Archive for June, 2015

Minnesota sex offender program is ruled unconstitutional

Saturday, June 20th, 2015

“A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) violates the U.S. Constitution by confining offenders indefinitely without giving them access to the courts and other protections of the criminal justice system.”

Read the full article by Chris Serres in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Are we too hard on sex offenders? Lenore Skenazy on Emily Horowitz

Friday, June 5th, 2015

“She’ll be reading from her book this Sunday night, June 7, at the Bluestockings bookstore, 172 Allen St., on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, at 7 p.m. Admission is free.

“If you’re wondering what it looks like when an academic talks the talk, walks the walk, and changes the lives of future cops and former convicts, don’t miss it.

“I know I won’t.”

Read the full article by Lenore Skenazy in the Downtown Express.

Questionable Committments

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2015

“No one wants to allow a child to be hurt, and laws that create mechanisms to “keep bad men away” are seductive because they make us feel safer – but that safety is an illusion that comes at a great price. As a society we are not capable of predicting who will or will not reoffend, and we must not punish someone for imaginary future crimes. When we begin to define individuals as criminals for who they are or what they think, instead of holding them accountable for specific acts, we rob them of their constitutional right to due process and dangerously erode the barriers that are meant to keep the awesome power of the state, to take away our lives and our liberty, at bay.”

Read the article by Galen Baughman in Cato Unbound.

New Jersey judge orders newspaper to take down article

Monday, June 1st, 2015

“Permanent injunctions following a full trial may be constitutional, if the speech fits within some First Amendment exception, such as perhaps the libel exception. Preliminary injunctions are almost never constitutional, as the Pentagon Papers case shows. And in any event, any injunction would have to be based on a showing that the entire article was indeed within a First Amendment exception — it’s hard for me to see how this could be so.”

Read the article by Eugene Volokh in the Washington Post.