Guest Blogger – Professor Birdsong on Barack Obama and His Pastor

BARACK OBAMA AND HIS PASTOR – AMERICA ON RACE
BY BIRDSONG

Birdsong is not an oracle. Yet, Birdsong is always asked difficult questions. This week people have been asking Birdsong: “Are Barack Obama’s chances to become President of the U.S. doomed because of his association with his allegedly fiery Pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.” Snippets of Wright’s sermons where he has condemned America for its racism and militarism have floated around the internet for several months. This past week those snippets have been the fodder of cable TV news and have raised the specter that Obama is not a loyal American and perhaps a danger to the U.S. if he were to become President.

More after the jump:

Anti-Hillary Hypocrisy?

One of my most stellar former students (and one who was never afraid to take me on in class), Mr. Jeffrey Fuller chimed in on the Clash of the Anti-Hillaristas posting with some very interesting research:

With that introduction, I yield the floor to Mr. Fuller:

I went over to the C.U website and was surprised when I saw C.U’s General Counsel and Vice President is Michael Boos. He was the plaintiff in Boos v. Barry, 485 U.S. 312 (1988). C.U.’s website explains it this way:

The case involved a successful constitutional challenge to a Washington, DC law that prohibited the carrying of signs or banners near foreign embassies, if those signs or banners were designed to bring the foreign government into “public odium” or “public disrepute.” The law had been selectively enforced to prohibit demonstrations near the Soviet Embassy.

If any one is worthy of the ass-hat award, it is Mr. Boos. His intellectual dishonesty amazes me. On one hand he argues, he has a first amendment right to protest foreign embassies in a way the embassies find offensive. Then twenty years later asks the court to ignore the first amendment and prevent someone else from exercising their first amendment right because it offends his organization.

For this hypocrisy Mr. Boos should be considered for the ass-hat of the year award.

Jonathon Blevins on the Second Amendment

By Jonathon Blevins,
Legal Satyricon Second Amendment Correspondent

I have my own opinions on the Second Amendment that can be boiled down to this: The Second Amendment says what it says. While I will agree that it might not be socially desirable to have unfettered gun ownership in a nation of idiots, I can not pick and choose which rights guaranteed by the Constitution I may find socially desirable.

Mr. Blevins is the Chief Justice of the Moot Court Honors Board at Barry University School of Law. He has done a lot of research on this issue lately, and asked me why I hadn’t blogged on it.

Which got me thinking… why should I when I can just ask him to. What follows is his essay, which I am proud to present here at the Legal Satyricon.

Andrew Contiguglia on School Search and Seizure Case

A recent case on the further erosion of Constitutional rights in the schools caught my eye. The news article is here.

Since this is a bit beyond my traditional areas of expertise, and it takes place in Colorado, I asked Colorado Attorney and brother FALA member, Andrew Contiguglia to share his thoughts on the matter. His thoughts were so extensive and well reasoned that I elected to inaugurate a new tradition of inviting guest bloggers to comment on interesting cases (an idea I stole from one of my other favorite bloggers, John Welch)

Without further ado, here is Mr. Contiguglia’s take: