The law offers no escape hatch whatsoever. – Judge Robin Rosenbaum
Prohibitionists are still citing the bogus Neumayer, Cho, and Dreher study:
The End of the Beginning (#915)
Let’s hope many more challenges to these medieval laws succeed:
After being convicted of one count of possession of child pornography in 2013 and serving his sentence for the crime, Bruce Henry married and his wife gave birth to a son, but [Alabama] law prohibits [people condemned to the “]sex offender[” registry]…from residing together or conducting overnight visits with minors, even if it is their own child. In his resulting lawsuit, Henry said the law was unconstitutional and the [11th Circuit]…agreed, concluding that the statute violates the Fourteenth Amendment by infringing upon the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children…
The dogma that young people are owned like slaves by their parents is a metastasizing evil:
[An increasing number of] Americans…[want] parents [to have] ultimate control over all aspects of their [offspring]’s lives, even when the[y]…are…on the cusp of adulthood. [They] want parents to have to approve the books and ideas they’re exposed to in school, the apps they can download, and the social media platforms they join. Now, Florida wants to require parental consent before a minor can be treated for an STI…no one seems to even pretend that this is about helping minors…proponents of the bill keep talking about parental rights…to…[deny any and all] autonomy…to…[even] older minors…[one] version of the bill would also let parents [preemptively] opt [their offspring] out of…any survey or questionnaire that may reveal…sexual [abuse by]…any family member…[and ban] doctors [from providing] contraceptive services to minors without their parent’s consent…
Censors now pretend thoughts they don’t like constitute a “crime”:
[German] politician…Nancy Faeser…has reported multiple citizens to the police for criticisms they made of her on social media…other members of Olaf Scholz’s outgoing government have been even more aggressive[ly censorious]…Robert Habeck…of the Green Party…has initiated over 800 criminal complaints since…2021…[sending] police [on predawn] raid[s in which they steal people’s electronics]…and [abduct them]…Germany’s limits on…speech have long been shockingly restrictive….[but] over the past decade…new laws…[such as] the Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz [NetzDG]…[have] imposed such steep fines on social media networks…that they need…to err on the side of censor[ship]…in order to keep operating in the country. When Vladimir Putin sought to strengthen his ability to marginalize the political opposition in Russia, he cleverly translated key passages of the German law into Russian, deflecting criticisms of his crackdown…by [truthfully] pointing out that he was merely emulating Western democracies…even countries that have long prided themselves on their liberal traditions have now followed the [Germany’s censorious] lead…
After a two-year hiatus, “porn filter” bills are back on the “monkey see, monkey do” agenda:
Alabama [politicians] passed a bill that would [demand] makers of cellphones and tablets…[encumber] the devices with [censorship software] to block [not just] pornography[, but also anything Alabama politicians point at while barfing the word “obscenity”. Bill sponsor]…Chris Sells…has [repeatedly] sponsored similar bills since 2019…
A new study from the Gender Equity Policy Institute (GEPI) found that women are twice as likely to die during pregnancy in states with abortion bans…Meanwhile, maternal mortality in pro-choice states fell 21%. One stark comparison from the study: Texas’ maternal mortality rate was 155% higher than California’s…Since the state passed an abortion ban, maternal mortality has risen by 56%—with deaths among white women increasing by a whopping 95%…and…Black women living in banned states…[are] over three times more likely to die in pregnancy as their white counterparts. While death rates skyrocket…Republicans are hard at work trying to dismantle maternal mortality committees to hide the impact of their policies…
This is the second case this year to challenge the government’s “religious freedom” hypocrisy:
A…U.S. Army…[helicopter] pilot [named] Kyle Norton Riester [has] claimed in a civil lawsuit that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 allowed him to sell and take…LSD…as part of a communal…religious exercise…he has admitted to selling LSD over the internet and has asked for injunctive relief from [government] accus[ations] of drug trafficking…The Virginia-based first lieutenant…has argued that he “is a sincere religious practitioner”…but…[prosecutors claim] that Riester only claimed religious freedom grounds eight months after finding out about his drug trafficking investigation…
Even if Riester’s religious claims derive more from expediency than sincere belief, the same could be said of the government’s claims to protecting all religious liberty when in practice this is just cover for post-Christians to practice open bigotry.
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