By Noah Marks The minor political crisis that unfolded over the weekend, fallout from the Presidential pardon of “Mac” and “Cheese” and Sasha and Malia’s apparent boredom, has claimed at least one person’s job. The President, puzzled by the tradition, echoed his recent immigration executive order by claiming that the act is “fully within” his “legal authority” to “spare the lives of two turkeys . . . from a terrible and delicious fate.” Presidential turkey pardons apocryphally date to Harry …
Facebook Threats: Will Prosecutors Have to Prove Subjective Intent?
By Ana Choi Today, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for Elonis v. United States, an important case dealing with freedom of speech in the context of social media. Petitioner Anthony Elonis was charged and convicted under 18 U.S.C. § 875(c)—which forbids “any threat to injure the person of another”—after composing a series of threatening Facebook posts about his wife, his co-workers, law enforcement officers, and even an unspecified elementary school. The question to be decided is …
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What We Really Should Do This Thanksgiving
By Tom Watts In the aftermath of Ferguson, I keep reading pieces like this: what we should do now is learn, understand, and think. I find this advice irritating, because it seems futile. Things look bad right now, and social change will never come from progressives simply becoming more informed. We have to take the next step: talk with people. In particular, talk with people who disagree with you. Do it over Thanksgiving, and keep doing it throughout the whole holiday season. If you can broaden …
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Let’s Make a Deal
By Daniel Pyon As the dust settles from the midterm elections, this much is clear: the final two years of President Obama’s administration will be one of two-party control. Accordingly, journalists and pundits are busy predicting what divided government means for issues on the President’s legislative agenda ranging like immigration, climate change, tax reform, and presidential appointments in both the executive and judicial branches. Of all these items, however, the area most likely to see …
Four places are changing the way we think about marijuana
by Monis Khan Last Tuesday's midterm elections have left liberals panic-stricken as they lament lopsided losses by Democratic party candidates for U.S. Congress. For progressives paying attention to ballot measures at the state level, however, there is cause for encouragement. Even with the lowest turnout nationwide for any midterm election since World War II—a metric that perhaps would not bode well for populist policies on the ballot—voters in Oregon and Alaska bolstered a growing trend of …
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A SCOTUS Ruling on Gay Marriage: What’s it Actually Worth?
By HLPR Online Staff Since the Supreme Court’s June 2013 ruling in United States v. Windsor—holding the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional—gay rights advocates have brought a tidal wave of lawsuits across the country successfully challenging state bans on same-sex marriage. On October 6th of this year, the Supreme Court denied cert in cases from five states, leaving in place lower court rulings striking down same-sex marriage bans. Though many had hoped the Court would hear the …
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