Slander of Title Judgment in New Mexico

OK. This is a biased comment on a legal matter in New Mexico. Biased because a relation of our owns an undeveloped lot in the Valley Improvement Association. It seems that one Peter McDermot filed four deeds, each covering a multitude of parcels in Belen, New Mexico. These parcels are either individually owned or are owned by the Valley Improvement Association. This guy delayed in producing documents regarding his claim of legal title for quite some time. Enough to irritate a judge.

Eventually, in February of this year, the 13th Judicial District court of New Mexico granted judgment in favor of the Valley Improvement Association.

Now, the many, many landowners in this development, whether the lots are developed or undeveloped, are protected against the false claims of title by Mr. McDermot.

The good guys win, for once!

ADF Files Suit Against New York Officials in Watertown

Thanks to the
Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), we are informed that yet another New York government entity is denying religious use of its Dulles State Office Building.

Perhaps all public buildings should be closed to all public functions unless directly sponsored and paid for by the general taxpayers.

Why? Religious groups are still routinely denied permits to rent or use public facilities that other groups rent and use, simply upon the basis of the content or purpose of the meeting: to wit: religious services.

If religious groups may not use public buildings upon proper application and with the same rent as other groups, then perhaps public entities should not use religious buildings for public purposes (high school graduations, election polling, etc.) because of the entanglement of church and state.

For instance, at one of our local polling centers, voters are "subjected" to and potentially "offended" by walking by the open doors of the sanctuary of the church. Crosses readily visible. Hymnals are sitting on pews. Children's religious drawings are visible. Stained glass windows have biblical people on them.

If the "wall" between church and state is really critical, then lets call for no public events at any church. Why not close public buildings to all organizations. Why? Some of the attendees may be wearing crosses or Stars of David, or other such offensive and entangling items. Some participants may be carrying religious artifacts on their bodies, and may, therefore offend some other participants.

Oh, I forgot, all groups except Christian groups, must be tolerated.

Indiana School Board Censors Student Articles

The apparently conservative East Allen County Schools has a new policy for the student newspapers: the principal may censor a student publication if the material in that publication is "socially inappropriate to the maturity of students."

In this case, the editorial in question involved a plea for Heritage High School students to be tolerant toward gays and lesbians. I thought that most school districts start "tolerance" teaching toward gays and lesbians in kindergarten. Perhaps this is not the case in East Allen County Schools.

If censorship should not happen for Christian speech, it certainly should not happen for other First Amendment protected speech.

Homeschool Chess Team Cannot Defend Title

Most public school populations include numerous students from a wide geographical area since the advent of bussing to solve racially based school districting. Of course, many school districts bus students all over to create opportunities like magnet schools.

Notwithstanding that fact, an Arizona homeschool chess team has been barred from defending its title. The reason is that the rules mandate that team members must come from the same elementary school.

So, I wonder what other group academic competitions bar homeschool participants.

At least the National Spelling Bee welcomes homeschool participants.

Anti-Christian Organization Funding Suit Dismissed

Today I discovered that a Federal Court actually dismissed a suit to stop taxpayer funding of Northwest Marriage Institute.

What is most amazing is that this decision came out of the Western District of Washington.

Since the Northwest Marriage Institute promotes and provides "Bible-based pre-marital and marriage counseling" to all people who wish the services, this necessarily involved essentially religious work. Therefore, in order to gain taxpayer funding, the Institute changed its workshops in April 2006 from "Bible-based to secular psychological and sociological principles."

The institute received its first federal funding in June 2005 [is there a typo in the opinion?]. Those funds went toward the traditional educational hardware often provided to private religious schools: computer software and to salaries (not usually provided to private religious schools).

Anyway, this opinion is well worth reading. Judge Franklin D. Burgess has a nice writing style, and one or two of his analogies were quite refreshing to read.

A Decade of Sentencing Reform

For all of those who are interested in Ohio sentencing reform, there is a new report out from the Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission.

Read it and weep, defense attorneys.

Foster and criminal sentencing again

So, the criminal defendant needs to appeal the sentencing decision handed down by the common pleas court, and this appeal does not actually involve the Foster decision, as least in the short view.

But, the defendant is indigent, is in prison, and the application costs for the appeal are waived. However, there is no sign that the transcripts costs (required since the sentencing hearing is involved) are waived for an indigent defendant.

If this is truly the case (I am still researching this), then the per-page cost of the transcript could truly make it impossible to afford appealing the case.

Surely, there is some relief for the indigent defendant in this situation as well!

Objection During Sentencing

It appears that in order to preserve an issue for appeal, where that issue arises during sentencing pursuant to a plea, then the defense attorney (or prosecutor) must object before the sentencing hearing is finished. For instance, this should happen for a first time felony offender and where the statute says that the offender should not receive more than the minimum sentence without the judge stating the reasoning behind a higher sentence, and the sentence is higher than the minimum. Or where the cumulative consecutive sentence is higher than the highest sentence available for the most serious offense.

This is tough stuff for the first felony sentence defended by a solo practitioner.

But, does this mean that the issue cannot be appealed?

More research is necessary.

State v Foster and Sentencing Appeals

Here is an interesting juxtaposition. Judges in Ohio, pursuant to State v. Foster, no longer need to state on the record the reasoning for their sentences if they sentence within the statutory guidelines. However, if a first time felony offender is given a consecutive sentence that is longer than the maximum sentence that could have been given for the most serious offense for which the defendant either pled or was found guilty, then the defendant can appeal the sentence.

But upon what basis should the appeals court look at the lower court's sentencing record if that record is silent? Judges need not give their reasons. So, how can the appeals court make any decision about the lower court's sentence?

There must be some way to challenge the assumption that judges consider the relevant factors in sentencing when they give sentences that cumulatively are outside the guidelines. Surely State v. Foster was not intended to remove appellate review of cumulative sentences in this kind of case.

Perhaps I am too confused to think about this right now. More research is necessary.

Judicial Release in Ohio

Is a strange idea to get one's mind around. Essentially, the defendant asks for the court to change the felony sentence from prison time to community control. This can be done at any time after the felon has served 30 days of the sentence for an F5, F4, or an F3 where the sentence is less than five years.

So, what does a felon need to do to prove that he/she is a good candidate for community control?

Ideological Litmus Test in Social Work

This event at HHS (U.S. Dept. of Heath of Human Services)has been brewing since last year. Now, FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) has written a letter to HHS. FIRE claims that by only hiring social workers who graduate from colleges that are accredited by the CSWE ( Council on Social Work Education ), HHS is indirectly supporting an unconstitutional ideological litmus test. See the letter here.

Since this is the second letter to HHS, and two more organizations, NAS (National Association of Scholars) and ACTA ( American Council of Trustees and Alumni ) joined in the letter, perhaps Rear Admiral Denise Canton will investigate FIRE's claims.

Tracking Citizen Communication with Executive Branch Officials

Well, Congress may be doing it again. They are trying to interfere with the free exchange of information and opinions. Of course, it all depends on the definition of the term "significant contact." There is a current cry about all individual citizens and their comments to the government being tracked because all citizens will be defined as lobbyists. Actually, upon reading the text of the proposed legislation, it is citizens who contact the executive branch, not legislative, that will be tracked.

I see this is a way to build more employment opportunity in the executive branch and the Office of Government ethics. Their respective reporting and reviewing duties will grow as a result of this legislation. More taxpayer funds might go "down the tube" to see what individual citizens, oh, yeah, lobbyists, are saying to the Executive branch.

So, what is the definition of "significant contact"? And why, only, the Executive Branch? Is there not some influence peddling in the Legislative Branch?

Michigan Social Worker Supports Family’s Constitutional Rights

As a home educator and former public teacher, I remain interested in the continual refusal of some public educational systems to respect parental rights and, on the flip side, to hold parents accountable.

Today I heard of a Michigan social worker who (!) actually closed a case upon interviewing the parents on their doorstep, instead of insisting that they were hiding the children and forcing the examination of evidence to continue unabated.

This is great news. Now, I am not supporting parents who abuse their children. However, even in those cases, Constitutional Rights trump social worker rights to enter a home without a search warrant or permission from the adults at the home.

Washing feet equals hazing

I remember that way, way back in my undergraduate days at a formerly Quaker college that I was somewhat uncomfortable when "born-again" Christians crossed my path. You see, that was because they were unfailingly happy, smiling, and serious about their school work. I was not. I was embarrassed, humiliated, and offended by them. Nope, I did not complain - you see, this was a strictly internal response to their very presence on campus. Of course, I grew up and gave up being offended by Christian presence. T hat is good, because eventually I became a Christian.

But that is not the core of this blog, just a lead-in. Savannah State University ousted a Christian group for "hazing" and "harassment." Their crime? Washing the feet of new Christians. Oh, and they violated "parole" by attending a Christian event at Disneyland. Now, they are in BIG trouble.

Never fear. The good people at the National Legal Foundation and the Alliance Defense Fund have come to the rescue. When will college and universities give up this censorship of Christian groups?

Is Academic Freedom for Pennsylvania Students Real?

Today I received a
report that The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is making strides toward student academic freedom, not just faculty academic freedom. What a thought!

I cannot do justice to this topic, so be sure to go to Frontpage to see more on the developing topic of student academic freedom.

I am all for it. More on this general topic tomorrow.

Springer criminal gets $50,000 bail

For heaven's sake. A Wisconsin man, charged with child sex abuse not only left town, but also cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet and took off, in the Springer show limousine, to do a show in Chicago. And his bail, upon return to Wisconsin, a paltry $50,000 and that, only because, in the eyes of the court, because he had "absconded." What? Here, in my county, $100,000 bail for felon drug possession is pretty usual. $50,000 for cutting off a monitoring bracelet? Small peanuts. Perhaps all the serious criminals should move to Wisconsin. They would get a better deal. Oh, yeah, it is actually colder in Racine, Wisconsin than anywhere in Ohio!!

No Grade for a Christian Social Work Student

Even though this grad student complied with the professor's censorship of a faith-based solution in return for a promise to not downgrade the paper, the professor has refused (!) to even grade the student's paper. The reason: probably because the student did as the professor suggested, but also dared to include some legal information from the American Center for Law and Justice that would help the professor understand that this kind of academic censorship of free speech should not occur again.

So, the Alliance Defense Fund wrote a letter to Southern Illinois University.

What will happen next?

Second Amendment protects individual right

Finally, we are talking about the Second Amendment again in the good old USA. Perhaps this time we will get it right.

As you may recall, the recent debates about gun control and the right to bear arms has centered on whether the right to bear arms is only associated with the right to have a militia.

Well, a most unexpected court has determined (for the time being, at least) that this right is an individual right, not a collective or state right. Can you imagine that the right to free speech was only a collective or state right, not an individual right?

The
law firm that handled this matter has all of the the pleadings from this case on its website. Thank you, Gura and Possesky.

Anyway, I am pleased. I am not a constitutional scholar, but I have always thought (even though I really am repelled by handguns) that the right had to be an individual right, not a collective right.

It's a long time from conviction to death

For those who oppose the death penalty, it is interesting to note that the total number of executed criminals in the United States has increased from 21 in 1984 to 60 in 2005. Moreover, the length of time from conviction to final resolution through direct appeal has increased from 51 months in 1984 to 147 months in 2005. Unlike what I have heard in the mainstream media, however, is the news that the majority of executions include white people. Of course, that fact does not mitigate the issue of wrongful execution based upon shoddy or faked evidence. I am glad that many law schools have innocence projects that identify wrongfully convicted prisoners and strive to get those prisoners released upon new and accurate DNA evidence.

Local Police Officer and his DUI

There are some upset people in Crooksville (great name, isn't it?) Ohio and environs because a local police officer challenged the DUI measuring instruments that the officer uses against other DUI suspects. He challenged his conviction all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court. The Supreme Court declined jurisdiction
and dismissed the appeal. His sentence is yet to be determined. He has a number of sentencing dates, all of which had passed without sentence. I suppose that some parties are actually upset because the officer has not yet paid any of his fines or court fees.

Separation of School and State

It is about time! I only wish I had thought of it first.

Jeff Jacoby, in his Boston Globe Op-Ed, A Call for Separation of School and State, pointed out a nearly perfect solution for those who are offended by what public schools are teaching their children. Get the government out of education!!

Presently, public school teacher unions try to force all students into a "one size fits all" K-12 curriculum, to curtail all home education, and to stop public monies from being distributed to legally organized charter and religious schools. Thus, parents and students are losing their battle to have their own religious/anti-religious, liberal/conservative, market economy/socialist etc. viewpoints either taught at the schools or protected from being trashed by school curricula.

Hooray! Talk about democratic choice and voting with one's feet. This is an idea whose time has arrived. I cannot imagine how the system would actually be dismantled, and, of course, there is the problem of unemployment for many ineffective school teachers and administrators. However, as a former public school teacher, I can attest that many teachers long for the freedom to properly teach their students and for the freedom to serve the students that they want to serve.

What? A Market for education? Some will say that is wrong - that society has a responsibility to take children from their parent's influence and to bring them up the way of righteousness (defined by the educational leaders). Oh, right, that is what the Boston religious leaders wanted, and why the first public schools were developed in Massachusetts - to save little kids from parents who refused to bring their kids to church services.

I remember my own mother, upon visiting the elementary school that I attended, being told by my principal, that she should leave my education up to the "professionals" - and that she had been wrong to teach me how to read before I started kindergarten. Mom was suitably outraged. Of course, a couple of years later, the school told my mom that they had done all they could for me, and that the family would have to find something else to occupy my intellectual curiosity. Imagine that!