Category: Legal, Laws, and Regs

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Legal, Laws, and Regs

We dissent

barbed wire

I woke up June 24 feeling little different than when waking up the day after Trump was elected President. I woke up knowing everything has changed, and not for the better.

Alito’s Dobbs decision gutting abortion rights in this country has triggered a massive upheaval in the rights of over half the population, and all because of five justices determined to impose their viewpoints and their beliefs on society. Five justices, of whom three were hastily selected by a President who didn’t even win the popular vote.

But it wasn’t just Roe v. Wade that was tossed out. No, this same group of people have enshrined gun rights as the second most important freedom, following that for religion…if you follow a specific type of religion. And they haven’t even begun their determined march into overthrowing everything that makes this country good. I suspect before the end of the week is out, we’ll see an attack on the very fabric of our government, as this small group of elites continues its unthinking drive to wreck havoc on our society. They’ve already hinted they’re coming after rights for the LGBTQ+ community and birth control.

Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan penned a very rare joint dissent against Alito’s pretense of a decision. In it, instead of using the usual “We respectfully dissent” they just wrote

“We dissent.”

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Critters Legal, Laws, and Regs

Feld Entertainment Circus Elephants Finally Find a Home

Take equal parts dealing with Trump as President and then COVID and you have an explanation for why I didn’t notice that there was a piece of outstandingly good news beginning in 2020.

The Feld Entertainment/Ringling Brothers elephants I had written about in the past have finally found a good and loving home in a sanctuary in northern Florida.

For years I followed the animal welfare court cases related to Feld Entertainment’s indifferent and callous care of the elephants in the organization’s famous circus. I had though of writing a book on the longest of the court cases, Animal Welfare Institute (formerly ASPCA) vs. Feld Entertainment. Even today, one of my most popular web pages is a PDF listing incidents with elephants in circuses in North America.

When Kenneth Feld retired the Ringling Brothers Circus, and the circus elephants, they were out of sight out of mind but we all knew their care would continue to be indifferent, their future dismal.

Now, the elephants run free at the White Oak sanctuary, in a lovely home with lakes and forests and they’re no longer chained up for days at a time on cold concrete.

Though Feld Entertainment is attempting to paint themselves in the best light with this move, they sold the elephants to the sanctuary; they did not give the elephants to the sanctuary. I suspect the reason why is equal parts Feld’s daughters telling him to move on and the cost and upkeep of the elephants when Feld Entertainment was hit by COVID losses. Regardless of the underlying reasons behind it all, we can celebrate the fact that Feld no longer has elephants and the elephants, and we, can all move on to something better.

 

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Government Legal, Laws, and Regs

What’s at risk with Kavanaugh’s Appointment

Swearing-in Ceremony for Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Oval. Rose Garden.

I would like to claim prescience for correctly guessing that Brett Kavanaugh would be the Supreme Court pick, but his choice was fairly obvious. And has been noted in various press publications, Justice Kennedy likely retired now  because he knew of Kavanaugh’s pick.

Kavanaugh’s rulings and writings are now being scrutinized, particularly when it comes to decisions that can impact on Roe v. Wade. Unfortunately, we’re so fixated on this one specific case that we’re ignoring the real threat that Kavanaugh’s appointment will be in the court.

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