Entries by Carroll Andrew Morse

Coming Up in Committee on Tuesday, March 18: The House Judiciary Firearms Agenda

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2. On Tuesday, March 18 the House Judiciary Committee will hear this year’s raft of firearms related bills. Here’s the whole list (plus one bill that’s not there)…

  • H7311 and H7310: Extends the prohibition on owning firearms for those convicted of felony domestic violence charges to misdemeanor domestic violence charges.
  • H7328: Disallows suspended sentences for possession of a stolen firearm.
  • H7376: Makes renewal of a firearms permit “automatic, subject to payment of the fee, and a criminal background check” though I’m not entirely sure what “automatic” means, given the other conditions that have to be actively fulfilled.
  • H7381: Clarifies (apparently, based on the official explanation) that all records related to the background check required for purchase of a rifle or a shotgun, and not just the “duplicate and triplicate” records are to be destroyed, in cases where no disqualifying information is found. H7586 does the same thing, in the pistols and revolvers section of the law.
  • H7582: Rewrites the regulations pertaining to when a person under the age of 18 may possess a firearm.
  • H7583: Creates a state registry of certain types of firearms.
  • H7584: Bans “semiautomatic assault weapons” and “large capacity ammunition feeding devices”.
  • H7585: Bans “magazines holding more than ten rounds”.
  • H7588: Makes it illegal to discharge a firearm from an aircraft “in a manner which creates a substantial risk of death or serious personal injury to another person”. But is it actually legal to discharge a firearm in a manner which creates a substantial risk of death or serious personal injury to another person, as the law currently stands??
  • H7855: Makes it illegal to “possess or transport or attempt to transport any firearm through any security checkpoint or in any restricted area on airport property”.
  • H7856: Changes the law so that instead of “persons” being prohibited from possessing firearms on school grounds, only students or person under eighteen years of age are.
  • H7857: Assesses an additional $50 in court costs, for certain firearms related convictions, with “the funds raised under this section shall be distributed monthly to the office of the general treasurer who shall, on a yearly basis, distribute the funds in equal amounts to 501(c)(3), non profit organizations who have programs in non-violence, violence prevention and victim’s services in a majority of cities and towns in Rhode Island”. Because this bill makes appropriations to private organizations, it requires a 2/3 majority to pass.
  • H7923: is an omnibus bill from the Attorney General, extending the ban on firearms possession to people convicted of domestic-violence misdemeanors, prohibiting the carrying of rifles and shotguns, and adding penalties for providing a firearm to a minor that’s used in a crime of violence.
  • Finally, not present on the agenda is any bill removing “shall issue” concealed carry permitting authority from cities and towns and making the Attorney General the sole licensing authority for concealed carry, on a strictly “may issue” basis.

A Bill to Narrow Religious Freedom, Cynically Presented as a Compromise

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H7837: Defines additional criminal penalties and civil remedies for assaults intended to interfere with “obtaining or providing reproductive health services” or with “exercising or seeking to exercise…[the] right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship”. (H Judiciary; Tue, Mar 11)

This bill does not go as far as the Massachusetts law currently being challenged at the US Supreme Court, which prohibits let’s-call-them “unauthorized” individuals from standing within 35 feet of the entrance of an abortion clinic; the first section of this bill applies only to actions which involve “force”, “the threat of force” or “physical obstruction” intended to interfere with “obtaining or providing reproductive health services”.

Supposedly the second section of the bill treats “force”, “the threat of force” or “physical obstruction” intended to interfere with the “right of religious freedom” on equal footing — but it doesn’t.

The protection while “obtaining or providing reproductive health services” does not mention any specific location, yet the protection for freedom of religion does. Protection for “religious freedom” is applied only at “a place of religious worship”, meaning that, for example, if someone wants to say a prayer before, during or after a rally at the statehouse, this particular law provides no barrier to someone else deciding to use the threat of force to intimidate them into not doing so.

The narrowing of the basic definition of religious freedom into something that only happens at places that the government decides are “places of religious worship” is an unacceptable and cynical component of this bill. Don’t fall for this bill being some sort of compromise.

Coming up in Committee: Nineteen Sets of Bills Being Heard by the Rhode Island General Assembly, March 11 – March 13

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1. On Tuesday, March 11 the House Judiciary Committee will hear a series of bills related to the issue of abortion:

  • H7222: Prohibits state and local governments from interfering with “a woman’s personal decision” about becoming pregnant, having an abortion “prior to fetal viability”, or an abortion in the third trimester of a pregnancy “to protect the life or health of the woman”.
  • H7223: Repeals the requirement of spousal notification of an abortion, currently in RI law.
  • H7303: Requires that an obstetric ultrasound be performed on a pregnant woman before she can give informed consent for an abortion.
  • H7330: Non-binding resolution stating that the House of Representatives “recognizes that the existence of a fetal heartbeat is evidence of the existence of human life”.
  • H7383: Bans abortions for sex-selection, with a provision that “nothing in this chapter shall be construed to proscribe the performance of an abortion because the unborn child has a genetic disorder which is sex-linked”.
  • H7403: Prohibits health insurance purchased from the Rhode Island health benefits exchange with state or Federal funds from covering “induced abortions, except where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term or where the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest”.
  • H7472: Adds an exception to the Medicaid/RIte Start ban on abortion coverage, allowing coverage in cases of “pregnancies resulting from rape or incest”.
  • H7779: Repeals the prohibition on “health insurance contracts, plans, or policies” offering coverage for abortions except by “optional rider” with a separate premium.
  • H7854: More specifically defines prohibited partial-birth abortion procedures.
  • H7890: Provides funding of abortions through “public assistance” programs administered and/or financed by the RI department of human services.

2. Non-expiring contracts for municipal employees. H7464 says local contracts with police officers and firefighters would not expire “until such time as a successor agreement has been reached between the parties or an interest arbitration award has been rendered”; H7465 says municipal contracts with teachers and other municipal employees would not expire “until such time as a successor agreement has been reached between the parties”. (H Labor; Tue, Mar 11)

3. H7467: Allows retired police officers and firefighters to go to arbitration, to seek enforcement of the contract that was in place at the time they retired. (H Labor; Tue, Mar 11)

4. H7345: Allows cities and towns to issue bonds for an amounts up to 5% of their budgets to obtain loans from the “municipal road and bridge revolving fund administered by the Rhode Island clean water finance agency” without obtaining the approval of their electors, amended to allow this in calendar year 2014 only. (S2399 is the unamended version, which presumably will be amended during the committee hearing). (S Finance; Tue, Mar 11)

5. On Tuesday, March 11 the Senate Finance Committee will hear the HealthSource RI budget, i.e. the budget for Rhode Island’s state-funded Obamacare exchange (see p. 65 here). Also, on Wednesday, March 12 the House Finance Committee will hold its hearing on the departmental budget of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, which is the single largest major category in the state budget (about $2 billion, including state and Federal funds).

Coming up in Committee: Eighteen Sets of Bills Being Heard by the Rhode Island General Assembly, March 4 – March 6

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1. H7314: Requires a photo ID when using a food stamp benefits card. (H Health, Education and Welfare; Wed, Mar 5)

2. H7100 raises the amount of time served to be eligible for parole from 20 to 30 years in cases of 1st or 2nd degree murder life sentences, and from 10 to 20 years in cases of life sentences for other crimes. It also requires convicts serving consecutive sentences to serve their minimums consecutively. H7101 requires that 50% of any non-life sentence for 1st or 2nd degree murder to be served, before eligibility for parole. (H Judiciary; Wed, Mar 5)

3. S2335: Eliminates tolls on the Sakonnet River Bridge, replacing the anticipated revenue with a multi-part Rube Goldberg formula requiring that fixed percentages of the total state budget be annually appropriated to a “transportation infrastructure fund”. Also, adds a temporary HAHAHAHAHAHAHA 5% surcharge to motor vehicle fees to help initially seed the infrastructure fund. Also, if a Federal internet sales tax is adopted, instead of the RI sales tax dropping from 7% to 6.5%, as is specified in current law (but which the governor would like to change as part of his budget, see #14), the sales tax would only drop to 6.625%, with the 0.125% difference going to the infrastructure fund. Also, creates a study commission to look at eliminating the gas tax. (S Finance; Thu, Mar 6)

4. H7463: “Except as required by federal law or as a condition of receiving federal funds, neither the state nor any municipality shall require an employer to use an electronic employment verification system…as a condition of receiving a government contract or applying for or maintaining a business license”. (H Labor; Tue, Mar 4)

5A. H7189: “The information contained in a portable electronic device shall not be subject to search by a law enforcement officer incident to a lawful custodial arrest except pursuant to a warrant”. (H Judiciary; Tue, Mar 4) The same bill was vetoed by Governor Chafee two years ago, which was a little surprising, since it seems like a reasonable extension of privacy law and something you’d expect a reflexive liberal like our current Governor to immediately support. This year, I’ve come across a similar bill from New Hampshire that’s been described as part of an anti-NSA surveillance movement. Is the Rhode Island version also consciously associated with NSA-related issues?

5B. H7190: Prohibits the state (or any political subdivisions thereof) from obtaining location information transmitted by a cellphone without a warrant. The bill includes procedures for obtaining the necessary warrant and a list of “emergency situation exceptions”. (H Judiciary; Tue, Mar 4)

Passing the Brett Smiley Gun Tax Bill Requires Two-Thirds Majorities

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The Brett Smiley 10%-tax-on-firearms bill has been introduced at the Rhode Island Senate, with Providence State Senator Gayle Goldin as the lead sponsor. Money collected from the tax will be used as follows:

(b) All sums received by the division of taxation under this section as taxes, penalties or forfeitures, interest, costs of suit and fines shall be distributed at least quarterly, credited and paid by the state treasurer into a special fund designated for allocation to the various police departments throughout the state. If a city or town does not have a municipal police department, disbursements pursuant to this section shall be made to the highest ranking municipal official.

(c) Allocation of the funds to the various police departments or city or town officials pursuant to subsection (b) shall be made yearly and based proportionally on the number of “total offenses” occurring in said city or town as set forth in the prior year’s uniform crime report published by the Rhode Island state police.

(d) Any money distributed to the various police departments or city or town officials shall be used only for grants to nonprofit organizations whose mission includes a commitment to the reduction of crime and violence in the community. The local police chief and/or highest ranking municipal official of each city or town shall have discretion as to the amount of money allocated and the groups who shall receive said funds.

Since funds collected through this tax will be used exclusively to make local appropriations to private organizations, in accordance with Article VI section 11 of the Rhode Island Constitution, this bill cannot become law without the approval of a 2/3 majority of both houses of the Rhode Island General Assembly…

Vote required to pass local or private appropriations. — The assent of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the general assembly shall be required to every bill appropriating the public money or property for local or private purposes.

If You’re Going to Bribe State or Local Officials, Make Sure You Have a Solid Retainer Arrangement

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Former Central Falls mayor Charles Moreau is about to be set free “after serving half his two-year sentence” on corruption charges (background available from Michelle Smith of the Associated Press, here), as a result of a First Circuit Court of Appeals opinion from June of last year. Two key factors made the decision in USA vs. Fernandez directly relevant to the Moreau case.

1. Moreau was apparently convicted of accepting not a “bribe” but a “gratuity”. What’s the difference? The First Circuit quotes a 1999 Supreme Court opinion to explain…

[F]or bribery there must be a quid pro quo — a specific intent to give or receive something of value in exchange for an official act. An illegal gratuity, on the other hand, may constitute merely a reward for some future act that the public official will take (and may already have determined to take), or for a past act that he has already taken.

2. The court then notes the structure of Federal statute…

§ 201(b) targets (primarily) federal officials, while § 666 targets non-federal officials who happen to have a connection to federal funds. It is reasonable to assume that the federal government viewed corrupt federal officials involved in the receipt of bribes as more culpable.

…where § 201(b) makes “bribes” and “gratuities” illegal, while § 666 (yes, that’s really the number) makes only “bribes” illegal.

According to Ms. Smith’s report, with the gratuity conviction no longer valid in the First Circuit because Moreau was a local and not a Federal official, Moreau and the prosecutors have made a deal where he will plead guilty to a bribery charge, in return for a sentence of time served.

If you need one sentence to explain to your friends and neighbors the law that led to this outcome, this should do: While it’s illegal to engage in a la carte bribery of state or local officials in the US, you’re OK under Federal law if you’re able to buy them off on a retainer basis.

Coming Up in Committee, Wednesday, February 26: Several Education Bills of Importance

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1. At the House Health, Education and Welfare Committee, on Wednesday, February 26, bills on the following education-related subjects will be heard…

  • Two different ways to delay and/or oppose standardized testing (H7095, H7256).
  • A way to pay for college that seems idiosyncratic, but that is sponsored by the Speaker of the House (H7201).
  • A teacher-evaluation process — that bears close scrutiny (H7096)..
  • Maybe an alternative to standardized testing as a graduation requirement (H7255)?
  • Another bill intended to delay using standardized testing (but that has only a single sponsor) (H7146).
  • And finally, one bill intended to address special education costs in Rhode Island (H7144).

Coming up in Committee: Nineteen Sets of Bills (Minus One Set) Being Heard by the Rhode Island General Assembly, February 25 – February 27

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2. S2399: Allows cities and towns to issue bonds for an amounts up to 5% of their budgets, in order to obtain loans from the “municipal road and bridge revolving fund administered by the Rhode Island clean water finance agency”, with a further provision that the bonds “may be issued under this section by any political subdivision without obtaining the approval of its electors…notwithstanding any provision of its charter to the contrary”. (S Finance; Thu, Feb 27) According to the Projo’s Phil Marcelo, there’s supposed to be an amendment coming to this bill, which will limit its impact to only this year. However, I still don’t see how that makes this a good idea.

3. Bud. Art. 21: An attempt to direct Rhode Island gas-tax revenue to “highway maintenance”, a “heavy vehicle replacement program”, “a drainage system preservation program” and a “preventative maintenance, preservation, and replacement program to address the condition of all state-maintained bridges”. (H Finance; Tue, Feb 25) Labeled as an “attempt” due to heavy skepticism about how effective provisions like this can be, due to the basic fungibility of money.

4. S2175: Limits annual electricity rate increases to the rate of inflation, as determined by the Consumer Price Index. (S Commerce; Thu, Feb 27)

5A. H7313: Prohibits “direct cash assistance funds held on electronic benefit transfer cards or access devices” from being used to purchase “alcoholic beverages”, “lottery tickets”, “tobacco products”, “visual material or performances intended to create or simulate sexual conduct or sexual excitement”, “firearms and ammunition”, “vacation services”, “tattoos or body piercings”, “jewelry”; “gambling” or “the payment to the state or any political subdivision thereof of any fees, fines, bail, or bail bonds”. (H Judiciary; Tue, Feb 25)

5B. S2382: Requires a photo ID when using a food stamp benefits card. (S Judiciary; Tue, Feb 25)

6. H7469: Creates a multi-step bureaucratic process for privatization of municipal services, including allowing unions to sue in Superior Court to stop privatization, so that a judge can make the final decision. (H Municipal Government; Thu, Feb 27)

The Revolution in Ukraine

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Two weeks ago the question was how far would the government go beyond Russian-style anti-protest laws in restricting the civil liberties of the people, in order to protect the economic arrangements of a few. We learned at the start of this week that the Ukrainian government then in place was willing to murder its own citizens, rather than let them have the same options for making their way in the world that an average European has. This is the attitude of an unfree government, one that believes that people are disposable when they impede government priorities.

Because the Ukrainian people are standing firm, they are taking meaningful and necessary steps to show their government and the world that it is government that becomes disposable, once it becomes harmful to its citizens, and the people rise up to demand that it change its priorities as a result. Free people everywhere have common cause with those seeking freedom in Ukraine — literally today — to help ensure that the government there respects this reality, as Ukraine attempts to move forward.

Ninth Circuit Says You Don’t Have to Explain Your Reason for Wanting to Exercise the Right to Bear Arms

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The Ninth Circuit says that California’s requirement that “good cause” be shown in order to obtain a concealed carry firearms permit is unconstitutional. Rhode Island law requires “a proper showing of need”, when trying to obtain a concealed carry permit from the Attorney General.

Rejected alternate title: “It’s Not a Right, if it Depends on Some Guy in Sarasota”.

Coming up in Committee on February 11 and 12: The Worst Institutional Design in Education History?

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1. S2265/Bud. Art. 20: Completion of a full Dilbert cycle of Rhode Island’s education bureaucracy, where one board that was created by merging together two previous boards is re-reorganized into one board with two “councils”, each council being given basically the same responsibility as one of the original boards. (H Health, Education and Welfare/H Finance joint meeting; Tue, Feb 11, as Bud. Art. 20 & S Education/S Finance joint meeting; Wed, Feb 12, as S2265)

Coming up in Committee on February 11: Bypassing the Voters, to Saddle them With Municipal Bond Debt

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2. Two bills being heard in General Assembly committees this week would allow city/town councils to ignore home-rule charter requirements requiring voter approval of long-term debt, when borrowing via the “municipal road and bridge revolving fund administered by the Rhode Island clean water finance agency”.

In the case of Pawtucket, one of the bills subjects all taxable property in the city to “ad valorem taxation…without limitation as to rate or amount”.

Coming up in Committee: Eighteen Sets of Bills (Minus Two) Being Heard by the Rhode Island General Assembly, February 11 – February 13

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3. H7262: Driving “privilege” licenses for illegal immigrants. (H Judiciary; Tue, Feb 11) In order to obtain a license, a “foreign national” must submit (for starters) “a foreign birth certificate, a valid foreign passport that is unexpired or expired for less than three (3) years before the application for a license including a certified translation if the document is not in English, or a valid, unexpired consular identification document issued by an applicant’s country of citizenship”. So if nothing else, this should end (if we assume a rational world) the question of whether illegal immigrants can honestly be described as “undocumented”.

4. H7026 requires teachers to be notified of layoffs due to “fiscal exigency or program reorganization” by June 1. (Currently, layoff notices of any kind must be sent by March 1). H7193 adds program reduction/elimination and budget reduction to a “decrease in pupil population” as cases where teacher layoffs must be carried out on the basis of seniority, and sets May 15 as the corresponding layoff notice date. (H Labor; Tue, Feb 11)

5. H7368: Places a moratorium on “approvals for new healthcare equipment or new institutional health services prior to July 1, 2015”, with what appear to be exceptions for “domestic medical tourism” and “currently licensed multi-practice physician ambulatory surgery center[s]” (H Health, Education and Welfare; Wed, Feb 12) An attempt to explain the purpose of this bill is available here.

6. S2036: Moves the amount of time served to be eligible for parole from 20 to 30 years in cases of life sentences for 1st or 2nd degree murder, and from 10 to 20 years in cases of life sentences for other crimes. Also, convicts serving consecutive sentences would be required to serve their minimums consecutively. S2029 would require 50% of any non-life sentence for 1st or 2nd degree murder to be served, before a convict would be eligible for parole. (S Judiciary; Tue, Feb 11) By the numbers, this means that life is potentially a more lenient punishment than a sentence of greater than 60 years. How important this is depends on actual sentencing guidelines and practices.

(Top two bills to follow, in separate posts).

Coming up in Committee: Twenty Sets of Bills Being Heard by the Rhode Island General Assembly, February 4 – February 6

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1. Two minimum wage bills; H7056 provides a one-time raise in the minimum wage to $9 per-hour, and H7194 sets the minimum wage at $9 per hour for 2015, $10 per hour for 2016 and automatically adjusts it upward for inflation after that. (H Labor; Tue, Feb 4)

2. H7050/S2008: A “person, corporation, or other entity who has resolved” 38 Studios project claims “is not liable for claims for contribution or equitable indemnity regarding matters addressed in the settlement”. (H Judiciary; Tue, Feb 4) Passed unanimously by the Senate, this bill’s fast-tracking continues.

3. H7067: An attempt by legislators to prevent expansion of the Blackstone Prep Mayoral Academy, by not allowing schools to be built on the sites of former mines, even if the building site meets every other building code and engineering regulation in the state of Rhode Island, and with no provisions for variances, clean-up or appeals. (H Health, Education and Welfare; Wed, Feb 5) This bill is also an end-run by legislators around the principle that their job is to pass laws for the benefit of all and not to punish specific organizations.

4. Bud. Art. 12, sec. 1: Persons who have “neglected or refused to file a tax return(s) and/or to pay any tax administered by the tax administrator” will not be allowed to register or transfer registrations of motor vehicles. (H Finance; Wed, Feb 5)

Best Day Ever for a Reminder of How Mainstream a Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment Is

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With Clay Pell Jr. announcing his 2014 campaign for Governor of Rhode Island on the same day that President Barack Obama will be delivering his 2014 state of the Union message, this may be the best day ever to remind people that Mr. Pell’s grandfather and Democratic Party legend, Senator Claiborne Pell, voted for a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution, motivated by fiscal circumstances milder than those faced by the country now…

Today, annual deficits run-up by the Federal government are much larger than the figure of $221 billion cited by Senator Pell in his explanation of his vote in favor of the 1986 balanced budget amendment. 2011 will be the third year in a row where the Federal deficit exceeds $1 trillion dollars, with no return to 1986 levels anticipated (in inflation adjusted dollars) in the next five years projected by the Office of Management and Budget.

By 1994, Senator Pell believed that the projected lowering of annual deficits to 2.3% of GDP made a balanced budget amendment unnecessary, but today, deficits are much larger than 2.3% of GDP and are larger as a percentage of GDP than they were when Senator Pell voted to send a balanced budget amendment to the states…

Believe it or not, the balanced budget amendment tradition is still alive and well in Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation. In 2011, Rhode Island Congressmen David Cicilline and James Langevin both co-sponsored a balanced budget amendment, similar to the one voted for by Senator Pell (though containing some different exceptions for when it is to be applied, and a few more items excluded from the definition of balance), although neither Congressman has signed on to a similar amendment, with multiple Democratic sponsors, introduced in the 2013 Congressional session.

Coming up in Committee: Six Bills to be Heard by the RI General Assembly, January 28 – January 30

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1. H7050: A “person, corporation, or other entity who has resolved” 38 Studios project claims “is not liable for claims for contribution or equitable indemnity regarding matters addressed in the settlement”. (H Judiciary; Tue, Jan 28) This bill has already passed by the Senate Judiciary committe 9-0 (including Senator Dawson Hodgson voting in the affirmative), so it’s on a fast track.

2. H7053: Creates a “Joint Committee of the Repealer” within the legislature, to recommend laws & regulations for repeal. (H Judiciary; Tue, Jan 28)

Rhue Reis Announces For Congress in the Second District

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Rhue Reis of North Kingstown formally announced his campaign for Rhode Island’s Second District Congressional seat yesterday afternoon. Coverage of Mr. Reis’ campaign kickoff is available from Ian Donnis of Rhode Island Public Radio…

Reis is an opponent of Obamacare and says he wants a smaller federal government. Asked where he’d make cuts, he points to social programs, as well as the federal departments of Education, Energy, and Defense. On his Web site, Reis says, “The role of government must return to what I believe the Founders envisioned it to be. That is, one that is limited by the enumerated powers of the US Constitution, which leaves substantial governing responsibilities to the states.”

…Andrew Augustus of WPRO (630AM)…

“I’m tired of seeing our representation in the House unable to use the simplest organizational tools to bring about cooperative efforts for the good of the nation,” said Reis…

“These career members of government have grown increasingly distant from the Constituents they’re supposed to represent. That’s because their survival in the cushy precincts of public service is far more dependent on what goes on inside the Washington Beltway”…

…and Tom Mooney of the Projo…

“Mr. Langevin is so ingrained in the adversarial relationship between the political parties in Washington that the really works for his caucus’ leadership, not for his constitutents. If that’s what it means to be a professional politician, why would you hire one?”

Coming up in Committee: Eight Bills to be Heard by the RI General Assembly, January 21 – January 23

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1. S2008: A “person, corporation, or other entity who has resolved” its claims related to the 38 Studios project “is not liable for claims for contribution or equitable indemnity regarding matters addressed in the settlement”. (S Judiciary; Thu, Jan 23) Any lawyers with civil litigation experience want to tell us what this means? Also, what are the limits, with regards to how much latitude a legislature has in creating unique rules of procedure for a particular civil case?

2. S2011: Adds a phrase to last year’s law supposedly reforming the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, so that it now reads “Nothing in this act shall be construed to change or modify the corporate existence of the former Rhode Island economic development corporation, which shall now be known as the ‘Rhode Island commerce corporation'”… (S Commerce; Tue, Jan 21) …just in case anyone was led mistakenly to believe that last session’s “reform” significantly changed anything!

3. H7053: Creates a “Joint Committee of the Repealer” within the legislature, to recommend laws & regulations for repeal. (H Judiciary; Tue, Jan 21)

How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust?

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How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an “I-it” relationship for an “I-thou” relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man’s tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.

— From “Letter from Birmingham Jail“, by Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Governor’s 2015 Budget for Rhode Island in Historical Perspective

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1. Total state budget, current dollars.

2. Total state budget, inflation adjusted.

3. General revenue budget, inflation adjusted.

4. Federal funds budget, inflation adjusted.

And the bottom line: It is disingenuous for the current Governor to open his state of the state address by boasting of “no broad based tax increases”, while speaking only with disdain for the budgeting in the “recent past” that made a no-tax increase plan not containing major disruptions feasible.

Events From 12+ Billion Years Ago Cited as Evidence of Human-Driven Global Warming

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Phil Plait, a blogger for Slate magazine, recently linked to a literature-review style “investigation” which claims that only 1 out of 2,258 “peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals over the period from Nov. 12, 2012 through December 31, 2013…rejected man-made global warming”.

Here’s an example of the quality of analysis that went into the literature review.

Paper number 2254 is titled “X-ray emission from high-redshift miniquasars: self-regulating the population of massive black holes through global warming”. The subject of the paper is super-massive black hole formation believed to have occurred in the first billion years of the universe, which the authors attempt to explain in a way that is consistent with the observational record of distant quasars. The “global warming” being referred to has nothing to do with planet Earth. In this paper, it is the name given to a warming of the intergalactic medium, associated with early cosmological objects, that occurred 12-and-a-half-billion years ago (i.e., the 13.7 billion year estimated age of the universe, minus the first billion years, plus or minus a few hundred million).

This is one of the 2,257 papers considered as supporting the consensus that human-driven global warming is occurring.

Anyone claiming the mantle of “science” should realize that events that occurred 12-and a-half billion years ago are not relevant to the particulars of Earth’s climate of the last several centuries — but ironically and dangerously, actually reading a scientific paper and trying to understand what it means and how it fits with other work is more likely to be labeled “anti-science” at the present time, than is taking a decidedly unscientific posture that details matter less than consensus when trying to prove the existence of scientific phenomena.

Summarizing the Start of the 2014 Rhode Island General Assembly Session

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As the 2014 legislative session begins, Rhode Islanders once again need remind themselves that self-government only works when the people make it work. We must find within ourselves the greatness and virtue needed to keep liberty alive, and not wait passively wait for those quantities to be delivered to us, because Roger Williams is not walking through that door. Stephen Hopkins is not walking through that door. Thomas is not walking through that Dorr.

Rights, Reality, and Rhode Island-Style Insanity

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Retired state Superior Court Justice Judith Colenback Savage‘s op-ed in today’s Projo crosses into insanity — and should make readers worry about how widely shared that insanity is. Referring to a court verdict from November, Justice Savage writes…

What others think of the jury verdict in this case is irrelevant. Under our justice system, none of us has the right to suggest that this jury got it wrong; we likewise have no right to say that the jury got it right.

Two quick points here:

  1. This is an op-ed penned by former Superior Court Justice, who should be expected to understand that the term “rights” should not be used loosely, and that invoking limitations on rights is a serious matter. Given that the op-ed is a direct response to an editorial, what Justice Savage has inescapably declared is that there is no right to publish an editorial that either supports or criticizes a jury verdict. In fact, under her formulation, there is no right to offer an opinion, in any medium, for or against a jury verdict. Huh?
     
  2. This op-ed illustrates what may be the most significant fault-line in our current political and civic culture. On one side of that line, you have people who believe that government (or perhaps another collective) possesses the power to define reality in any way that it chooses. On the other side, you have people who take a much more modest view of government’s ability to manufacture reality. What is not at all surprising is finding an extreme proponent of the view that government is the final word on reality occupying a very comfortable spot within Rhode Island’s political culture.

A Christmas Auld Lang Syne

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My favorite “pop” Christmas song of all time may be Bobby Darin’s Christmas Auld Lang Syne.

It starts off with the schmaltzy* imagery of “mistletoe and tinsel glow” — but just as such symbolism can and should, uses it to move to something more meaningful…

…first to how the surface stuff reminds us that it’s the time of year to return to family and friends, “back home I go to those I know”…

…and then even further, to what’s at the heart of the celebration, in the season of singing “in sweet accord to thank the Lord”.

Trust me, the actual music is better than my description of it. And as Mr. Darin himself says, Merry Christmas, everybody!

*Ian Donnis‘ word of the week.

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