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The Dianne Feinstein ParadoxJames Haas was a San Francisco land use attorney, and a gay man who was not yet out in 1970, when he became an informal advisor to Dianne Feinstein. During Feinstein’s first term in office as a member of the Board of Supervisors, the city’s legislative body, Haas organized a group of professionals, dubbed “The Think Tank,” to develop policy on matters from traffic flows to taxes.He also authored the city’s most abiding epigram about Feinstein’s relationship to the gay community: “Dianne Feinstein doesn’t care who you sleep with,” he famously quipped, “as long as you’re in bed by 11 o’clock.” The one-liner helps decode Feinstein’s complex, half-century of interactions with gay people — gay voters, gay colleagues and the gay community writ large. Politically, Feinstein was among the nation’s first, tiny handful of officeholders to advocate for gay rights and anti-discrimination laws, a throughline of her…

California’s Housing Crisis Looms Over the State’s GOP ConventionIt was no surprise that presidential politics dominated the 2023 California Republican Party convention held this past weekend in Anaheim. It would have been hard for them not to, given the presence of four Republican presidential candidates all eager to make a dent in the party’s largest-in-the-nation primary to be held next March. Yet away from the raucous, boozy party atmosphere at former President Donald Trump’s Friday lunchtime convention speech, or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ slightly more sedate dinner address later that evening, an arguably more consequential event for the Golden State was playing out. In a small salon room off the main ballroom on the second day of the convention, the state’s Republican lawyers’ association was holding a continuing legal education event on “fighting for local control.” While Republicans haven’t managed to win a statewide election in California since 2006, the GOP…

Is silencing a few million Americans a form of protected speech?The Supreme Court has granted certiorari to review two big state laws trying to impose limits on social media censorship (or “curation,” if you prefer) of platform content. Paul Stephan and I spar over the right outcome, and the likely vote count, in the two cases. One surprise: we both think that the platforms’ claim of a first amendment “right to curate” is in tension with their claim that they, uniquely among speakers, should have an immunity for that form of speech. Maury weighs in to note that the EU is now gearing up to bring social media to heel on the “disinformation” front. That fight will be ugly for Big Tech, he points out, because Europe doesn’t care if it puts social media out of business, since it’s an American industry. I point out that elites all across the…

Solicitation of Crime and “Things of Value” (Plus a Mother-of-the-Year Candidate)State v. Valdiglesias Lavalle, decided Thursday by the Washington Supreme Court (in a unanimous opinion written by Justice Sheryl Gordon McCloud), involved Washington’s criminal solicitation law, which makes it a crime to, with intent to promote or facilitate the commission of a crime, … offer[] to give or give[] money or other thing of value to another to engage in specific conduct which would constitute such crime.” (Many states don’t require the offer or giving of a thing of value.) Here’s the court’s summary, and account of the facts: A jury convicted Vanessa Valdiglesias LaValle of two counts of criminal solicitation after she told her minor son, S.G., that he could be with her “forever” if he poisoned his father. Valdiglesias LaValle moved from Peru to Skagit County in 2008 to marry Timothy Grady, whom she met online. The couple…

As abortions resume at two Planned Parenthood locations, protesters hit the streetsBuoyed by a Dane County legal ruling and a liberal state Supreme Court majority, Planned Parenthood is confident it is on firm legal footing.        ….. Read More.JOURNAL SENTINEL – General News | United States NewsTue, September 19, 20232 weeks ago

Judge Issues Gag Order for Trump in Fraud Trial After Post Targeting ClerkThe former president attacked Justice Arthur F. Engoron’s clerk in a social media post that soon disappeared. He was called to account behind closed doors, then chastised in court as the judge issued a limited “gag order.” ….. Read More.THE NEW YORK TIMES – U.S. News | U.S. National NewsTue, October 3, 20235 hours ago