Law
June 20, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Kyle Hooten recently rode along with the Minneapolis police during its Operation Safe Summer operation. Kyle briefly covered his ride-along in the Alpha News story here. The video is below. Minneapolis has fallen into a deep, deep hole with an undermanned and demoralized police department, an empowered criminal class, and an ineffectual judicial system. Over the past two years, the Minneapolis Police Department has lost almost 300 officers. Any sentient
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June 15, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Unless you are a faithful Power Line reader, you may have missed the reference to University of Minnesota Law School Professor Richard Painter in David Jensen’s message to me yesterday. Without naming him, Jensen cited Painter to illustrate the ideological diversity at the law school as a member of the faculty who has “advised and worked with (or in)” the (George W.) Bush administration. Painter is a left-wing flake and
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June 14, 2022 — Scott Johnson
David Jensen is the University of Minnesota Law School’s chief advancement officer. Mr. Jensen has emailed his response to my message to Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Dean William McGeveran, who moderated the Zoom webinar I addressed. I am posting Mr. Jensen’s response verbatim without further comment. * * * * * Dear Scott: Thank you for writing to Professor McGeveran regarding your concerns over the “Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s
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June 12, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The decline of the University of Minnesota Law School is only a small part of a much larger story and of limited interest at that, but it is my alma mater and traditionally a beneficiary of state funding as part of a public university. I found evidence of rot at the law school in a Zoom webinar promoted in the law school’s recent email newsletter and wrote to Associate Dean
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June 10, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I’m scheduled to have another lunch with my conservative attorney friend next week. We were in law school together at the University of Minnesota and crossed paths in the course of our practices. I now seek to persuade him that the law school has become an enemy of everything we believe in and that it would make sense to reconsider his support. Following up on our last lunch on the
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June 9, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Defendants Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman arrived at a plea agreement with the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York to resolve charges deriving from their participation in the New York edition of the George Floyd riots, this one involving the distribution of Molotov cocktails to the crowd. Indeed, Rahman tossed one of the Molotov cocktails into a police car. On October 20, 2021, Judge Brian Cogan
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June 4, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I wrote about the University of Minnesota Law School’s in-your-face alienation of conservative alumni earlier this week in “Not a parody.” Now a reader writes to ascertain if I feel his pain: I can top your recent “not a parody” piece about law school with an even greater illustration of insanity. I am not making this up. I needed a reference article and had to create an account. This was
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June 2, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I have sought to persuade a conservative attorney friend with whom I attended the University of Minnesota Law School to quit supporting the school. They are an enemy of everything we believe in, I argued. Ask them if they have a single conservative professor on the faculty, I implored him. The development staff cited the ludicrous former DFL candidate Richard Painter. Case closed. I also asked him to leaf through
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May 31, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Queen Elizabeth is celebrating her Platinum Jubilee–70 years on the throne. After a lifetime of integrity and faithful service, the queen is naturally popular. Current surveys have Elizabeth at 81% favorable and 12% unfavorable. One wonders who the 12% are–IRA terrorists, maybe? Of the royal family, Prince William and Duchess Catherine score next at 74/10. Prince Andrew is the least popular royal, with a 5% approval rating. I don’t think
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May 31, 2022 — John Hinderaker
An appellate court in California has held that bumblebees are fish: The issue presented here is whether the bumble bee, a terrestrial invertebrate, falls within the definition of fish, as that term is used in the definitions of endangered species in section 2062, threatened species in section 2067, and candidate species (i.e., species being considered for listing as endangered or threatened species) in section 2068 of the Act. It takes
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May 28, 2022 — Scott Johnson
John Paul Mac Isaac is the Delaware computer repairman with whom Hunter Biden dropped off his infamous laptop for repair in April 2019. In a long-term drug-induced stupor, Biden abandoned the laptop with the repairman. When the New York Post obtained a copy of the laptop’s hard drive and revealed some of its scandalous contents in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, all involved (excepting Hunter Biden) were tagged
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April 29, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was unaccountably denied a public defender to appeal his convictions in the death of George Floyd. Bill Mohrman answered my call for a Minnesota attorney to represent Chauvin on appeal. Bill filed his brief on behalf of Chauvin this week. It is posted online here. Derek Chauvin’s mother has set up a page to support the expenses of appeal here. Bill’s leading argument on
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April 26, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Special Counsel John Durham’s false statement charge against former Perkins Coie attorney Michael Sussman is scheduled to go to trial next month. Durham has subpoenaed documents from Fusion GPS, the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign in connection with the trial. A funny thing happened on the way to the courthouse. Everyone involved has asserted attorney-client privilege to withhold documents. Perkins Coie of course served as a cutout in
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April 24, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Over the last few days I have wasted spent some time watching the cross-examination of Johnny Depp in his libel suit against ex-wife Amber Heard. I come to the case without preconceptions, having never seen a movie in which either appeared, and not, to my recollection, having heard of Ms. Heard prior to the lawsuit. Here are some observations, based on what I have seen so far. * The trial
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April 21, 2022 — Scott Johnson
My only comment on Judge Mizelle’s decision on the illegality of the CDC mask mandate was this. I predicted that the Biden administration would appeal it despite whatever ambivalence it might feel about the ruling. They would find the urge to vindicate the regulation’s expression of the health authorities’ will to power irresistible, if only because of the possible spillover effect. And so it has come to pass. Axios reports
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April 19, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Politico Playbook reports that the White House is weighing its options in the case holding its mask mandate to be illegal. I thought that they had to go for it and protect their phony baloney jobs protecting public health consistent with the party line over the past two years, but they see the downside and the escape hatch afforded by Judge Mizelle’s ruling yesterday. Politico has to let us know
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April 14, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The government lost its motion to detain fake federal officers Arian Taherzadeh and Haider Ali. I posted the government’s memorandum in support of the detention motion here on Sunday with my own notes and queries. Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey remained unimpressed by every element of the government’s argument. Deeming the defendant’s conduct “sophomoric,” he seems to see them in the light of a Coen Brothers comedy in the making.
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