Students at West Texas A&M University have gone a year with a drag ban that the school's president acknowledged appears to violate "the law of the land."
Thinking about this post and your recent one on the Colorado insurrection decision. What SCOTUS does has ripple effects through the lower courts. The current Court has shown a predilection (not sure if that's the right word for it) to ignore precedent, or even the understood language of the Constitution, to get to a desired outcome. Plaintiffs, and more importantly lower court judges, react through cases that are likely to be struck down, but who knows? Why not take a shot and see if the Court is amenable to throwing out established precedent, or even perhaps understood rights. This results in an endless back and forth over stays and injunctions since its less and less clear what "likely to win on the merits" actually means these days.
Time was, unlawful restraint of speech was “irreparable harm” (Burns v Elrod). Now, somehow, blocking of reactionary state laws is irreparable harm to the states.
I've been a lawyer almost 40 years, all litigation and practiced in both federal and state courts for that entire time. The fact that this is even a subject for litigation - in 2024 - is a fucking embarrassment. And I blame Biden too. Why is Kacsmaryk in a one-judge district? Can't he be marginalized and neutered?
These students are awfully damn polite. I recognize that I'm a rebel queer from Cascadia and left wing even here, but I would hold a "political protest" of the University's and courts' decisions, and do it in drag and dare the fuckers to arrest me.
More power to the lawyers in this case, but IMHO this is one time when the lawyers need an assist from the people on the ground. Force the University's hand, which will force the courts' hands.
Alito called for a response by 5pm on the 13th for the SB4 case, too.
This is nuts. SCOTUS should come down, hard, on Texas and the Fifth. You have good judges in Texas, like David Ezra, and then you have horrid judges like Kacsmaryk. And in the end, it doesn't really matter, because the Fifth just takes it all and smushes into a bloody mess—now using arbitrary and confusing orders seemingly as a weapon against SCOTUS. Then everything goes to Alito, which gives anyone pause, and finally to the rest of SCOTUS, which answers questions not even asked in order to literally create law...because all of this isn't bad enough, they have to make it worse.
Ultimately, this is the Supreme Court's fault. They could signal that none of this is acceptable behavior. Instead, Alito and Thomas, and frequently others of the clown car, just throw fuel onto this bonfire.
This is what happens when people spend more time watching TV than learning about who is going to be President.
Hi, big fan of yours!! I was wondering if you would be able to do a series of audio recordings/podcasts of your emails? I love reading when I can but grad school sometimes doesn’t give me the time and I’d love to be able to listen to your reports on the way to class.
A judicial system is only as good as the judges, who are only as good as the system set up to choose them. The Democrat got more votes in 7 of the last 9 presidential elections, but 6 of the 9 SCOTUS justices were appointed by Republicans. We could have a 50-50 vote in November that will nonetheless result in Republicans having full control of all three branches of the federal government, for the first time in a century. Both of these circumstances are because our constitution is skewed to give extra weight to rural voters, White voters, conservative voters, especially in the Senate.
Given that our country was founded by wealthy White men who owned slaves, is our system 'broken'? Or is it functioning EXACTLY as it was intended to?
Thank you for your continual updates. I saw a bit about in the news (NYT, Vox) elsewhere as well.
I think this is one of those cases where a brief statement from a liberal would have been helpful.
Granting the practice of not doing that for most run of the mill orders, a statement that the case is troubling, even if for procedural reasons, it was sound (maybe it wasn't! I'll leave that open) not to grant the request.
Speaking of university campuses, I've been selling my books only personally for the last 30 years, not through any other outlet. I used to sell my massive book production on university campuses all over the world, or on Skype, interacting randomly with people 101. I sold a couple hundred thousands that way, very hard work, but I saw it as a hobby, I enjoyed it. Nowadays all is available only on my Buymeacoffee, but not many people are interested anymore in my legendary Restricted Serious Entertainment trademark, which is weird, both the Ebooks and the no-interest, the world has changed for worse indeed!
Wow. Just wow. When will University presidents start banning girls wearing pants on campus, as cross-dressing is against his own moral code?
Thinking about this post and your recent one on the Colorado insurrection decision. What SCOTUS does has ripple effects through the lower courts. The current Court has shown a predilection (not sure if that's the right word for it) to ignore precedent, or even the understood language of the Constitution, to get to a desired outcome. Plaintiffs, and more importantly lower court judges, react through cases that are likely to be struck down, but who knows? Why not take a shot and see if the Court is amenable to throwing out established precedent, or even perhaps understood rights. This results in an endless back and forth over stays and injunctions since its less and less clear what "likely to win on the merits" actually means these days.
Time was, unlawful restraint of speech was “irreparable harm” (Burns v Elrod). Now, somehow, blocking of reactionary state laws is irreparable harm to the states.
I've been a lawyer almost 40 years, all litigation and practiced in both federal and state courts for that entire time. The fact that this is even a subject for litigation - in 2024 - is a fucking embarrassment. And I blame Biden too. Why is Kacsmaryk in a one-judge district? Can't he be marginalized and neutered?
This is beyond ridiculous.
Re: your last sentence, I say, "HA! As if."
These students are awfully damn polite. I recognize that I'm a rebel queer from Cascadia and left wing even here, but I would hold a "political protest" of the University's and courts' decisions, and do it in drag and dare the fuckers to arrest me.
More power to the lawyers in this case, but IMHO this is one time when the lawyers need an assist from the people on the ground. Force the University's hand, which will force the courts' hands.
Alito called for a response by 5pm on the 13th for the SB4 case, too.
This is nuts. SCOTUS should come down, hard, on Texas and the Fifth. You have good judges in Texas, like David Ezra, and then you have horrid judges like Kacsmaryk. And in the end, it doesn't really matter, because the Fifth just takes it all and smushes into a bloody mess—now using arbitrary and confusing orders seemingly as a weapon against SCOTUS. Then everything goes to Alito, which gives anyone pause, and finally to the rest of SCOTUS, which answers questions not even asked in order to literally create law...because all of this isn't bad enough, they have to make it worse.
Ultimately, this is the Supreme Court's fault. They could signal that none of this is acceptable behavior. Instead, Alito and Thomas, and frequently others of the clown car, just throw fuel onto this bonfire.
This is what happens when people spend more time watching TV than learning about who is going to be President.
Hi, big fan of yours!! I was wondering if you would be able to do a series of audio recordings/podcasts of your emails? I love reading when I can but grad school sometimes doesn’t give me the time and I’d love to be able to listen to your reports on the way to class.
Thank you for all you do!!!
Is there no way to bring pressure on the 5ttmh circuit
to clean up their act? Are they so totally invincible?
Do they not have a Chief
Justice like Roberts at SCOTUS?
A judicial system is only as good as the judges, who are only as good as the system set up to choose them. The Democrat got more votes in 7 of the last 9 presidential elections, but 6 of the 9 SCOTUS justices were appointed by Republicans. We could have a 50-50 vote in November that will nonetheless result in Republicans having full control of all three branches of the federal government, for the first time in a century. Both of these circumstances are because our constitution is skewed to give extra weight to rural voters, White voters, conservative voters, especially in the Senate.
Given that our country was founded by wealthy White men who owned slaves, is our system 'broken'? Or is it functioning EXACTLY as it was intended to?
Thank you for your continual updates. I saw a bit about in the news (NYT, Vox) elsewhere as well.
I think this is one of those cases where a brief statement from a liberal would have been helpful.
Granting the practice of not doing that for most run of the mill orders, a statement that the case is troubling, even if for procedural reasons, it was sound (maybe it wasn't! I'll leave that open) not to grant the request.
The fact that Kacsmaryk hasn't been impeached yet is a disgrace.
Drag or drab, it's a ban. Too bad!
https://liborsoural.substack.com/p/ballroom-culture
Speaking of university campuses, I've been selling my books only personally for the last 30 years, not through any other outlet. I used to sell my massive book production on university campuses all over the world, or on Skype, interacting randomly with people 101. I sold a couple hundred thousands that way, very hard work, but I saw it as a hobby, I enjoyed it. Nowadays all is available only on my Buymeacoffee, but not many people are interested anymore in my legendary Restricted Serious Entertainment trademark, which is weird, both the Ebooks and the no-interest, the world has changed for worse indeed!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lsouralF/extras