Category: Uncategorized

Supreme Court Rejects Anti-Abortion Racketeering Lawsuit

The Supreme Court overturned by a vote of 8-1 a successful lawsuit brought against anti-abortion protesters under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organizations Act.

The National Organization of Women successfully sued Joseph M. Scheidler using the civil lawsuit provisions of the RICO act. NOW argued in court that anti-abortion activists who protested at clinics were in essence not simply practicing civil disobedience, but in fact formed a criminal conspiracy aimed at extorting legitimate business enterprise.

Chief Justice Rehnquist, writing in the majority opinion, said of this novel legal theory,

There is no dispute in these cases that petitioners interfered with, disrupted, and in some instances completely deprived respondents of their ability to exercise their property rights. Likewise, petitioners’ counsel readily acknowledged at oral argument that aspects of his clients’ conduct were criminal. But even when their acts of interference and disruption achieved their ultimate goal of “shutting down” a clinic that performed abortions, such acts did not constitute extortion because petitioners did not “obtain” respondents’ property. Petitioners may have deprived or sought to deprive respondents of their alleged property right of exclusive control of their business assets, but they did not acquire any such property. Petitioners neither pursued nor received “something of value from” respondents that they could exercise, transfer, or sell.

This ruling will likely mean an end to any remaining efforts to use RICO against animal rights activists. The court is pretty clear that whatever else the activities of a group like Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty might be, it doesn’t make sense to describe them as extortion.

In a brief concurring opinion, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg points to where opponents of animal rights extremism should look as a model — Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994. This act provides additional criminal and civil penalties for individuals and groups who block access to clinics. In effect, the law says that organized efforts to deny women access to abortion clinics constitutes a crime of serious enough nature that it needs to be prosecuted as more than a simple trespassing or disturbing the peace.

The Supreme Court has turned away all challenges to the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act that have reached it, and thus it would serve well as model legislation designed to more effectively deal with organized criminal acts against animal enterprises.

Sources:

Scheidler vs. National Organization for Women.

High court overturns ruling in abortion case. Elliott Blackburn, The Daily Texan, February 27, 2003.

Extortion law ruled invalid in protest case. Joan Biskupic, USA Today, February 27, 2003.

Protection for protesters. John Leon, U.S. News & World Report, March 10, 2003.

UNOS Again Shows Its Impotence

The United Network for Organ Sharing came out this week and stated the obvious — that Duke University violated numerous UNOS regulations when it gave not one, but two sets of organs to Jesica Santillan.

First, of course, Santillan was in the United States illegally and UNOS policie are quite clear — illegal immigrants are not eligible for organ transplants.

Second, patients must appear on a special eligibility list before they can receive organs. Santillan was not on that eligibility list. Organs are at times given to individuals not on the special eligibility list when there is a risk that the organs will not find a donor, but in the Santillan case it is clear that UNOS policies were not followed.

UNOS Vice President Russell Wiesner said of the Santillan debacle,

We have an obligation to maintain the trust of those who are considering making the decision to be organ donors, so that they and their loved ones feel confident about that important decision. The national transplant system relies on public trust.

But UNOS continues to betray that trust — Duke University Hospial will almost certainly face no official repercussions from UNOS despite the problems with Santillan’s transplants.

Which begs the question of how exactly Americans are served by UNOS’ continued monopoly on donated organs.

Half a Cheer for St. Bonaventure’s Basketball Team

After the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team decided not to play its final two games of the season it has been excoriated in the sport’s press and the Atlantic 10 is talking about whether or not to drop the team from its league. But in the face of the absurdity that is the NCAA, is what St. Bonaventure’s team decided to do all that bizarre?

The team’s problems started with when junior college transfer Jamil Terrell joined the St. Bonaventure team last April. Terrell was ineligible and St. Bonaventure’s compliance officer warned the basketball coach at the time, but the coach went to the university president who overruled the compliance officer and allowed Terrell to join the team.

He played in 25 games and when the Atlantic-10 athletic directors finally declared him ineligible a few weeks ago, they forced St. Bonaventure to not only forfeit 6 of their games, but banned the team from the Atlantic-10 postseason tournament. The team said thanks, but no thanks, and decided not to play its final two games.

This brought outrage from commentators whining about the team being quitters who disgraced their sport and league. Give me a break — NCAA men’s basketball has so disgraced itself at the coaching and administrative level, that it’s hard to believe St. Bonaventure’s basketball team created even a ripple.

This is an organization, after all, where Bobby Knight can be caught on tape choking a player during practice, and he is free to coach at any school that will have him. Terrell gets a welding certificate rather than an actual degree, however, and the Atlantic-10 issues it the basketball equivalent of the death penalty. Coaches like Jerry Tarkanian can violation hop from one university to another leaving ineligible players in their wake while raking in the financial rewards for themselves.

This is an industry in which the median salary for men’s NCAA basketball coaches is $290,000 but everyone freaks out when some kid wants a booster to cover his $300 phone bill.

The only academic mission the NCAA has left is serving up a hefty portion of Hypocrisy 101.

China Angered Over Latest Command and Conquer Game

According to this BBC storythe Chinese press is outraged that China is portrayed as harboring terrorist bases in the latest incarnation of the strategy game Command and Conquer. Of course, the Chinese have already paid the game the ultimate compliment according to the BBC,

Although the game has not been released in China, pirated copies of it are freely available.

Source:

Fury over EA’s generals. The BBC, February 27, 2003.

Is Space Continuous or Discrete?

The Economist has an interesting survey of the debate amongst physicists about whether space-time is continuous or discrete. If space-time is discrete, then there is an ultimate limit on location and velocity, whereas if the universe is continuous then there aren’t such limits.

The general theory of relativity posits a continuous universe, whereas quantum theory implies a discrete universe. Unfortunately measuring at such small scales would require instruments a million times as sensitive as the best existing supercolliders.

Richard Lieu and Lloyd Hillman of the University of Alabama in Huntsville argue that the universe is continuous based on measurements taken by the Hubble telescope of a distant galaxy. Of course other researchers have chimed in disputing Lieu and Hillman’s claims, saying they underestimated the effects that space and time would have on such distant light by a factor of several million.

Source:

Plank-scale physics. The Economist, February 27, 2003.

PETA Defends Letter to Arafat

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ Daphna Nachminovitch wrote a letter to The Washington Times in February defending PETA’s decision to send a letter to Yasser Arafat that asked the Palestinian leader to exert pressure to stop the use of animals such as donkeys in terrorist attacks. The letter came in the wake of a failed terrorist attack in which explosives attached to a donkey were detonated in a failed attempt to kill Israeli citizens.

PETA was accused in many corners, including by The Washington Times‘ Gene Mueller of wearing moral blinders and caring more about animals than human beings. Nachminovitch responded,

PETA opposes violence and cruelty to all beings, but while millions of people and hundreds of organizers work to help the people in the Middle East, almost no one cares about the animals, who also suffer. We at PETA have chosen to work for animal rights because the animals need help — not to the exclusion of helping people, but in addition to it. Just a few months ago, we did both when we sent a delegation to this troubled spot to distribute healthful vegetarian food to both Arab and Israeli children, bringing a simple message of nonviolence along with nutritious food.

I wish Mr. Muller [who, while writing in defense of shooting animals for sport, probably has not asked Mr. Arafat to stop killing people] had been able to meet one of my fellow PETA employees, Ravei Chand, who worked tirelessly to share a message of compassion for animals. But he is not available for an interview because he is also a U.S. Marine. He has just shipped out with his platoon for the Middle East. He has put his life on the line to defend his country, yet he, like so many in Israel, can see what Mr. Mueller missed: We don’t have to choose between people and animals. Indeed, we can care for all.

If PETA can care for both humans and animals, that simply begs the question of why Ingrid Newkirk would write a letter to Arafat whose effect was to ask Arafat to stop using donkeys in future terrorist attacks. This would be a bit like somebody in favor of freedom for Tibet writing a letter to Arafat asking the Palestinians to ensure they don’t buy any explosives for China.

Source:

Make the Middle East safe for people and other living things. Daphna Nachminovitch, The Washington Times, February 25, 2003.