As we’ve covered before on Donklephant, while the US justice system is one of the best in the world, it is not without flaws. Every once in a while someone gets wrongfully convicted. As John Adams famously said, “It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished”. But what [...]

This is why I can never get on board with judges like Scalia. Is he a smart guy? Of course. But the following? Not so much… From Callawyer comes this Q&A: In 1868, when the 39th Congress was debating and ultimately proposing the 14th Amendment, I don’t think anybody would have thought that equal protection [...]

Well, as was mentioned when it happened, now unlimited, anonymous money can flow into the election cycle via what are now being dubbed “Super PACs”, and these entities can run advertising and say pretty much whatever they want. From Bloomberg: These political action committees can take unlimited company, union and individual donations and explicitly urge [...]

Proponents and opponents of gay marriage, the end is nigh. The ruling today was a thing of beauty, not just because Prop 8 was overturned, but because the language in the decision basically positions Gay Americans as equal to every other American in every single way. And, the cherry on top of the judicial sundae? [...]

Proposition C passed by 70% last night and that has a lot of folks wondering if more states will follow suit to get initiatives like these on the ballot during times when vote turn out is extremely low. The answer, of course, is yes. Similar initiatives will be on the ballot in Arizona and Oklahoma [...]

The title says it all, but here’s a bit more detail… From NY Times: Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $550 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission, one of the largest penalties ever paid by a Wall Street firm, to settle charges of securities fraud linked to mortgage investments. The S.E.C. filed a lawsuit [...]

The following video is heartbreaking, especially since it happened in my state. Still, this is happening every day in every other state over completely victimless crimes. Here’s a quick explanation if you can’t watch the video (via Radley Balko)… SWAT team breaks into home, fires seven rounds at family’s pit bull and corgi (?!) as [...]

Between this and their “high frequency trading”…are we seeing karma coming back around on GS? From NY Times: Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street powerhouse, was accused of securities fraud in a civil lawsuit filed Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which claims the bank created and sold a mortgage investment that was secretly intended [...]

Flipping through the channels last night, I happened upon this programming masterpiece and lingered because two attractive, lingerie-clad women were making out on a bed. The scene ended and the show was REALLY bad so I moved on. My beautiful wife looked up from her laptop and said something to the effect of “WTF is [...]

In the annals of Supreme Court history, there are perhaps only a handful of cases that go down in history as more egregious than what happened in Suzette Kelo v. City of New London. In that case, the Supreme Court approved an eminent domain taking by the City of New London, Connecticut that involved taking [...]

The jokes will be legion, but the policy is sound. And this is a move that Libertarians, Republicans and Democrats can all applaud. From The AP:The jokes will be legion, but the policy is sound. And this is a move that libertarians, republicans and democrats can all applaud. From The AP: WASHINGTON (AP) — The [...]

So, it looks like the artist behind the iconic poster of Barack Obama actually did use an A.P. image as a template to create it. Still, there’s a lot to discuss about copyright infringement, Fair Use, etc. However, first the details from the NY Times: The A.P. claimed in January that Mr. Fairey owed them [...]

If you’re not familiar with the word rescission, this is the practice of canceling policies because people didn’t reveal a preexisting condition. And it’s one of the key reasons why the health insurance companies can claim that there’s $100 billion in health care fraud every year. Here’s one example of what they consider fraud… “They [...]

So Canada has basically decriminalized marijuana possession and Mexico has added cocaine, meth, heroin and LSD to the mix. Wonder what’s going to happen in the US in the next decade…especially given the current reality in California where shops are selling pot out in the open? The Daily Beast has more… In an effort to [...]

You may have heard about this before, and one Florida lawmaker is finally doing something about it. Yes, I realize these laws are meant to prevent repeat offenses, but either up the penalties for those offenses or just leave them be. Once somebody gets out of prison, that should be it. End of story. If [...]

Many of us are already regard the Bush administration as a bad, distant memory, but today we’re reminded of just how morally bankrupt they were. From Wash Post: The dismissal of U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias of New Mexico in December 2006 followed extensive communication among lawyers and political aides in the White House who [...]

After the release of a study that showed somebody is 23 times more likely to get into an accident, Dems in Congress are working on legislation that would make it illegal across the country. From the AP: WASHINGTON — States would be required to ban driving while texting or face the loss of highway funds [...]

The A.P. continues to come up with one dumb idea after another. I have more on this craziness over at True/Slant.

As we continue to have conversations about reforming the way we cover our health care expenses, especially huge, end of life costs, the following story about euthanasia seems very topical. More at True/Slant.

This is an incredibly significant step because it paves the way for an actual revolution. From Times Online: Iran’s biggest group of clerics has declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election to be illegitimate and condemned the subsequent crackdown. The statement by the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qom is an act of defiance against the [...]