1. There were three interesting developments on the legal front today with ethics implications:
- Royal slime-ball Prince Andrew, already shunned by the Royal Family, agreed today to pay an undisclosed sum to a victim of Jefferey Epstein’s sexcapades who accused the younger brother of Prince Charles of sexually abusing her when she was a minor. David Boies, showing his versatility after representing Harvey Weinstein, is the lawyer for Prince Andrew’s accuser Virginia Giuffre. The amount of the out-of-court settlement will be not disclosed, Boies revealed. Giuffre sued the Duke of York in August 2021, claiming that he abused her on multiple occasions in 2001 when she was a 17-year-old victim of the sex trafficking ring Epstein ran for decades. Of course, a settlement doesn’t mean that Andrew is guilty. Then again,
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The New York Times was found by a jury not to have defamed Sarah Palin when it maliciously accused her of inciting murder with her campaign map. The jury didn’t know it, but the judge in the case, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, had already announced that he would dismiss Palin’s complaint regardless of what they decided, as a matter of law. “We’ve reached the same bottom line … but it’s on different grounds,” the Judge said upon hearing their verdict. “You decided the facts; I decided the law. As it turns out, they’re both in agreement in this case.”
Too bad, but both the jury and the judge were right. The problem wasn’t malice despite the Times’ absurd claim that no malice was intended, a key element of the standard for finding defamation when the media attacks a public figure. The problem was that the editorial in question was still opinion, even though it stated Palin’s guilt as a fact. Had the same statement been in an alleged news story, it would have been a different matter.
- Insurers for the bankrupt Remington Arms Company and its subsidiaries agreed to pay the Sandy Hook Elementrary School families the maximum amount of damages available to them, $73 million. The settlement deal will also allow them to release thousands of documents that the plaintiffs obtained in discovery. A settlement isn’t precedent, and both sides had good reason to be wary of a trial. The victims in the Sandy Hook massacre raised the possibility of a jury persuaded more by emotion than law. Still, he unbroken record of attempts to find gun manufacturers liable for shootings made going to trial a risk for the anti-gun forces. As is typical, both sides claimed that they were pleased with the deal.
2. The American Bar Association is one more leftist indoctrination engine. It will be interesting if any law schools resist its latest power play. At its midyear meeting, Resolution 300 regarding ABA law school accreditation was approved by a vote of 347 to 17. The painfully woke provision amends the curriculum requirements to include the following:
(c) A law school shall provide education to law students on bias, cross-cultural competency, and racism:
(1) at the start of the program of legal education, and
(2) at least once again before graduation.
Interpretation 303-5
Professional identity focuses on what it means to be a lawyer and the special obligations lawyers have to their clients and society.
Interpretation 303-6
With respect to 303(a)(1), the importance of cross-cultural competency to professionally responsible representation and the obligation of lawyers to promote a justice system that provides equal access and eliminates bias, discrimination, and racism in the law should be among the values and responsibilities of the legal profession to which students are introduced.
What this has to do with learning to be a lawyer has not been adequately explained.
3. Feel the vise tightening yet?…A video that cherry picked every time Joe Rogan used the word “nigger,” not as an epithet but as a quote while discussing racism, was used to smear him in the dispute over his Spotify podcast. A pre-Super Bowl post from the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association’s Instagram page urging followers to boycott the NFL event in protest of halftime performer Snoop Dog’s song lyrics promoting anti-police violence was removed by Instagram for “violence and incitement.” “Encouraging people to shoot police officers apparently earns you a spot as a headliner at the Superbowl,” the PBA wrote in the post, which was not removed from Facebook. “If you choose to watch the game at all, (We won’t be) halftime is a great moment to shut your TV off in honor of those men and women in blue who gave their lives for us.”
That’s what Instagram considers a violent post. As soon as the Super Bowl was over, Instagram restored it—since it couldn’t influence anyone then. Nice.
4. When you can’t use racism as an excuse, switch to climate change! Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm is facing questions after the Free Beacon reported that she owned millions of dollars of stock in the renewable car battery manufacturer Proterra, which the Biden administration has repeatedly promoted. After Granholm sold her non-public shares of Proterra to an undisclosed buyer for a $1.6 million profit, she handed out tens of millions of dollars of government contracts to Proterra-tied companies, prompting criticism from watchdog groups. Asked to explain the A Department of Energy spokeswoman said the agency has no time to respond to questions about Granholm’s ethics violations becaaaause…
“The planet is warming faster than ever, the cost and impact of extreme weather events are intensifying….As we do every day, DOE and the Secretary remain focused on tackling the existing climate crisis and delivering an equitable clean energy future that will bring cheaper power, cleaner air and good-paying jobs for more Americans.”
5. And this defining Great Stupid moment…
Imagine. These supposedly educated young people, whose odds of getting sicker than a typical flu would make them, are still repeating the mantra about following the CDC guidelines (WHICH guidelines?), the “science” (WHAT science?) and the “experts” (who have been wrong or hypocritical repeatedly). Brain-washed and terrified, I assume they will wear their masks forever.
Ethics Alarms 
Wow.
Need a long meditation session after reading this madness.
Poor people.
Especially the mask stuff.
Thankful things are in the works to ensure these things never happen again.
P.s. that website I shared which was is progress has much more info now, and one thing in particular you may enjoy, given you background in theater!
Lastly,
Thank you for the work you do. It’s much appreciated.
You light up my life…
Re the Remington settlement: It doesn’t really sound like both sides benefit here. The <i<insurers get a stop-loss, but the firearms industry in general is left even more exposed to those attempting to destroy them by finding workarounds to the law limiting nuisance lawsuits (PLCA A) against them. Per the linked article:
“Koskoff noted that the lawsuit was never about the money but about bringing change, an outcome finally in reach after years of litigation has exposed weaknesses in the federal law that shields the gun industry.
Likening the suit to litigation against Big Tobacco cases and more recently opioid manufacturers, Koskoff said the companies in all of these cases have a common denominator when it comes to greed and “excessive marketing.”
They also got $73 million and all Remington records to comb through for potential avenues for attacks against other lawful manufacturers and dealers. The courts allowed the suit to go forward via a subjective and corrupt twisting of the provision prohibiting illegal marketing. Now their compatriots will be emboldened to continue the abuse the law was meant to curtail.
The Remington case is interesting and confusing. Which Remington? Remington went bankrupt during the largest gun-buying spree in the nation’s history. Cerebus. which owns Freedom Group, which owned Remington, was a terrible gun company. They were so bad that it was continually rumored that they were mostly cynical, anti-gun financiers who wanted to suck money from gullible gun nuts. Their behavior certainly did nothing to dispel such rumors. They completely misunderstood how firearms are produced, destroyed the quality of numerous firearms brands, made idiotic decisions (let’s drop a firearms line because it doesn’t make ENOUGH money when we are running a deficit). I personally think they are also incredibly fortunate they didn’t kill anyone with defective products that they refused to acknowledge or fix (see Remington 500 triggers). Remington was broken up in bankruptcy and sold off to other companies. Bushmaster, for example, is now owned by Palmetto State Armory. The Remington name is owned by Vista Outdoors, which does not make firearms.
Now on to speculation. The new Remington (Vista Outdoors) and the old Remington (Cerebus Group) do not make firearms. There are laws that shield firearms manufacturers from lawsuits, but neither company is currently a firearms manufacturer. Can they rely on that law to protect them? They also have little in the future to fear from anti-gun groups, as they don’t make firearms. Is that why they settled?
You know… if I didn’t know better, our elites seem to be telling those of us who don’t go along with left-wing causes, “You are subhuman.”
If they keep this up, they may find themselves wishing for Donald Trump to be back… because the center-right could very well be pushed from Trumping to Schlichterism (Kurt Schlichter has warned about such consequences).
5. I suspect a significant segment of the population will in fact wear masks as often as possible for the rest of their lives seeing as they consider masks emblematic of virtuosity, superiority and enlightened faith in science.