Legal briefs
Crime
Sociopaths comprise 3% of the male population and around 1% of the female population. However, sociopaths are responsible, by some estimates, for over 50% of all crimes in the United States. Read more here.
More crime
I have written a couple of times here and here about how criminal justice reformers attempt to control language as part of their agenda. You’ve likely heard the term “justice-involved individuals” or “intimate partner violence user” to describe criminal defendants. Well, a new phrase has dropped. You are not supposed to call it the “criminal justice system” anymore. How can you, they argue here, when there is no justice in the system. You must refer to it as the “criminal legal system” instead.
I don’t think I will.
Free speech
Free speech has been under attack the last several years. In particular, conservative speech has been the target of censorship. It has gone so far as the federal government under the Biden Administration colluding with social media companies to censor conservative speech. This behavior was certainly a contributing factor in Donald Trump’s election this past November. Now, the Trump Administration is fighting back against what has come to be called the censorship-industrial complex. They recently released the Free Speech Policy Initiative, where they pledge to do the following:
A first-day executive order barring federal authorities from colluding with others to abridge Americans’ protected speech
Preventing federal dollars from being used to classify domestic speech as mis- or dis-information, and from being lavished on nonprofits and academic institutions engaging in similar efforts, including “flagging” posts to social media platforms for suppression
Identifying and firing bureaucrats across the federal government who have engaged in direct or indirect censorship, while enacting laws imposing criminal penalties on such conduct
Directing the Department of Justice to probe participants in the “new online censorship regime” for myriad potential violations of law
Working with Congress to pass legislation modifying Section 230 of the Communications Act to extend its liability shield only to those large online platforms meeting high standards of “neutrality, transparency, fairness, and non-discrimination”
Helping to pass a digital Bill of Rights, including a right to due process requiring government officials to obtain a court order to remove online content
The online magazine, RealClear Investigations, recently published a long piece describing the extensive censorship network that has built up over the last few years, and highlighting the new administration’s commitment to dismantling it. If you think this is all just a conspiracy theory, I encourage you to read the piece here.
Separation of powers
One of the Executive Orders Donald Trump issued on day one was an order eliminating DEI programs in federal executive agencies. The FBI announced a few days before Trump even entered office they were closing their DEI division. Trump’s cabinet nominees have all pledged to follow through on the order. At the state level, Indiana’s new Governor, Mike Braun, eliminated DEI offices in executive branch agencies in a day one executive order, as well. These are welcome changes.
The President’s and Governor’s executive orders, however, do not apply to the judicial branch due to the separation of powers. The Indiana Supreme Court should follow the lead of the Governor and abolish the Court’s DEI office. It does appear they have recently changed the name of their Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to the Access to Justice Office. A start, I suppose, but their section of the Court’s website still heavily promotes the DEI agenda. It seems to be a change in name only.
Executive Orders and name changes will not be sufficient to vanquish the scourge of harmful woke ideology from our institutions. It will take determined leaders to follow through on these largely symbolic gestures.
More separation of powers
My children were upset when Congress passed the law mandating that TikTok divest of Chinese ownership or face deletion in America. Then, on January 19, 2025, the app was halted in the U.S. causing even greater consternation in my family. But, within hours, DJT “paused” the implementation of the law for ninety days to allow ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, time to reach a deal with American investors to keep the lights on. I, of course, explained to my children that the President does not have the power to pause the implementation of an act duly passed by Congress and signed into law. You see, I pointed out, this is a violation of the separation of powers, and undermines the very foundation of our system of government. But they didn’t even care. They just resumed happily scrolling on their phones.
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