Dallas News: “Two Plano school principals violated students’ constitutional rights if they confiscated Christian-themed materials, including candy cane pens, that students planned to hand out at school, an appeals court has said. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled Wednesday that the principals could be held liable for taking away the items.”
Movie ticket prices within the jurisdiction of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will be going up. From the Yuma Sun: “Theater owners have to make special devices available to ensure those with hearing and vision disabilities can enjoy the movies, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. In a unanimous decision, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments by attorneys for the Arizona-based Harkins theater chain that nothing in federal law requires them to purchase and install the necessary equipment. The judges said the kinds of devices at issue here clearly fall within the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.”
New Haven Register: “After 13 months and costs estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, the six litigants of the Quinnipiac University women’s volleyball program and Quinnipiac University will be back in United States District Court in Bridgeport Monday to determine whether the university’s elimination of the volleyball program violated federal Title IX guidelines.” One of the issues in the case is whether replacing the 11 lost women’s volleyballers with additional cheerleaders can offset the loss of the volleyball program.
Title IX states that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” Translation: Colleges and universities cannot have sports programs that have more men than women or Big Brother will sue and force the schools to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on lawyers instead of students.
When it dropped women’s volleyball, Quinnipiac also dropped men’s outdoor track and golf. It later dropped men’s indoor track. You might ask why does the federal government care about how many people of each gender participate in college sports? Nobody knows except the politically correct do gooders who see discrimination behind every door.
Prison Planet: “Government would have ‘absolute power’ to seize control of the world wide web under Lieberman legislation. The federal government would have ‘absolute power’ to shut down the Internet under the terms of a new US Senate bill being pushed by Joe Lieberman, legislation which would hand President Obama a figurative ‘kill switch’ to seize control of the world wide web in response to a Homeland Security directive.”
Wall St. Journal: “Criminal defendants won’t get the benefit of the Miranda rule against self-incrimination unless they specifically invoke it, the Supreme Court said Tuesday [June 1, 2010].” See the 5-4 opinion in the case of Berghuise, Warden v. Thompkins.
The case involves Van Chester Thompkins who was being investigated for murder when the police asked Thompkins if he prayed for forgiveness for “shooting that boy down.” Thompkins said, “Yes.” The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Thompkins and said that his Miranda rights were not violated and the question and answer could be admitted into evidence at his trial.