the incidents can't get any more absurd or outrageous:

To say, "What were these cops thinking?" is too generous — they obviously weren't thinking at all. Which is the whole problem with prevailing law enforcement attitudes toward the Taser. The willingness to use the device, not as a substitute to the use [...]

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To review: I consider Taser use to be acceptable only as alternative to the use of deadly force, not as an alternative to mere exertion by a law enforcement officer, and certainly not as an alternative to calling for backup. The Taser is meant to save lives, not to save overtime charges and certainly not [...]

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It's about time:
Today, a federal judge lifted an unconstitutional gag order that had prevented three Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) students from disclosing academic research regarding vulnerabilities in Boston's transit fare payment system. The court found that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Agency (MBTA) had no likelihood of success on the merits of its claim under [...]

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The win:
Yelling homophobic or racist names is free speech protected by the Oregon Constitution if the insults don't lead to violence, Oregon's high court has ruled.
In a unanimous ruling, the Oregon Supreme Court struck down the "abusive speech" provision of the state harassment law that prohibited insulting a person publicly in a way intended to [...]

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To review: There is a First Amendment right not only to free speech, but also to anonymous speech, and especially to anonymous political speech. That has never been seriously doubted in our history, and is deeply entrenched in Supreme Court precedent. See, e.g., McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission, 514 U.S. 334 (1995) ("Under our Constitution, [...]

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