"Give 'em an inch" department:
The Indiana Senate has approved a bill making it illegal for drivers to send or read text messages, but also banning talking on the phone.
[. . .]
Sen. Brent Steele of Bedford proposed an amendment adopted Monday applying the ban to all cell phone use by drivers. He says that using a phone to make a call can be as dangerous as texting.
Hard to resist a story that opens with this:
A moped-riding would-be gigolo is behind bars this morning for trying to bribe a female police officer with $5 and an offer of intimacy.
New York Times legal commentator Linda Greenhouse analyzes Antonin Scalia's blistering dissents and wonders what "this smart, rhetorically gifted man thinks his bullying accomplishes?" She ventures the opinion that he cannot contain himself because he has become so furious and resentful at not getting all that much accomplished.
But Scalia had a better explanation in 2008 when The Wall Street Journal asked him if he viewed judicial dissent as a form of advocacy.
Illinois has banned the death penalty, and it wasn't about morality:
Inmates like the serial killer John Wayne Gacy, whose guilt was never in question, were put to death and caused little controversy. But when a miscarriage of justice was discovered and a death row inmate was set free, the police and prosecutors contended that it was an isolated incident, an anomaly. They got little argument.
Planned Parenthood supporters and abortion opponents had dueling rallies in Indy this week. A couple of points:
1. Legislatures are on shaky moral ground when they order people to lie:
Turner's measure also would require abortion providers to tell patients that abortion carries risks, including the possibility of breast cancer -- a claim disputed by the American Cancer Society . . .
Charlie White either doesn't get it or doesn't care:
Almost as soon as he was indicted on seven felony charges Thursday afternoon, pressure began mounting for Secretary of State Charlie White to step aside, with people in both parties -- including Gov. Mitch Daniels -- saying it's wrong for Indiana's top elections official to serve under the cloud of alleged voter fraud, theft and perjury.
Shock No. 1: There is actually somebody in the federal government who takes illegal immigration seriously -- U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, which has the responsibility for immigration issues. Shock No. 2: Smith is focused on the one approach most likely to succeed.
Regarding illegal immigration, however, he proposes a program of "attrition through enforcement." Workplace enforcement, that is.
We all know Fred Phelps and his merry band. They are disgusting, despicable, depraved. And constitutionally protected:
The First Amendment protects hateful protests at military funerals, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday in an 8-1 decision.
The erudite* Antonin Scalia can't resist the urge to show off:
Scalia even seemed to accuse his colleagues - or the reader - of having a limited vocabulary. When he referred to the majority's "dystopian" view of Detroit, he added a footnote:
"The opposite of utopian. The word was coined by John Stuart Mill as a caustic description of British policy," Scalia added.
