ACORN has just filed a lawsuit in New York challenging as “unconstitutional” its loss of federal funds after its role in a child prostitution scandal was exposed.  Earlier, it sued those who exposed its role in that scandal for $2 million, claiming that the exposure violated its privacy rights under state audiotaping laws.  ACORN claims that Congress’s vote to cut off federal funds to ACORN is an unconstitutional bill of attainder.

ACORN is a left-wing group that launched President Obama’s career as a community…

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ACORN is now suing the whistleblowers who allegedly filmed it promoting illegal sexual activities for $2 million! And not just them, but also the conservative web site that made the video public! ACORN seeks an injunction to silence them — a classic example of an unconstitutional prior restraint.

That’s a flagrant violation of the First Amendment, but the lawsuit was filed in state court in Baltimore, where the judges are very liberal, so who knows if ACORN’s lawsuit will be dismissed. Even if it…

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Ars Technica recently posed the question: Did Family Guy cause 179,997 FCC Indecency Complaints? Matt Lasar concludes that indeed it did:

We go over and check out the Parents Television Council’s website. And sure enough, there’s a plausible instigator—a PTC viewer action alert crusade against a March 8 episode of the animated comedy show the PTC just loves to hate, Fox TV’s Family Guy. . . As is usually the case with these campaigns, PTC gave its readers the chance to “take action…

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Can you sue your employer because your co-workers listen to raunchy radio programs?

A federal appeals court is reconsidering its 2008 ruling that you can. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Reeves v. C.H. Robinson Worldwide said you could do so, under the dubious theory that it is “sexual harassment” that’s “based on” your sex. But on May 29, it voted to rehear that case.

U.C.L.A. Law Professor Eugene Volokh criticized the decision on First Amendment grounds, while I criticized the…

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California legislators, along with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, are still trying to ban the sale of violent video games to minors. Now, they’re taking their fight to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Similar state bans on violent games have been deemed unconstitutional by the courts again and again and again (and again). But knowing that the law is in blatant violation of the First Amendment hasn’t stopped the “Governator” (who, ironically, has starred in more than a few violent movies over the last couple decades) from trying to impose his parenting…

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Just what is up with the section of the Obama administration’s budget which plans to ‘phase-out’ tax deductions for charitable giving?  Frankly this is a little unnerving to someone who works for a nonprofit organization like I do, I have heard similar sentiments among those from all parts of the political spectrum.  To this news, there are those who would say: it only affects those  “rich” folks making over $200K/year.  To which I say: So what?  Furthermore, the ‘rich’ are responsible for a good deal of…

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Apple's 1984 "Big Brother" ad

An article over at Ad Age brings up an angle on the whole auto industry bailout probably not considered much before.  The fact that a yet-to-be-appointed “car czar” will have control over a multibillion dollar advertising budget for the big three.  Under the guise of “oversight,” this would effectively “Create World’s Most Powerful Marketing Exec[utive].”  

The draft rescue plan for Detroit sent to the White House by Congress yesterday calls for the appointment of a “car czar”…

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The auto bailout being fashioned by liberal lawmakers with Bush’s apparent acquiescence contains no meaningful limits on the bloated union contracts that have helped make American automakers uncompetitive by giving autoworkers compensation that exceeds $70 per hour, meaning that the billions of dollars spent on the bailout will simply be wasted.

The bailout is similar to the failed British auto bailout of the 1970s, which destroyed whatever chance the British auto industry had left to survive by diverting its focus from producing good cars at low…

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Ithaca: Where the 1960s Never Ended.

Ithaca, New York, home to my noble alma mater, has long been considered a place where the 1960s never ended. Now, via William Jacobson in The American Thinker we find that the Ithaca Common Council has voted to make Ithaca a “sanctuary city” for anti-war protesters–who, frankly, don’t need sanctuary anyway. But the Common Council hasn’t seen it fit to apply the same standard to those who might support the Iraq war. When a member of the…

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The latest attack on anonymous online speech comes from Kentucky State Rep. Tim Couch (R), who proposed legislation last week to ban posting anonymous messages online. Couch’s bill requires users to register their true name and address before contributing to any discussion forum, with the stated goal of cutting down on “online bullying.”

The right to speak anonymously is protected by the First Amendment, and the Kentucky proposal raises serious Constitutional questions. In Talley v. California, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a…

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