Wednesday Writs: Mailed-In Edition

Em Carpenter

Em was one of those argumentative children who was sarcastically encouraged to become a lawyer, so she did. She is a proud life-long West Virginian, and, paradoxically, a liberal. In addition to writing about society, politics and culture, she enjoys cooking, podcasts, reading, and pretending to be a runner. She will correct your grammar. You can find her on Twitter.

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15 Responses

  1. InMD says:

    L2 This is probably the most weak sauce of the challenges to the ACA. From standing to the demand to literally legislate I don’t see this going anywhere. Were I a Justice I’d throw it out on the standing issue alone.

    L5 I think we need to have a national discussion on qualifications for school administrators. It seems like they want the dumbest, most petty, authoritarian people they can find.Report

    • Brandon Berg in reply to InMD says:

      The basis for this challenge is that the original ruling upholding the Constitutionality of the mandate was explicitly premised on it being a tax. If the tax is zero, then the ostensible basis for that decision falls through. Of course, the actual basis for the decision was that a majority of the Court wanted to uphold the ACA, so the ostensible basis falling through is not that big a deal.Report

      • InMD in reply to Brandon Berg says:

        Yes, yes I forgot all decisions are subterfuge for the political preferences of the judges. You should write a book on how you suss out their true motivations. It would make practice so much easier and you’d be rich.Report

        • Road Scholar in reply to InMD says:

          Yes, yes I forgot all decisions are subterfuge for the political preferences of the judges.

          Which logically would apply to both sides, no? Not sure why a conservative would want to take that position but ok.Report

    • y10nerd in reply to InMD says:

      L5: This is freaking insanity. Are you fucking kidding me? Like seriously? I’m a district administrator and this is just kinda like…UGH.

      The problem is that the people that most get promoted to principal are the most boring, basic ass folks in the history of mankind who fetishized rule-following for themselves. And now they practice their fetish with others.Report

      • InMD in reply to y10nerd says:

        It’s really unfortunate. On the one hand I’m a strong supporter of discipline in schools. But there’s maintaining order and there’s harming children for no reason via pointlessly strict yet also expansive interpretations of the rules. Even if a punishment was merited and I really don’t see how it was under the circumstances expulsion is beyond crazy.Report

        • y10nerd in reply to InMD says:

          Discipline also does a lot of work. My experience in education is that the gender and racial imbalances make it so certain kinds of work atmospheres are valued and certain ones are not – and that the current model values a lot of compliance and silence. I have this conversation teachers I’m coaching all the time, but within the charter school world, its hard to break out of this.

          I remember co-observing with a principal a classroom and they wanted to focus the teacher’s attention in our debrief meeting to the two boys that were whispering to each other in the corner. I pointed out that when I walked over to hear them, they were talking about WWII tanks in a lesson about the Cold War – so maybe it was fine for that day to let them be a little off task. I also pointed out that the real issue was that the lesson was relatively low rigor and had kids mostly working on taking notes and memorizing dates.

          The conversation then went back to ‘holding kids to high behavial standards’.

          My professor in undergrad once said that the teaching profession is obsessed with ‘teacher-pleasing behaviors’ that are mediated by class, race, and gender.

          ie – boys of color really get screwed in our current system.Report

      • Oscar Gordon in reply to y10nerd says:

        This is nuts, but given my experiences growing up, it’s not beyond the norm.

        I sometimes wonder if school admins shouldn’t have to be screened for authoritarian fetishes.Report

  2. Jaybird says:

    L1: This isn’t like when the cops stole from the guy. They were *REASONABLY* chasing down a black guy and beating him up! Good cops wouldn’t be able to do their jobs if cops weren’t able to do this!

    L5: Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.Report

  3. Saul Degraw says:

    The Times called Democratic and Republican election officials in dozens of states. There was no evidence of voter fraud. This is Trump throwing a temper tantrum because he lost, there is nothing he can do about it, and a good chunk of the GOP has been radicalized enough to see any Democratic victory as illegitimate.*

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/us/politics/voting-fraud.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

    *Hi GeorgeReport

  4. Jaybird says:

    L4 is huge too. Massachusetts is a good start. I understand that farmland communities have a surprisingly lively firmware black market.Report

    • Michael Cain in reply to Jaybird says:

      Last time we visited in-laws in rural Kansas, my nephew and I, who have never agreed on any public policy, were playing out the bit in Alice’s Restaurant, jumping up and down and chanting, “Kill! Kill! Kill!” Both in favor of right to repair at the same level of fervor.Report