Peter Suderman, Reason.com
January 11, 2011
Thanks to the ACLU, you can now say all seven of George Carlin’s seven dirty words in Pennsylvania without fear of being fined by the state police:
Travelers and residents in Pennsylvania, feel free to break open that swear jar — you no longer need it to make bail. This week, the Pennsylvania State Police reached a settlement with the ACLU that retires them from policing the dictionary. This, after 770 people were cited in a one-year period, and faced a fine and potential jail time, for speaking words the state police deemed obscene.
The ACLU of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit in May on behalf of Lona Scarpa of Luzerne County, who called a motorcyclist an “asshole” after he swerved too close to her and another pedestrian. When she reported the incident to the police, Ms. Scarpa found herself charged with disorderly conduct for swearing and faced a possible $300 fine and 90 days in jail. Read the rest of this entry »
By Jeff Martin, USA TODAY
School districts nationwide have their eyes on a federal court case in Pennsylvania, which will address whether students should be allowed to wear breast-cancer awareness bracelets that have become a controversy in multiple states.
The bracelets — which proclaim “I (heart symbol) boobies!” — have been banned in some districts. U.S. District Judge Mary McLaughlin will hear oral arguments on Feb. 18.
“Anytime a case based on a First Amendment free-speech case crops up, then other school districts are going to look at it,” said Robert Richards, founder of the Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment at Pennsylvania State University. “Based on how those decisions come out, schools will change their policies or adopt policies.” Read the rest of this entry »
By Senator Dodd’s office
Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) today, along with Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Bob Casey (D-PA), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), introduced the Sober Truth on Preventing (STOP) Underage Drinking Act Reauthorization, legislation designed to prevent underage drinking. According to the Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey released yesterday, the largest national survey of adolescents regarding their drug and alcohol use, underage drinking has decreased significantly and alcohol use among 12th graders marks the lowest level of alcohol use since the study’s inception in 1975.
The reauthorization builds upon the success of the original STOP ACT, which Dodd shepherded through Congress in 2006. The bill will continue federal government efforts to combat underage drinking and increase prevention activities in states and local communities, including college campuses. It would also continue public service media campaigns to increase adult awareness of the threat alcohol poses to their children, as well as increase research and data collection done at the federal level on adolescent alcohol use and brain development. Read the rest of this entry »
By Jessica Tully and Christina Gallagher
December 7, 2010
Daily Collegian
State College attorney Andrew Shubin said Centre County police officers are too concerned with generating a high number of student arrests for low-level offenses at the University Park Undergraduate Association-sponsored town hall meeting Monday night.
“What the students don’t understand is that Penn State is not Pittsburgh or Philadelphia. State College is like Mississippi — the prosecutors, defense attorneys and jurors are very conservative,” Shubin said.
Shubin, a guest attorney at the meeting, said that if he was defending a client in a Philadelphia county, the first thing that he would tell the judge is that his client is a student at Penn State because it is highly recognized institution.
But he said if he were representing a student in Centre County, it would not matter that the student attended Penn State because his client’s background would be nearly identical to that of 40,000 other students.
Shubin said that it is important for students to realize that State College is a school zone, so low-level offenses, such as drinking and selling marijuana, are treated much more harshly. If his client lived in Philadelphia and was caught selling a quarter pound of marijuana, he would get a misdemeanor charge at the most, Shubin said. If his client was caught selling the illegal substance in State College, he would most likely receive a two to four year mandatory prison sentence.
“I hate that I am paying taxes to incarcerate engineering majors,” Shubin said. Read the rest of this entry »
By ADAM LIPTAK
New York Times
November 27, 2010
WASHINGTON — In 1976, just six months after he joined the Supreme Court, Justice John Paul Stevens voted to reinstate capital punishment after a four-year moratorium. With the right procedures, he wrote, it is possible to ensure “evenhanded, rational and consistent imposition of death sentences under law.”
In 2008, two years before he announced his retirement, Justice Stevens reversed course and in a concurrence said that he now believed the death penalty to be unconstitutional.
But the reason for that change of heart, after more than three decades on the court and some 1,100 executions, has in many ways remained a mystery, and now Justice Stevens has provided an explanation. Read the rest of this entry »
By DAVID G. SAVAGE AND CAROL J. WILLIAMS
Tribune Washington Bureau
Nov. 28, 2010
WASHINGTON — The suicide rate in California’s overcrowded prisons is nearly twice the national average, and one inmate dies every eight days from inadequate medical care.
These are just two indicators cited in the 15-year legal battle over whether the state’s prisons are failing to provide humane medical care for 165,000 inmates.
On Tuesday the problems of California’s prisons will move to a national stage, when the Supreme Court hears the state’s challenge to an extraordinary court order that would require the prison population to be reduced by one-fourth in two years. That could mean releasing or transferring more than 40,000 inmates, state lawyers say.
The case is not just of interest to California.
Lawyers for 18 other states, including Illinois, Pennsylvania and Virginia, joined in support of California’s appeal, saying they feared a ruling upholding the prison-release order could trigger similar moves across the nation. “Real world experience” suggests that releasing a large number of inmates would “inevitably place innocent citizens at much greater risk,” they said. Read the rest of this entry »
November 12, 2010
By Ashlynn Cannata, Fort LeBoeuf High School
The tougher drinking laws that are being considered by officials from Pennsylvania are an excellent idea. It seems to me that underage drinking is a problem that is only getting worse, and I’m not the only one noticing this trend.
Many homeowners living near campuses are becoming worried about this drunken behavior, too. Unless someone steps in to increase the consequences for these behaviors, they are just going to continue to escalate. If the penalties for underage drinking and public drunkenness haven’t changed since the 1970s, how can anyone expect this problem to get better, let alone solve itself?
Currently, underage drinking fines range from $300 to $500. You can be fined up to $300 for littering, a less serious offense than underage drinking. So, why would someone who was caught drinking underage potentially pay the say amount as someone who littered?
Underage drinking is a serious offense and should be treated as such. According to reports, some have been charged and paid the current fine, only to return to their bad behavior later. If the fine reached $1,000, it would significantly deter individuals from repeating their crime.
Bob Heisse, Centre Daily Times
Usually, the Pennsylvania General Assembly comes back into session after the November election for a final flurry of votes.
That won’t happen this year, because the Senate leaders signed off before the election and the House leaders decided afterward not to return.
That means that 253 full-time legislators, being paid handsomely with nice benefits, are essentially off for almost three months.
When they return to Harrisburg for swearing-ins, there will be a Republican majority not seen since 1994, when Gov. Tom Ridge took office. Gov.-elect Tom Corbett will have a GOP-led House and Senate to work with as they consider unfinished business and new ideas.
Will they finally pass some kind of pension reform, as huge pension payment increases loom for taxpayers, schools and municipalities? Will they approve a severance tax/fee on gas drilling operations, enabling Pennsylvania to join other states in taxing the growing industry? Will they ban texting while driving? Will they talk seriously about downsizing the legislature itself and a legislative staff that is one of the biggest in the country? Read the rest of this entry »
By Jason Mercier and Anthony Randazzo
October 29, 2010 | FoxNews.com
Seventy-seven years after the end of prohibition the battle of the “wets” versus the “drys” is alive and well in those states considering ending their government monopolies over the sale of liquor. Though not as colorful as the epic battles between Al Capone and Elliot Ness, the underlining debate continues over whether government control of liquor sales has measurable societal benefits.
As one of 18 monopoly control states (only government sale of liquor allowed), this question is front and center in Washington State where not one, but two ballot measures are being considered on whether to end the state’s liquor monopoly. A similar debate is occurring in the control states of Virginia and Pennsylvania. Read the rest of this entry »
HARRISBURG (October 27)- Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell today signed legislation to reform the commonwealth’s sentencing and parole systems, in an attempt to address overcrowded state prisons. The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania praised the governor and the legislature for continuing reform efforts but also noted that more work needs to be done.
“The status quo is not sustainable,” said Andy Hoover, legislative director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “Legislators and the governor recognize that simply warehousing as many people as possible is a recipe for financial disaster.” Read the rest of this entry »
