Academic Freedom Alliance Letter to Concordia University Wisconsin

The Academic Freedom Alliance released a public letter to Concordia University Wisconsin calling on the university to reaffirm the academic freedom of philosophy professor Gregory Schulz.

Schulz is active speaker and writer for public audiences on issues associated with the Lutheran Church, with which Concordia University Wisconsin is affiliated. Earlier this month, he published an online article, “Woke Dysphoria at Concordia,” critical of the rise of “wokeism” in American society, in the Lutheran Church, and at Concordia University Wisconsin and criticized in particular how the presidential search was conducted at the university. In apparent response to that public criticism of the university, Schulz was suspended and barred from entering the campus as the university contemplated the future of his employment there.

This controversy is all too familiar. Professor writes something for a public audience that is critical of university administrators, and university administrators respond by retaliating against the professor. From a traditional academic freedom perspective, this sort of thing is a cut-and-dried violation of the professor’s academic freedom under the American Association of University Professors standards. This sort of retaliation against “extramural speech” would also be a First Amendment problem for a public university.

The situation here is unusual, however, in that Concordia University Wisconsin is an explicitly religious institution. As such, it has not adopted traditional academic freedom protections and imposes some unusual restrictions on faculty speech. Even so, Concordia does have an academic freedom policy, and the university’s action in this case goes well beyond the bounds of what the university has reserved to itself when it comes to professorial speech.

Schulz is not challenging accepted Lutheran doctrine or subverting the mission of the university as a Christian institution. He is criticizing the policy decisions of the university administration and whether the administration’s actions should be regarded as consistent with Lutheran commitments properly understood. For the university to punish and suppress speech of that sort would be to dramatically limit professorial speech and call into question whether Concordia is capable of operating as a recognizable institution of higher education.

From the letter:

If robust criticism of university governance and policies is understood in itself to be a hindrance to the mission of the university or that participating in an ongoing public debate over the social commitments of the Lutheran church and Lutheran educational institutions is inconsistent with responsibilities of members of the faculty, then the university will have dramatically departed from ordinary understandings of the duties and responsibilities of professors in American universities, including American universities dedicated to a Christian mission. Of course, Professor Schulz has a responsibility not to “advocate a position contrary to that of the Synod,” but here he is participating in a public debate on what the implications of the Synod’s positions might be for the university. If faculty at the university must refrain from speaking in public about the future of the university and the fidelity of the university’s activities to the positions of the Synod, then the university’s commitment to the faculty to value their individuality and to engage in intellectual inquiry will be an empty promise.

Speech on such controversial social and political topics can sometimes be heated and disruptive, but universities should be places where scholars can in good faith engage in a robust debate over the principles and commitments of the community. If university leaders are willing to sanction faculty members for such speech, particularly when such speech involves criticisms of university administration, then free intellectual inquiry will be stifled rather than encouraged and the university will not be able to perform its charge  of supplying “the higher education services needed to accomplish the mission of the church.”

Read the whole thing here.

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US Expels 12 Russian “Intelligence Operatives” From UN Mission In New York

US Expels 12 Russian “Intelligence Operatives” From UN Mission In New York

The US has announced Monday afternoon that it is moving to expel a dozen Russians with diplomatic credentials from US soil. The State Department and US agencies have identified the twelve as “intelligence operatives” who worked out of the Russian Mission to the United Nations in New York.

A statement by the US Mission to the United Nations said “twelve intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission who have abused their privileges of residency in the United States by engaging in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security.”

UN Headquarters in NYC, shutterstock

The statement didn’t spell out those alleged espionage activities or name any evidence of their spying activities. 

While the statement says “the action has been in development for several months” – it’s hard not to see this as also likely related to a crackdown on suspicious Russian diplomatic personnel connected to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s ambassador the UN Vassily Nebenzia responded by slamming the explanation as “not satisfactory.” 

“I’ve just received information that the US authorities have undertaken another hostile action against the Russian Mission to the United Nations grossly violating their commitments on the host country agreement that they undertook,” Nebenzia said to the press. “They just visited the Russian Mission and gave us a note prescribing us to do what they demand.”

The move comes after multiple months of tit-for-tat expulsions between the Russian and US sides, with dozens of Russian diplomats sent home from the embassy in Washington D.C. in January, which had first been announced last November. In the most recent incidents, the State Department has cited that it won’t renew their visas. 

Countries across the globe, including the United States, often send intelligence officers to the foreign country in which they are embedded under cover of diplomatic credentials.

With the United States for example, intel officers often work out of the embassy or consulates as “official” State Department personnel, while in reality working for US intelligence, in a practice which has become so normative as to be an ‘open secret’. US adversaries like Russia or China also regularly do the same.

Tyler Durden
Mon, 02/28/2022 – 18:40

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/CIptzJu Tyler Durden

Waging war in a networked age

Much of this episode is devoted to how modern networks and media are influencing what has become a major shooting war between Russia and Ukraine. Dmitri Alperovitch gives us a sweeping overview. Ukraine and its President, Volodymyr Zelensky, clearly won the initial stages of the war in cyberspace, turning broad Western sympathy into a deeper commitment using short videos from downtown Kyiv at a time when Zelensky was expected to be racing for the border. The narrative of determined Ukrainian resistance and hapless Russian arrogance was set in cement by the end of the week, and Zelensky’s ability to casually dial in to EU ministers’ meetings (and just as casually say that this might be the last time the ministers saw him alive) changed official Europe’s view of the conflict permanently. Putin’s failure to seize Ukraine’s capital and telecom facilities in the first day of the fight thus may guarantee a long, grinding conflict.

Russia is doing its best to control the narrative on Russian networks by throttling Facebook, Twitter, and other Western media. And it’s essentially telling those companies that they need to distribute pro-Russian media in the West if they want a future in Russia. Dmitri doesn’t believe that’s a price Silicon Valley will pay for access to a country where every third bank and company is already off-limits due to Western sanctions. Jane Bambauer weighs in with the details of Russia’s narrative-control efforts — and their failure.

And what about the cyber-attacks that press coverage led us to expect in this conflict between two technically capable adversaries? Nate Jones and Dmitri agree that, while network wiping and ransomware have occurred, their impact on the battle has not been obvious. Russia seems not to have sent its A-team to take down any of Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. Meanwhile, as Western nations pledge more weapons and more sanctions, Russian cyber reprisals have been scarce, perhaps because Western counter-reprisals are clearly being held in reserve.

All that said, and despite unprecedented financial sanctions and export control measures, the initiative in the conflict remains with Putin, and none of the panel is looking forward to finding out how Putin will react to Russia’s early humiliations in cyberspace and on the battlefield.

In other tech news, the EU has not exactly turned over a new leaf when it comes to milking national security for competitive advantage over U.S. industry. Nate and Jane unpack the proposed European Data Act, best described as an effort to write a GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) for nonpersonal data. And, as always, it’s chasing the dream that Europe can regulate a European tech industry into existence.

Nate and I dig into a Foreign Affairs op-ed by Chris Inglis, the Biden administration’s National Cyber Director. It calls for a new Cyber Social Contract between government and industry.  I hit CTRL-F and “regulation” but don’t find the word, likely thanks to White House copy editors, but the op-ed clearly thinks that more regulation is the key to ensuring public-private cooperation.

Jane reprises a story from the estimable “Rest of World” tech site.  It turns out that corrupt and abusive companies and governments have better tools for controlling their image than Vladimir Putin – all thanks to the European Parliament and the U.S. Congress, which approved GDPR and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act respectively. These turn out to be great laws for suppressing stories that make third-world big shots uncomfortable. I remind the audience about another of Baker’s Law: “Privacy Law Principally Protects the Privileged and the Powerful.”

In closing, Jane and I catch us up on the IRS’s latest position on face recognition – and the wrongheadedness of the NGOs campaigning against the technology.

Download the 396th Episode (mp3)

Announcement:  We’re thinking about having a live recording of episode 400, maybe on the web and maybe in person here in Washington.  That would be March 28, 2022. If you want to attend, please send us a message to that effect at CyberlawPodcast@steptoe.com.

The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of their institutions, clients, friends, families, or pets.

 

The post Waging war in a networked age appeared first on Reason.com.

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Waging war in a networked age

Much of this episode is devoted to how modern networks and media are influencing what has become a major shooting war between Russia and Ukraine. Dmitri Alperovitch gives us a sweeping overview. Ukraine and its President, Volodymyr Zelensky, clearly won the initial stages of the war in cyberspace, turning broad Western sympathy into a deeper commitment using short videos from downtown Kyiv at a time when Zelensky was expected to be racing for the border. The narrative of determined Ukrainian resistance and hapless Russian arrogance was set in cement by the end of the week, and Zelensky’s ability to casually dial in to EU ministers’ meetings (and just as casually say that this might be the last time the ministers saw him alive) changed official Europe’s view of the conflict permanently. Putin’s failure to seize Ukraine’s capital and telecom facilities in the first day of the fight thus may guarantee a long, grinding conflict.

Russia is doing its best to control the narrative on Russian networks by throttling Facebook, Twitter, and other Western media. And it’s essentially telling those companies that they need to distribute pro-Russian media in the West if they want a future in Russia. Dmitri doesn’t believe that’s a price Silicon Valley will pay for access to a country where every third bank and company is already off-limits due to Western sanctions. Jane Bambauer weighs in with the details of Russia’s narrative-control efforts — and their failure.

And what about the cyber-attacks that press coverage led us to expect in this conflict between two technically capable adversaries? Nate Jones and Dmitri agree that, while network wiping and ransomware have occurred, their impact on the battle has not been obvious. Russia seems not to have sent its A-team to take down any of Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. Meanwhile, as Western nations pledge more weapons and more sanctions, Russian cyber reprisals have been scarce, perhaps because Western counter-reprisals are clearly being held in reserve.

All that said, and despite unprecedented financial sanctions and export control measures, the initiative in the conflict remains with Putin, and none of the panel is looking forward to finding out how Putin will react to Russia’s early humiliations in cyberspace and on the battlefield.

In other tech news, the EU has not exactly turned over a new leaf when it comes to milking national security for competitive advantage over U.S. industry. Nate and Jane unpack the proposed European Data Act, best described as an effort to write a GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) for nonpersonal data. And, as always, it’s chasing the dream that Europe can regulate a European tech industry into existence.

Nate and I dig into a Foreign Affairs op-ed by Chris Inglis, the Biden administration’s National Cyber Director. It calls for a new Cyber Social Contract between government and industry.  I hit CTRL-F and “regulation” but don’t find the word, likely thanks to White House copy editors, but the op-ed clearly thinks that more regulation is the key to ensuring public-private cooperation.

Jane reprises a story from the estimable “Rest of World” tech site.  It turns out that corrupt and abusive companies and governments have better tools for controlling their image than Vladimir Putin – all thanks to the European Parliament and the U.S. Congress, which approved GDPR and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act respectively. These turn out to be great laws for suppressing stories that make third-world big shots uncomfortable. I remind the audience about another of Baker’s Law: “Privacy Law Principally Protects the Privileged and the Powerful.”

In closing, Jane and I catch us up on the IRS’s latest position on face recognition – and the wrongheadedness of the NGOs campaigning against the technology.

Download the 396th Episode (mp3)

Announcement:  We’re thinking about having a live recording of episode 400, maybe on the web and maybe in person here in Washington.  That would be March 28, 2022. If you want to attend, please send us a message to that effect at CyberlawPodcast@steptoe.com.

The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of their institutions, clients, friends, families, or pets.

 

The post Waging war in a networked age appeared first on Reason.com.

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Many Viral Ukraine War Videos Flooding Social Media Are Fake

Many Viral Ukraine War Videos Flooding Social Media Are Fake

Authored by Eric Garris via AntiWar.com, 

Noted YouTube “scambuster” Kitboga, who has 2.2 million subscribers, has posted the video below showing many examples of viral TikTok videos purporting to be scenes of war in Ukraine.

These videos are mostly clips from video games or from other wars. Many of these posts are being used to raise money for fake charities. Kit explains the various scams that are being used to raise money on TikTok, YouTube, and other platforms.

There are actual videos of the war, but everyone needs to be skeptical and ask for sources.

Here are some other articles about fake or misleading Ukraine war videos:

A number of weekend media articles began exposing some viral videos which were fake, many racking up tens of thousands of shares on Facebook

According to one such report: “In fact, Gizmodo has found at least ten viral photos and videos currently being spread on social media that are completely fake.”

“In some cases, the videos and photos are years old. In others, the images are clearly not from Ukraine. There are even two examples of videos on Twitter today that are actually from war-themed video games…” 

“Nobody knows how long this invasion will last. But however long that may be, you can bet on one thing: There will be plenty more fake photos and videos passed around online before this conflict is over,” Gizmodo concludes in its own review of some of the fake videos.

[ZH: Paul Joseph Watson exposes a few more farcical propaganda pumps in the following brief clip…]

Tyler Durden
Mon, 02/28/2022 – 18:20

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2LoeUnx Tyler Durden

No Pretrial Appeal for Massachusetts Judge Who Allegedly Helped an Arrestee Evade Immigration Officials

From U.S. v. Joseph, decided today by the First Circuit (Judge William Kayatta, joined by Judges Sandra Lynch and Rogeriee Thompson):

These appeals concern the pending federal prosecution of Massachusetts state district court judge Shelley Joseph and her courtroom deputy Wesley MacGregor for actions that allegedly interfered with the enforcement of federal immigration law. The defendants request that we step in now and review the trial court’s refusal to dismiss their indictments prior to trial based on (1) Judge Joseph’s claim of absolute judicial immunity and (2) both defendants’ contention that their prosecution offends various provisions of the United States Constitution.

We must reject the defendants’ request for pre-trial review of the denial of their motions to dismiss because their appeals are premature…

For the purposes of this appeal, the defendants say that they accept as true the government’s allegations as contained in the indictment. Those allegations outline the following version of events.

On April 2, 2018, Judge Joseph presided over the arraignment of an undocumented immigrant referred to by the parties as A.S. {[which stands for ‘alien subject’}. A.S. had been fingerprinted upon his arrest by police in Newton, Massachusetts. An ensuing check of a national law enforcement database indicated that he had previously been deported from the United States and was prohibited from reentering the country. Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued an immigration detainer and warrant of removal for A.S. ICE sent these documents to the Newton Police, requesting that state officials notify ICE before releasing A.S. and, if necessary, detain him for up to 48 hours to allow ICE to take custody of him. These documents were provided to the Newton District Court Clerk’s Office, probation, the assistant district attorney, and defense counsel for A.S.

On April 2, a plainclothes ICE officer entered the Newton District Court to take A.S. into federal custody should he be released from state custody. The ICE officer originally sat in Judge Joseph’s courtroom, but Judge Joseph later directed the clerk to tell the officer to leave. The government alleges that this directive violated state policy governing the treatment of ICE officials in Massachusetts courthouses. The clerk did as instructed, and also told the ICE officer that if released, A.S. would exit the courtroom into the courthouse lobby.

Ultimately, however, that is not what transpired. A.S. was released from state custody, but he exited the courthouse without passing through the lobby where the ICE official waited. The government alleges that Judge Joseph purposefully helped A.S. evade ICE by concocting a ruse under which A.S. would go downstairs to lockup—ostensibly to retrieve some property and speak with his counsel via an interpreter—then exit the courthouse through a rear sally-port exit. According to the government, Judge Joseph directed the clerk to go off the record while she devised this plan with counsel. At this point, the courtroom recorder was turned off for nearly a minute, allegedly in violation of Massachusetts court rules. After the recorder was turned back on and the alleged plan was set in motion, Deputy MacGregor used his access card to swipe A.S. out the back door of the courthouse.

The United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts apparently decided that the foregoing events were best addressed with a criminal indictment rather than a shot-over- the-bow visit to the courthouse. The indictment charged Judge Joseph and Deputy MacGregor with conspiring to obstruct justice in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2) and (k); obstructing justice in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 1512(c)(2); and obstructing a federal proceeding in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 1505. Both defendants moved to dismiss these charges. Judge Joseph argued that the doctrine of judicial immunity shields her from criminal prosecution for actions taken in her judicial capacity. Both Judge Joseph and Deputy MacGregor also argued that their prosecution is barred by principles of federalism and due process and by Tenth Amendment precedent holding that the federal government may not “commandeer” state officials to execute federal policies. Finally, both defendants argued that the government had not alleged facts sufficient to support the charges….

As a general rule, federal courts of appeal may exercise appellate jurisdiction only over final decisions. “Adherence to this rule of finality has been particularly stringent in criminal prosecutions because ‘the delays and disruptions attendant upon intermediate appeal,’ which the rule is designed to avoid, ‘are especially inimical to the effective and fair administration of the criminal law.'”

There are, however, several exceptions to this general rule. As relevant here, those exceptions include the so-called collateral order doctrine. That doctrine permits an appeals court to review orders that, without ending the litigation below, “finally determine claims of right separate from, and collateral to, rights asserted in the action, too important to be denied review and too independent of the cause itself to require that appellate jurisdiction be deferred until the whole case is adjudicated.”

 

The collateral order doctrine is a narrow exception, which the Supreme Court “ha[s] interpreted … ‘with the utmost strictness’ in criminal cases.” To qualify as a collateral order, the order at issue “must (1) ‘conclusively determine the disputed question,’ (2) ‘resolve an important issue completely separate from the merits of the action,’ and (3) ‘be effectively unreviewable on appeal from a final judgment.'”

For our purposes, we need only train our attention on the third requirement—that the order in question cannot effectively be reviewed at the end of the case. The Supreme Court has to date identified four types of orders that satisfy this requirement and qualify as collateral orders in criminal proceedings: orders denying motions to reduce bail; orders denying motions to dismiss an indictment on double jeopardy grounds; orders denying a motion to dismiss an indictment under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause; and orders allowing involuntary medication to render a defendant competent to stand trial.

In each of these instances, [the] third requirement was satisfied because the protected right (freedom from excessive bail, a guarantee not to stand trial, and protection against forced medication) would have been effectively lost if not vindicated before final judgment entered. Consequently, a post-judgment appeal would come too late.

So in this case, we ask whether either defendant asserts a right that would effectively be lost by proceeding to trial….

Judge Joseph’s primary argument for challenging the indictment rests on her claim that, as a state district court judge, she is immune from federal prosecution for the conduct alleged in the indictment. This immunity, she argues, protects her against not just conviction, but also against prosecution. Thus, she reasons, she will lose an important part of that protection if her immunity defense is not vindicated until after trial.

 

The flaw in this argument is that judicial immunity—even assuming that it applies in this criminal case—does not provide a right not to be tried that can serve as a basis for interlocutory review. To explain why this is so, we begin with a rule of construction applicable when a criminal defendant asserts a right not to stand trial…. [S]uch a

right must “rest[] upon an explicit statutory or constitutional guarantee that trial will not occur—as in the Double Jeopardy Clause (‘nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb’), or the Speech or Debate Clause (‘[F]or any Speech or Debate in either House, [the Senators and Representatives] shall not be questioned in any other Place’).” In adopting this rule for interlocutory appeals in criminal cases, the Court recognized that, absent such a strict construction, very many legal defenses might be said to confer a right not to be tried…. “[A]ny

legal rule can be said to give rise to a ‘right not to be tried’ if failure to observe it requires the trial court to dismiss the indictment or terminate the trial.” …. So by limiting interlocutory appeals to those “rights not to be tried” that are explicitly set forth in a statute or the Constitution, the Court avoided construing an exception in a manner that swallowed the rule. In this regard, the requirement that the defense rest on an explicit statutory or constitutional grant of immunity from trial aligns with the Supreme Court’s practice of “interpret[ing] the collateral order exception ‘with the utmost strictness’ in criminal cases.” …

Judge Joseph … invokes the Supreme Court’s holding in Mitchell v. Forsyth that “the denial of a substantial claim of absolute immunity is an order appealable before final judgment.” But Mitchell was a civil case to which the more stringent rules applicable to criminal proceedings did not apply. Midland Asphalt, decided four years after Mitchell, governs this criminal case. So Judge Joseph cannot obtain interlocutory review of her judicial immunity defense unless she can show that her claimed right not to be tried is explicitly grounded in a statute or the Constitution. Because she concededly can point to no such grounding, and relies instead solely on the common law, she necessarily fails to satisfy Midland Asphalt‘s strictures.

The bottom line, then, is that we have no jurisdiction to review the district court’s decision denying Judge Joseph’s motion to dismiss based on her asserted common-law defense of judicial immunity….

The defendants’ claim that the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution bars their prosecution fares no better as a support for interlocutory review. The Tenth Amendment provides: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” In past cases, the Supreme Court has interpreted the amendment to bar the federal government from commandeering state executive and legislative officials to implement federal policies.

The defendants claim that their prosecution is a tool of “impermissible commandeering—an attempt to require state officers to help enforce federal immigration law.” … [But t]he indictment does not allege that Judge Joseph and Deputy MacGregor merely declined to enforce federal immigration law. Instead, it alleges that they affirmatively interfered with federal officials’ attempts to enforce federal law. So we are not convinced that the defendants’ Tenth Amendment theory is “completely separate from the merits” of the charges against them. In any event, the defendants’ Tenth Amendment theory does not satisfy Midland Asphalt‘s third prong….

At base, the defendants argue that they had a right to do what they did because federal immigration officials could not have required them to help enforce  federal immigration law. But this defense can be asserted at trial, with any loss reviewed on appeal from a final judgment.

True, Judge Joseph and Deputy MacGregor will confront the costs of trial and the very significant anxiety of being defendants in a federal prosecution. Without minimizing those adverse consequences, we must recognize that they are visited on all criminal defendants. So they cannot justify an interlocutory appeal unless we are to allow such appeals of most motions to dismiss in criminal cases.

We also acknowledge the related twist on the commandeering argument emphasized by amici: that this prosecution will chill other judges from refusing to assist federal officials. But the facts alleged here—affirmative acts of deception and violations of several state policies—are largely sui generis. Moreover, every overreaching or overly broad indictment arguably chills others who see themselves as similarly situated to the defendants. So if that chilling were sufficient to justify interlocutory review, very many motions to dismiss of all sorts would be appealable. Such a result would run directly counter to Midland Asphalt‘s insistence that the collateral order exception be strictly interpreted in criminal cases.

For all of these reasons, the pretrial denial of the defendants’ motions to dismiss based on this Tenth Amendment, anti-commandeering defense falls short of satisfying the strict requirements for interlocutory review in a criminal case….

Finally, to the extent that Judge Joseph and Deputy MacGregor merely allege that the indictment fails to state an offense, this theory is not amenable to interlocutory appeal. As the Supreme Court has explained, “an order denying a motion to dismiss an indictment for failure to state an offense … may be reviewed effectively, and, if necessary, corrected if and when a final judgment results.”

The post No Pretrial Appeal for Massachusetts Judge Who Allegedly Helped an Arrestee Evade Immigration Officials appeared first on Reason.com.

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Mayor Adams Announces End Of NYC’s Controversial Vaccine Passport Rule

Mayor Adams Announces End Of NYC’s Controversial Vaccine Passport Rule

At long last, New Yorkers and tourists visiting the Big Apple will soon be able to enter stores, restaurants, bars and other venues without needing to show proof of vaccination status.

That’s right: Mayor Eric Adams is finally lifting his city’s requirement for patrons to be vaccinated, one of the most restrictive such laws in the country. It was first implemented by his predecessor, Bill de Blasio, last year. However, he clarified Monday that there are no plans to remove requirements that workers be vaccinated.

Mayor Adams clarified that the requirement would be lifted on March 7 so long as COVID cases continue to trend downward.

NYC’s indoor mask requirement for all public schools will be lifted on the same day (again, provided no unexpected spikes in infections arise).

Adams noted that more than a million students would return to public schools Monday after their February break. According to the mayor, if students can intermix this week without creating any “unforeseen spikes” in infections, then that would essentially confirm that the mask mandates are no longer necessary.

“New York City’s numbers continue to go down day after day, so, as long as COVID indicators show a low level of risk and we see no surprises this week, on Monday, March 7 we will also lift Key2NYC requirements,” Adams announced. “This will give business owners the time to adapt and will allow us to ensure we are making the best public health decisions for the people of New York.”

Circling back the vaccine passport rule, which was first adopted in the late summer of 2021, it’s worth noting that it hasn’t always been enforced. But it does still technically apply to restaurants, bars, nightclubs, coffee shops, fast food eateries, indoor fitness locations, movie theaters, music and concert venues, museums, sports arenas and stadiums, theaters and billiard halls, among other places.

Adams, who is seen as far more business-friendly than his predecessor, Mayor de Blasio, had hinted that he was eagerly awaiting the end of the vaccine passport rule during an economic development press briefing on Wednesday. Adams said at the time that he meets daily with health experts, who have provided structure and benchmarks the city should meet before it returns to pre-pandemic normalcy.

“We can’t close down again, and I’m not going to do something at my anticipation to get back that’s going to jeopardize closing down the city again,” Adams said. “Our economy can’t handle it. We don’t have another $11 billion to put back in the economy. We must do it the smart way.”

Adams decision follows a move by Gov. Kathy Hochul to ditch the Empire State’s mask mandate (for everywhere but schools), although Hochul said over the weekend that the statewide mandate for schools would be ending on Wednesday.

The city fired more than 1,400 municipal workers over their refusal to abide by the vaccine mandate, which was extremely controversial in parts of the city like South Brooklyn and Staten Island.

Tyler Durden
Mon, 02/28/2022 – 18:00

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Daily Briefing: Volatility Reigns as Sanctions Regime Takes Shape

Daily Briefing: Volatility Reigns as Sanctions Regime Takes Shape

Bond yields retreated and U.S. equity indexes swung from red to green and back again, as the global community continues to respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. UK-based BP dumped its 19% stake in Russian oil and gas producer Rosneft, while Switzerland stepped forward from centuries of neutrality to freeze Russian assets held by its banks. And Singapore has imposed its own sanctions on Russia, a rare move by the southeast Asian country. Officials elsewhere have taken steps to cut off Russia’s access to its estimated $630 billion of foreign reserves. The Russian ruble has collapsed, while Russia’s central bank more than doubled its benchmark interest rate to 20% and closed the country’s stock market on Monday. Russian bonds tumbled, and investors braced for the possibility that Western sanctions could push Russia to default for the first time since 1998. Jacob Shapiro, Director of Geopolitical Analysis at Cognitive Investments, joins Real Vision’s Maggie Lake to assess the geopolitical situation. And Harry Melandri, Advisor at MI2 Partners, is here to appraise markets’ reaction in today’s edition of the Daily Briefing. Want to submit questions? Drop them right here on the Exchange: https://rvtv.io/3poBBa6

Tyler Durden
Mon, 02/28/2022 – 13:44

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No Pretrial Appeal for Massachusetts Judge Who Allegedly Helped an Arrestee Evade Immigration Officials

From U.S. v. Joseph, decided today by the First Circuit (Judge William Kayatta, joined by Judges Sandra Lynch and Rogeriee Thompson):

These appeals concern the pending federal prosecution of Massachusetts state district court judge Shelley Joseph and her courtroom deputy Wesley MacGregor for actions that allegedly interfered with the enforcement of federal immigration law. The defendants request that we step in now and review the trial court’s refusal to dismiss their indictments prior to trial based on (1) Judge Joseph’s claim of absolute judicial immunity and (2) both defendants’ contention that their prosecution offends various provisions of the United States Constitution.

We must reject the defendants’ request for pre-trial review of the denial of their motions to dismiss because their appeals are premature…

For the purposes of this appeal, the defendants say that they accept as true the government’s allegations as contained in the indictment. Those allegations outline the following version of events.

On April 2, 2018, Judge Joseph presided over the arraignment of an undocumented immigrant referred to by the parties as A.S. {[which stands for ‘alien subject’}. A.S. had been fingerprinted upon his arrest by police in Newton, Massachusetts. An ensuing check of a national law enforcement database indicated that he had previously been deported from the United States and was prohibited from reentering the country. Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued an immigration detainer and warrant of removal for A.S. ICE sent these documents to the Newton Police, requesting that state officials notify ICE before releasing A.S. and, if necessary, detain him for up to 48 hours to allow ICE to take custody of him. These documents were provided to the Newton District Court Clerk’s Office, probation, the assistant district attorney, and defense counsel for A.S.

On April 2, a plainclothes ICE officer entered the Newton District Court to take A.S. into federal custody should he be released from state custody. The ICE officer originally sat in Judge Joseph’s courtroom, but Judge Joseph later directed the clerk to tell the officer to leave. The government alleges that this directive violated state policy governing the treatment of ICE officials in Massachusetts courthouses. The clerk did as instructed, and also told the ICE officer that if released, A.S. would exit the courtroom into the courthouse lobby.

Ultimately, however, that is not what transpired. A.S. was released from state custody, but he exited the courthouse without passing through the lobby where the ICE official waited. The government alleges that Judge Joseph purposefully helped A.S. evade ICE by concocting a ruse under which A.S. would go downstairs to lockup—ostensibly to retrieve some property and speak with his counsel via an interpreter—then exit the courthouse through a rear sally-port exit. According to the government, Judge Joseph directed the clerk to go off the record while she devised this plan with counsel. At this point, the courtroom recorder was turned off for nearly a minute, allegedly in violation of Massachusetts court rules. After the recorder was turned back on and the alleged plan was set in motion, Deputy MacGregor used his access card to swipe A.S. out the back door of the courthouse.

The United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts apparently decided that the foregoing events were best addressed with a criminal indictment rather than a shot-over- the-bow visit to the courthouse. The indictment charged Judge Joseph and Deputy MacGregor with conspiring to obstruct justice in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2) and (k); obstructing justice in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 1512(c)(2); and obstructing a federal proceeding in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 1505. Both defendants moved to dismiss these charges. Judge Joseph argued that the doctrine of judicial immunity shields her from criminal prosecution for actions taken in her judicial capacity. Both Judge Joseph and Deputy MacGregor also argued that their prosecution is barred by principles of federalism and due process and by Tenth Amendment precedent holding that the federal government may not “commandeer” state officials to execute federal policies. Finally, both defendants argued that the government had not alleged facts sufficient to support the charges….

As a general rule, federal courts of appeal may exercise appellate jurisdiction only over final decisions. “Adherence to this rule of finality has been particularly stringent in criminal prosecutions because ‘the delays and disruptions attendant upon intermediate appeal,’ which the rule is designed to avoid, ‘are especially inimical to the effective and fair administration of the criminal law.'”

There are, however, several exceptions to this general rule. As relevant here, those exceptions include the so-called collateral order doctrine. That doctrine permits an appeals court to review orders that, without ending the litigation below, “finally determine claims of right separate from, and collateral to, rights asserted in the action, too important to be denied review and too independent of the cause itself to require that appellate jurisdiction be deferred until the whole case is adjudicated.”

 

The collateral order doctrine is a narrow exception, which the Supreme Court “ha[s] interpreted … ‘with the utmost strictness’ in criminal cases.” To qualify as a collateral order, the order at issue “must (1) ‘conclusively determine the disputed question,’ (2) ‘resolve an important issue completely separate from the merits of the action,’ and (3) ‘be effectively unreviewable on appeal from a final judgment.'”

For our purposes, we need only train our attention on the third requirement—that the order in question cannot effectively be reviewed at the end of the case. The Supreme Court has to date identified four types of orders that satisfy this requirement and qualify as collateral orders in criminal proceedings: orders denying motions to reduce bail; orders denying motions to dismiss an indictment on double jeopardy grounds; orders denying a motion to dismiss an indictment under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause; and orders allowing involuntary medication to render a defendant competent to stand trial.

In each of these instances, [the] third requirement was satisfied because the protected right (freedom from excessive bail, a guarantee not to stand trial, and protection against forced medication) would have been effectively lost if not vindicated before final judgment entered. Consequently, a post-judgment appeal would come too late.

So in this case, we ask whether either defendant asserts a right that would effectively be lost by proceeding to trial….

Judge Joseph’s primary argument for challenging the indictment rests on her claim that, as a state district court judge, she is immune from federal prosecution for the conduct alleged in the indictment. This immunity, she argues, protects her against not just conviction, but also against prosecution. Thus, she reasons, she will lose an important part of that protection if her immunity defense is not vindicated until after trial.

 

The flaw in this argument is that judicial immunity—even assuming that it applies in this criminal case—does not provide a right not to be tried that can serve as a basis for interlocutory review. To explain why this is so, we begin with a rule of construction applicable when a criminal defendant asserts a right not to stand trial…. [S]uch a

right must “rest[] upon an explicit statutory or constitutional guarantee that trial will not occur—as in the Double Jeopardy Clause (‘nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb’), or the Speech or Debate Clause (‘[F]or any Speech or Debate in either House, [the Senators and Representatives] shall not be questioned in any other Place’).” In adopting this rule for interlocutory appeals in criminal cases, the Court recognized that, absent such a strict construction, very many legal defenses might be said to confer a right not to be tried…. “[A]ny

legal rule can be said to give rise to a ‘right not to be tried’ if failure to observe it requires the trial court to dismiss the indictment or terminate the trial.” …. So by limiting interlocutory appeals to those “rights not to be tried” that are explicitly set forth in a statute or the Constitution, the Court avoided construing an exception in a manner that swallowed the rule. In this regard, the requirement that the defense rest on an explicit statutory or constitutional grant of immunity from trial aligns with the Supreme Court’s practice of “interpret[ing] the collateral order exception ‘with the utmost strictness’ in criminal cases.” …

Judge Joseph … invokes the Supreme Court’s holding in Mitchell v. Forsyth that “the denial of a substantial claim of absolute immunity is an order appealable before final judgment.” But Mitchell was a civil case to which the more stringent rules applicable to criminal proceedings did not apply. Midland Asphalt, decided four years after Mitchell, governs this criminal case. So Judge Joseph cannot obtain interlocutory review of her judicial immunity defense unless she can show that her claimed right not to be tried is explicitly grounded in a statute or the Constitution. Because she concededly can point to no such grounding, and relies instead solely on the common law, she necessarily fails to satisfy Midland Asphalt‘s strictures.

The bottom line, then, is that we have no jurisdiction to review the district court’s decision denying Judge Joseph’s motion to dismiss based on her asserted common-law defense of judicial immunity….

The defendants’ claim that the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution bars their prosecution fares no better as a support for interlocutory review. The Tenth Amendment provides: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” In past cases, the Supreme Court has interpreted the amendment to bar the federal government from commandeering state executive and legislative officials to implement federal policies.

The defendants claim that their prosecution is a tool of “impermissible commandeering—an attempt to require state officers to help enforce federal immigration law.” … [But t]he indictment does not allege that Judge Joseph and Deputy MacGregor merely declined to enforce federal immigration law. Instead, it alleges that they affirmatively interfered with federal officials’ attempts to enforce federal law. So we are not convinced that the defendants’ Tenth Amendment theory is “completely separate from the merits” of the charges against them. In any event, the defendants’ Tenth Amendment theory does not satisfy Midland Asphalt‘s third prong….

At base, the defendants argue that they had a right to do what they did because federal immigration officials could not have required them to help enforce  federal immigration law. But this defense can be asserted at trial, with any loss reviewed on appeal from a final judgment.

True, Judge Joseph and Deputy MacGregor will confront the costs of trial and the very significant anxiety of being defendants in a federal prosecution. Without minimizing those adverse consequences, we must recognize that they are visited on all criminal defendants. So they cannot justify an interlocutory appeal unless we are to allow such appeals of most motions to dismiss in criminal cases.

We also acknowledge the related twist on the commandeering argument emphasized by amici: that this prosecution will chill other judges from refusing to assist federal officials. But the facts alleged here—affirmative acts of deception and violations of several state policies—are largely sui generis. Moreover, every overreaching or overly broad indictment arguably chills others who see themselves as similarly situated to the defendants. So if that chilling were sufficient to justify interlocutory review, very many motions to dismiss of all sorts would be appealable. Such a result would run directly counter to Midland Asphalt‘s insistence that the collateral order exception be strictly interpreted in criminal cases.

For all of these reasons, the pretrial denial of the defendants’ motions to dismiss based on this Tenth Amendment, anti-commandeering defense falls short of satisfying the strict requirements for interlocutory review in a criminal case….

Finally, to the extent that Judge Joseph and Deputy MacGregor merely allege that the indictment fails to state an offense, this theory is not amenable to interlocutory appeal. As the Supreme Court has explained, “an order denying a motion to dismiss an indictment for failure to state an offense … may be reviewed effectively, and, if necessary, corrected if and when a final judgment results.”

The post No Pretrial Appeal for Massachusetts Judge Who Allegedly Helped an Arrestee Evade Immigration Officials appeared first on Reason.com.

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Watch: Dem Rep. Suggests Kicking Out Every Russian Student In The US

Watch: Dem Rep. Suggests Kicking Out Every Russian Student In The US

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

Californian Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell suggested last week that the government should consider kicking out every Russian student currently in the United States as a response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Appearing on CNN, obviously, Swalwell declared “Frankly, I think closing their embassy in the United States, kicking every Russian student out of the United States, those should all be on the table.”

“Vladimir Putin needs to know every day that he is in Ukraine, there are more severe options that could come,” Swalwell said, attempting to justify the comments.

Watch:

Firstly, that’s a bit xenophobic, no? It’s ok when Democrats do it though, right?

Secondly, you can just imagine Putin receiving the news ‘Oh no, the students might be sent home’ call off the war machine.

Meanwhile, Republican Senator Tom Cotton noted Sunday that Biden’s sanctions are “riddled with loopholes.”

“It’s time for the president to quit pussy-footing around,” Cotton said, adding “We need to rush those weapons that were announced for delivery yesterday to the front. Anti-tank, anti-aircraft missiles, sniper rifles, ammunition. It should have been done weeks ago.”

Cotton quoted White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki saying “we made the mistake of seeing Vladimir Putin of seeing the world through global norms.”

“I never made that mistake,” Cotton proclaimed, adding “I’ve seen [Putin] as a ruthless dictator. He took the ambitions he’s always had and went for the jugular. Thankfully brave Ukrainian people are fighting back and every day they hold out they continue to stiffen the spines of leaders in the west. We need to urge them on and continue providing them the weapons they need to fight back.”

Watch:

Cotton’s comments came as Putin ordered Russia’s nuclear deterrent forces to go on the highest alert:

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Tyler Durden
Mon, 02/28/2022 – 17:40

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