Fun fact: Last year a friend informed me that “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” is actually a romantic song about Mommy and Daddy having some romance, instead of a song about mommy having an affair with the actual Santa Claus

Welcome to the conversation. Let me rephrase my answer:

This has been a productive conversation

Ok at this point I think I’m actually talking to an undercover Trump supporter on a false-flag operation

Jeez, and people wonder why Donald Trump won.

Jeez, and people wonder why Donald Trump won

Republicans in Congress couldn’t stop Trump if they tried. Obama unilaterally created DACA with the stroke of a pen; that means Trump can destroy it on his own

I mean, I’m finding it hard to be that outraged about this. This is an easy and well-known enough case that the state will probably try again, and he’ll either be convicted after another trial or take a plea. He’s still going to jail 

I have pretty strong feelings that if the government is going to throw you in jail for committing a crime, you need to have actually committed the crime.

You’re right, and the Supreme Court actually said explicitly in Faretta v. California that a defendant who represents himself cannot appeal claiming that his own defense amounted to ineffective assistance of counsel

Fun fact that I learned while doing Wikipedia research to procrastinate studying for finals: the amalgamation of cultural icons that has become Santa Clause share a genesis in St. Nicholas, who lived during the Roman Empire in what is now southern turkey.

I’ll rec that because it’s hilarious, doesn’t change the fact that RFRAs were passed by overwhelming majorities to codify an already-existing doctrine

The argument that Jill Stein can’t sue because she hasn’t suffered an injury actually seems pretty strong. That being said.....

All that is true, although I don’t think this law gets upheld under a compelling interest theory because it’s utter nonsense. My concern was with how the Satanic Temple was going to get standing/have their religion burdened, since the only people who would be able to sue would be those who performed abortions in…

.....I think the bipartisan majorities that passed many of the RFRAs are well aware of the Sherbert Test

So if they win, the Satanic Temple gets an exemption from having to bury fetal tissue for the abortions they provide.

Of all the terrible, terrible views Sessions holds on gay rights, we’ve decided that his defense of a state law as the state’s attorney general is the one we’re going to focus on? Really? There isn’t anything better?

Not actually true. The states can engage in all sorts of economic regulation, including telling businesses not to sell certain things to certain people. Thinking otherwise would make you a Lochner-supporting heretic, which in the legal community is nearly the same as thinking school segregation is ok

Forget Roe v. Wade: even if there isn’t a constitutional right to have an abortion, this law is so ridiculous that I don’t even think it passes rational-basis scrutiny, and EVERYTHING PASSES RATIONAL-BASIS SCRUTINY

I agree, and I think this case presents a good example of why the logic in Walker doesn’t make sense