Well, it was a bad day for the law as I see it, anyway; <\/p>\n
A judge threw out the charge of piracy<\/a> against the 6 Somalis the US Navy fished out of the sea and shipped back to Virginia for trial; <\/p>\n “The court finds that the government has failed to establish that any unauthorized acts of violence or aggression committed on the high seas constitutes piracy as defined by the law of nations,” Jackson wrote in granting the defense motion to dismiss. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n There are seven more charges of stuff, but piracy brought a mandatory life sentence which would have been nice.<\/p>\n A link from MEW tells us that a Missouri judge legislated from the bench<\/a> and nullified a 2006 Missouri law meant to keep the Westboro Baptist Church crowd away from funerals.<\/p>\n Missouri legislators passed two laws in 2006 in response to protests at servicemembers’ funerals by members of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan. The church contends the deaths are God’s punishment for the U.S. tolerating homosexuality.<\/p>\n U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan ruled the laws violate the right of free speech guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Of course the bereaved have no right to express themselves all over the heads and shoulders of the Westboro fucks.<\/p>\n From the Ninth Circus, (yes, I know it’s Circuit…jeez) we discover yet again that lying about your military service is free speech. Gabriel Malor of Ace of Spades<\/a> quotes from the decision;<\/p>\n The Act therefore concerns us because of its potential for setting a precedent whereby the government may proscribe speech solely because it is a lie. … The sad fact is, most people lie about some aspects of their lives from time to time. Perhaps, in context, many of these lies are within the government\u2019s legitimate reach. But the government cannot decide that some lies may not be told without a reviewing court\u2019s undertaking a thoughtful analysis of the constitutional concerns raised by such government interference with speech.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n