walterolson.bsky.social
Writer on law etc.; Cato Institute. Election law, Maryland civic stuff, cooking. Blogged at Overlawyered back when. No kings, no tyrants.
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The article cites a few reformist gestures by members of Congress after similar stories surfaced during the first Trump administration. But you're right on the wider point that whichever party is in charge on the Hill, there seems to be little interest in crafting practical legislation.
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Avoiding accountability isn't the only discreditable reason for masking. "Frankly," says one activist, "when people want to terrorize people, they wear masks.” /7, end
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"Radley Balko, the former Washington Post reporter who wrote Rise of the Warrior Cop, recalled a situation in which DEA officers raided the home of two innocent women, whose subsequent lawsuit was dismissed because they were unable to figure out the officers’ identities." /6
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“Are you aware,” Rep. Johnson asked Noem, “that your materials, ICE agents’ jackets and the sort, are available on Etsy for $20? Anybody can do that…because your agency does not have proper protocols to make sure their agents are clearly identified and marked when they are executing their jobs.” /5
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"Historically, police in the United States have rarely masked on the job other than for certain undercover operations and SWAT raids—and during the pandemic." There's no constitutional right to know an officer's identity, notes one expert. (But maybe there should be.) /4
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"On an online forum for police officers, one commenter wrote in 2009 that their department allowed helmets and protective eyewear that partially obscured their face during raids, but 'we had an old school Sheriff once that said, "Only bad guys wear a mask to work."'" /3
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Last month "the Florida Highway Patrol apparently instructed troopers not to wear name tags while participating in ICE operations, according to an email obtained by News 6, because 'there has been a lot of activity and many recordings of us posted online when working with ICE.'” /2
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I've now expanded this into a full post, thread begins here: bsky.app/profile/did:...
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That's Michael B. Poliakoff, the president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), which favors a return to traditional liberal arts principles and is often seen as a force toward a more conservative spirit in academia. Defending academia should unite us all. /2, end www.goacta.org
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It all seems foolhardy. If and when left-liberals get back in power, some of them will cite this precedent as reason to impose burdensome taxes on institutions where conservatives have done well, including religion and family philanthropy, both of which have retained broad freedom. /5, end
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The drafters of the provision clearly wanted to favor conservative over liberal colleges, but they were incompetent even at doing that. One provision denying exemption to religious but nondenominational institutions would wind up hitting Hillsdale College in Michigan. /4
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...in which a 9-0 Court ruled that Wisconsin could not deny an exemption to Catholic Charities simply because it sought to do good works to mankind generally, not just serve its co-religionists or proselytize. That decision, noted Sotomayor, was itself based on an inherently theological choice. /3
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One provision, for example, would deny exemption to religious colleges if their parent churches give them too much autonomy and don't bind them closely enough to "religious tenets, beliefs, or teachings." That recalls the Supreme Court case just last week in Catholic Charities v. Wisconsin... /2
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I remember when reports came out of those unmarked van abductions off the street in Portland, a bunch of MAGA types sneered at us as paranoid for crediting wild tales some activists had probably made up.
Now it’s “Yeah, we did it, let’s do more of it, and warrants and probable cause be damned.”
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Doesn’t really mesh with the way the vans came to public notice, which was that reporters would interview an activist/ organizer who’d been snatched, driven around for six or eight hours, and then released without charges or explanation.
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I remember when reports came out of those unmarked van abductions off the street in Portland, a bunch of MAGA types sneered at us as paranoid for crediting wild tales some activists had probably made up.
Now it’s “Yeah, we did it, let’s do more of it, and warrants and probable cause be damned.”
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Jefferson at the Trumpists of his day: "The friendless alien has been selected as the safest subject of a first experiment [with tyranny]; but the citizen will soon follow." He thought the arbitrary deportation of immigrants could "drive these States into revolution and blood"
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This is foolish -- when the other side gets into power, it will use the precedent to fasten burdensome taxes on foundations and philanthropic formats conservatives like. Tax law should be based on neutral principles, and this isn't it. /2, end