Justice Stephen Breyer — a Bill Clinton appointee who has served on the Supreme Court since 1994 — has chosen this moment to admonish liberals for failing to respect the rule of law.

He’s done so despite the fact that less than five months ago, a violent mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters invaded the US Capitol in a vain attempt to keep Trump, who had just lost his bid for reelection, in office without an electoral mandate. In the months that followed, state-level Republicans loyal to Trump passed legislation that appears to serve no purpose other than to restrict voting. And now, Republican leaders are blocking a bipartisan investigation into the January 6 riots at the Capitol.

And yet, in the midst of what might be the greatest threat to liberal democracy in the United States since Jim Crow, Breyer warns that liberals are endangering the rule of law because a small minority of Democrats have suggested taking aggressive action to rein in the Supreme Court.

And Breyer is doing this at the same time that he’s urging Democrats to find common ground with a party that refuses to investigate an attack that endangered much of Congress.

716. Use Immunity, Transactional Immunity, Informal Immunity, Derivative Use

Congress enacted the use immunity provisions in 1970, replacing a myriad of specialized immunity statutes enacted over the years for specialized purposes, such as the Atomic Energy Act, the Cotton Research and Promotion Act, the Connally Hot Oil Act, and the Merchant Marine Act. The new statutory scheme (located at 18 U.S.C. § 6001-6005) provides a mechanism by which the government may apply to the court for an order granting a witness limited immunity in all judicial, administrative, and congressional proceedings. Section 6003 covers court and grand jury proceedings, § 6004 covers administrative hearings, and § 6005 covers congressional proceedings...

Local law enforcement and government officials know best how to keep their communities safe. They should be able to determine local public safety policies, not state legislators...

...Everytown Law represents the residents challenging the ordinance, as does the Oregon-based law firm Stoll Berne. Everytown Law is the litigation arm of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, which is part of Everytown for Gun Safety.

“The residents we represent expect the county to comply with Oregon law and with the U.S. Constitution, both of which make clear that local governments don’t have the legal authority to pick and choose which public safety laws apply within their borders,” said Eric Tirschwell, managing director for Everytown Law....

...Koro epidemics of panic anxiety due to widespread fears of losing one's genitals, procreative ability, and even one's life, are triggered by rumors of genital disappearance supposedly caused in China by female fox spirits, in Singapore and Thailand by mass poisoning, and in Africa by sorcery...

How background checks for guns should work.

I'd like to see some serious reform of the background check system. As it is a search of the FBI data base for felony crimes and a search for involuntary mental care is about all there is.

This is how I'd like to see the background checks be made more effective:

Include a 'permit to purchase' issued by the nearest local law enforcement department. These people are nearest to the purchaser and if there are concerns they will be the ones who know about them. Is this person a scofflaw, causes disturbances not rising to the level of felony, a repeat minor offender or someone who is often in the attention of law enforcement for disturbance of the peace? Shouldn't that be grounds for increased scrutiny and at least a temporary prohibition? Include interviews with relatives and others close to the person to see if there are concerns about maturity and stability in that 'permit to purchase' process.

Include a search of public social media. How many times have we heard of a 'Manifesto' or outright threats found on social media AFTER a tragedy? Shouldn't a threat to 'put a bullet' in the head of Nancy Pelosi be grounds to refuse sales and temporarily remove firearms from someone?

Expand mental health prohibitions to anyone treated for a condition that would indicate a possibility of harm to themselves or others even if not rising to the level of an involuntary committal for care.

Beyond that those who know me know I favor the prohibition of all semi automatic firearms that have interchangeable magazines of any size. I see that as the only way to reduce the volume of deaths and injuries--make it harder to shoot fast and reload fast. If we can't prevent people from killing other people shouldn't at least make it inconvenient to kill a lot of them?

Remains of those killed in 1985 Move bombing in Philadelphia serve as ‘case study’ in Princeton-backed course


The bones of Black children who died in 1985 after their home was bombed by Philadelphia police in a confrontation with the Black liberation group which was raising them are being used as a “case study” in an online forensic anthropology course presented by an Ivy League professor.

It has emerged that the physical remains of one, or possibly two, of the children who were killed in the aerial bombing of the Move organization in May 1985 have been guarded over the past 36 years in the anthropological collections of the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton.

The institutions have held on to the heavily burned fragments, and since 2019 have been deploying them for teaching purposes without the permission of the deceased’s living parents.

To the astonishment and dismay of present-day Move members, some of the bones are being deployed as artifacts in an online course presented in the name of Princeton and hosted by the online study platform Coursera. Real Bones: Adventures in Forensic Anthropology focuses on “lost personhood” – cases where an individual cannot be identified due to the decomposed condition of their remains...