Shorter MD Sup. Ct.: “We admit that reading the text ‘literally’ would require a plaintiff’s victory, but with a little judicial creativity, we can do anything we want to do! Fortunately, the TMV comment threads are full of people who hate when judges rule based on what they want the law to be, rather than what it says, so when the Court admits that a “literal” reading of the relevant law and text would point to a gay rights outcome, but votes against it anyway,...

Maryland’s Highest Court, in a 4-3 ruling, has held that my state’s prohibition of same-sex marriage does not violate the state constitution. The opinion is here, it’s 244 pages, so more comment later. I will say that if there is any state where gay marriage might make it through the legislature, Maryland strikes me as a good bet. The State Senate is 33/14 D-R, and the House of Delegates is a whopping 104/37 D-R, giving them a veto-proof majority they shouldn’t need because...

Cross-posted to the Debate Link As so often is the case, my quote of the day comes from quite some time ago. This one comes from a Chinese Newspaper (one year prior to the communist takeover) commenting on the application of segregationist law in Alabama: We cannot help having some impressions of the United States which actually already leads half the world and which would like to continue to lead it. If the United States merely wants to ‘dominate’ the world, the atomic bomb and the U.S....

CNN.com: “Crocs, kids, and escalators a bad combination? It turns out they’re talking about the shoes, rather than the vaguely sinister reptile, which diminishes the coolness. Still, great headline though.

While Erwin Chemerinsky has just been rehired by the UC-Irvine law school, some folks are asking whether a politically reversed scenario would have been resolved similarly, with similar support from across the aisle. I say yes, it would. Exhibit A? The liberal academic response to the hold-up by left-wing interest groups of conservative professor (now judge) Michael W. McConnell’s nomination to the 10th Circuit.

Lincoln Chafee (RI), far and away the most liberal member of the Republican Senate caucus before being ousted in 2006 by Sheldon Whitehouse, has finally taken the plunge and is now a registered independent. Also see our earlier post HERE. .

For years, Republicans have been claiming that they should be seen as a viable alternative to the Democrats for the votes of African-Americans. Recently, the Black community has responded by organizing candidate forums where the GOP ’08 presidential contenders can make their pitch for Black votes. So why aren’t Republicans showing up? Thus far, no Republican candidate save Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) has made an appearance at one of these forums. Tancredo, incidentally, was reportedly received...

A follow-up.

Cross-posted to the Debate Link On my recent trip to New York, I flew Sun Country Air. I’ve used them before, and have had generally positive experiences. For flights in and out of Minneapolis, they are far cheaper than the competition, especially the exorbitant fares charged by Northwest, which dominates the airport. They fly direct, which is nice for me, in comparison to the other major low-fare airline that goes to MSP–AirTran, which directs all its flights through Atlanta (Atlanta...

Here’s one last roundup before I depart for New York. I’m coming back very late Wednesday night, so until then, play nice everybody.

Two views of group-imposed presentment-alteration requirements. I’m flying to New York for a funeral tonight, so I won’t be posting between tonight and tomorrow night.

GOP Presidential hopeful Fred Thompson argues that we need to give Bin Laden “due process” once we capture him. His spokesperson’s “clarification” killed a lot of my excitement, but not all of it. Good for him.

I’ve been exchanging book recommendations with a conservative (blog) friend of mine, Mark Olson of Pseudo-Polymath. Mark Olson I recommended that he read Kenji Yoshino’s Covering and Negrophobia and Reasonable Racism by Jody Armour; in return, he suggested that I read Bertrand de Jouvenel: Conservative Liberal and the Illusions of Modernity and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: The Ascent from Ideology, both by Daniel J. Mahoney. Though I got off to a late start and may never actually catch up,...

I’m heading back to college tomorrow (senior year — very scary). This week has been a nightmare of packing and travel plans, and presumably the next few days will show similar anarchy before I can truly settle into the dorm. I’ll try to get back to posting as soon as I can.

The faux-reform of electoral college vote allocations in California isn’t just another Republican dirty trick. In all serious and in no hyperbole, its passage would threaten the very foundation of our democracy.

You knew it was coming from me, didn’t you? Actually, I just wrote that title to provoke. I don’t think there is a “racial angle” to Craig’s arrest in any meaningful sense–I think the crime, arrest, and conviction were pretty well divorced from a racial context (though not a gender one, as I’ve written). But even still, the comment of the cop is illuminating, not that Craig was treated particularly fairly or unfairly, but just as to what sprung to the officer’s...

This is awesome (via AAB)

I refrained on blogging on it for awhile, but the hounding of Debbie Almontaser out of her job as principal of a new Arabic-immersion school in NYC is bogus and unbelievably ignorant. Oh, and it makes America less safe. A trifecta of things that really annoy me.

Heterosexual getting propositioned by a gay man : “Lewd Conduct” criminal charge :: Heterosexual women getting propositioned by a straight man : Totally free and legal “Street Harassment”? Close. But not quite. Because what many women (especially urban women) have to endure is far, far more pervasive, persistent, and threatening than what Senator Craig is accused of having done. The difference, of course, is that gay men propositioning threatens the absolute inviolability...

Cross-Posted at The Debate Link I