Daily Archives: December 16, 2003

Kudos to the 9th Circuit Court

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For doing this good deed:

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that prosecuting these medical marijuana users under a 1970 federal law is unconstitutional if the marijuana isn’t sold, transported across state lines or used for non-medicinal purposes.

Volokh blogger Randy Barnett argued and won this case and he provides technical details and more links here.
We need more like this:

The decision was a blow to the Justice Department, which argued that medical marijuana laws in nine states were trumped by the Controlled Substances Act, which outlawed marijuana, heroin and a host of other drugs nationwide.

No, what we really need is for the myriad local, state and federal drug laws to be eliminated.
Via Talkleft.

Congress Critters aren’t Immune Either

This entry was posted in Constitution Economics Law Law Enforcement Libertarianism Regulation on by

Immune to what? The same thing as the police in the last post: wasting their time (not worth much) and ours with laws that should not exist in the first place.
Nick at Hit & Run tells us about Rep. Doug Ose’s (R-Calif.) current important legislation:

to increase the FCC’s infamous seven dirty words to eight (by doubling up on versions of “asshole”).
No grammatical novice, Ose wants to ban noun forms as well as “verb, adjective, gerund, participle, and infinitive forms” of the words too terrible to speak. Ose is pissed–excuse me, peeved–that U2 frontman Bono got away with saying “fucking” during the Golden Globes Award broadcast a while back.

Ose is not alone in his concern nastiness on the airwaves:

The FCC’s enforcement bureau ruled that Bono’s utterance was neither indecent nor obscene because it did not describe a sexual function.
Sens. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.) and 11 Republicans, including Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), introduced a resolution last week blasting the FCC’s ruling on Bono.

These critters need to spend more time at home relaxing instead of worrying about our sensitve ears. Get rid of the rules/laws and let folks use the tuner to listen to whatever makes them happy.
Nick closes his post with this question:

Question for all you amateur lawyers out there: Would it be illegal to go on TV and call Ose a fucking asshole who’s wasting everyone’s time with shit like this?

I don’t know about the legality but I do know that the expletives whether used as above or by Bono add no value to the discourse so why use them in the first place.

Raise Taxes for This?

This entry was posted in Constitution Domestic Terrorism Drug Laws Economics Law Enforcement Libertarianism on by

Alex Knapp is right on with this:

Don’t the cops in Cleburne have anything better to do with their time? Well, don’t get me wrong–I don’t really blame the cops. They’re just doing their job. It’s whoever assigned them to the damn job that deserves the blame.

He is referring to this story from Cleburne, Texas:

A Texas housewife is in big trouble with the law for selling a vibrator to a pair of undercover cops

You’d think Texans would have learned something from Lawrence v Texas (PDF). On the other hand maybe this one will go to the supremes as well and they will eliminate another bunch of laws that are both unconstitutional and unacceptable in a free country.
On the lighter side my first reading of Alex’s post had me wondering about the context of this police scam: were they raiding an adult products store? Or what?
You guessed it! I’ll bet both husbands and wives might find the demonstrations quite interesting:

For the past year, Webb has sold the company’s line of vibrators, gels, lubricants, strawberry-flavored nipple cream and “edible passion puddings.” The merchandise is offered for sale in private, Tupperware-style parties to women who may be reluctant to visit an adult novelty store.

I wonder if these sales folks use any special techniques to maximize audience participation.
Update (12/16): Howard Bashman has been covering this in detail and I learn from him that we don’t need this case to go to the supremes as there is already an Alabama case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Go check out Howard’s posts.