Constitutional Underpants
A Florida judge has proclaimed a constitutional right to show your under drawers in public. A Florida judge has deemed unconstitutional a law banning baggy pants that show off the wearer's underwear, local media reported Tuesday. A 17-year-old spent a night in jail last week after police arrested him for wearing low pants in Riviera Beach, southeast Florida. The law banning so-called ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on September 17, 2008 13:01
Killing the Electoral College?
McCain-Palin currently have a very slim lead over Obama-Biden in virtually every national poll (see RealClearPolitics and Pollster.com). The Electoral College is too close to call. RCP has it 273-265 for Obama (without toss-ups) while Electoral-Vote.com has it 257-247 for McCain with Virginia and Pennsylvania too close to call. Obviously, there's still a lot of campaigning to do and dramatic events ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on September 16, 2008 09:29
Obama Defends Habeas Corpus
In the political equivalent of a "Man Bites Dog" story, Barack Obama, presidential candidate, actually contrasted himself with his opponent on the grounds that he would better protect liberty than McCain."I have said repeatedly that there should be no contradiction between keeping America safe and secure and respecting our Constitution," Obama said. "During the Republican convention, you remember during the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on September 9, 2008 00:09
AKP Escapes Ban (Barely)
Via the BBC: Turkey's ruling party escapes ban Turkey's Constitutional Court has decided not to ban the ruling AK Party, accused of undermining the country's secular system. But the judges did cut half the AKP's treasury funding for this year. That'll show 'em! (I honestly have no idea which funds or what they are used for--and the story does not elaborate.) In all ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 30, 2008 15:15
Demographic Trends Favor Republicans
Despite the conventional wisdom that emerging demographic trends would lead to the emergence of a Democratic majority, it appears that there's some good trends for the Republicans. Reyling on Clark Bensen's PoliData apportionment estimates, Michael Barone finds, in a piece entitled "Demographic Trends Could Make It Harder for Obama and Democrats," that several states are likely to gain House seats (and ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 23, 2008 13:10
Janet Jackson Fine Overturned in Court
A federal court has thrown out the FCC's $550,000 fine against CBS for airing the Janet Jackson - Justin Timberlake "wardrobe malfunction" during the 2004 Super Bowl. The U.S. government's campaign against television indecency was dealt a blow on Monday when a court overturned a $550,000 fine against CBS Corp television stations for airing a glimpse of pop singer Janet Jackson's ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 22, 2008 07:02
Conservatives for Obama II
When I saw the headline "Hunter: This conservative activist is backing Obama" on memeorandum yesterday, I was intrigued. Duncan Hunter, arguably the most conservative of the 2008 Republican presidential aspirants was endorsing a liberal Democrat?! When it turned out the "Hunter" in question was Larry Hunter, a fellow of whom I'd never previously heard, my interest waned. After all, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 18, 2008 09:27
Heller Denied D.C. Gun Permit
Dick Heller, the plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court decision that overturned Washington, D.C.'s 32-year-old ban on handguns and established that the 2nd Amendment provided an individual right to own guns, was denied a handgun permit by the District yesterday. He was among the first in line Thursday morning to apply for a handgun permit. But when he tried to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 18, 2008 05:34
D.C. Bans Guns with Red Tape
The District of Columbia has made it legal for residents to own a handgun after being so ordered by the United States Supreme Court. But they're not making it easy. The plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that overturned Washington's strict 32-year-old handgun ban was among the first to arrive as the city started registering firearms. Dick Heller showed up early ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 17, 2008 11:51
Presidential Succession Crisis?
Bruce Ackerman has read a novel and heard unsubstantiated rumors and from these concocted a Constitutional crisis which he's convinced the folks at Slate to publish. New Yorker writer Jane Mayer's new book, The Dark Side, opens with a shocker. Apparently sometime in the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan issued a "secret executive order" that in the event of the death of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 15, 2008 18:04
