The Volokh Conspiracy

David Post faulted Justice Scalia’s footnote 1 in Monday’s City of Arlington v. FCC (see also this follow-up), so I thought I’d mention my own thought on the subject, because I think there’s actually a useful lesson to law students there.

The footnote, which accompanied a sentence that began, “In July 2008, CTIA—The Wireless Association,” stated:

This is not a typographical error. CTIA—The Wireless Association was the name of the petitioner. CTIA is presumably an (unpronounceable) acronym, but even the organization’s website does not say what it stands for. That secret, known only to wireless-service-provider insiders, we will not disclose here.

And my sense is that the footnote is just a somewhat indirect way to remind lawyers of a useful rule of brief writing — always decode any abbreviations that you use.

Of course, as David points out, it’s not hard for readers to figure out what most abbreviations stand for, with just a bit of research, and the name of the association isn’t that critical in this case in any event. But I take Justice Scalia’s point to be that lawyers shouldn’t put judges to the trouble of doing that research. If you use an abbreviation that your reader is unlikely to know, or for that matter any specialized term that your reader is unlikely to know, make it easy on the reader: define it up front. And don’t just assume that the definition doesn’t matter; the reader of your brief might not share your view. In this case, for instance, a reader might think that understanding what the organization calls itself (especially when it’s a young organization, whose original full name isn’t shrouded in the mists of antiquity) might give him a better picture of the case, and might be annoyed that no decoding was given.

I’m not sure why Justice Scalia thought it necessary to make such a point in this case; maybe he’d seen similar things in other briefs and hadn’t mentioned them then, but this time he thought he ought to say something. But my sense of his point is simply, “Counsel, make things easy on us — if you use a term we don’t know, define it.”

UPDATE: For a related complaint about overuse of abbreviations, see this Legal Times item quoting Judge Laurence Silberman.

Lenta.ru so reports. The bill would criminalize “actions in public, demonstrating clear disrespect to society and committed with the intent to insult the religious feelings of believers,” with the maximum punishment being one year in prison, or three years if the actions are committed in a place of worship. The final vote on the law is expected by the end of the week. Thanks to my father Vladimir Volokh for the pointer.

Apropos the recent posts on the Administration’s leak investigations and the press, I thought I’d note three items by our own Jonathan Adler from when a similar issue arose during the Bush Administration: Reporting Is Not a Crime: Conservatives Should Think Twice About Criminalizing Journalism (National Review Online), A Troubling Prosecution: United States v. Rosen Has Its Thorns (National Review Online), and Prosecuting the Press (a chain of posts on the subject here at the Conspiracy).

I just ran across the Tennessee statute, Tenn Code Ann. § 36-6-404, that provides the factors that courts are to consider in determining physical custody as between two parents. Many states have such lists of factors, but the bold text seems to me to be unique to Tennessee:

(b) ... The court shall make residential provisions for each child, consistent with the child’s developmental level and the family’s social and economic circumstances, which encourage each parent to maintain a loving, stable, and nurturing relationship with the child. The child’s residential schedule shall be consistent with this part. If the limitations of § 36-6-406 [which basically deal with abusive, neglectful, criminal, or otherwise unfit parents] are not dispositive of the child’s residential schedule, the court shall consider the following factors:

(1) The parent’s ability to instruct, inspire, and encourage the child to prepare for a life of service, and to compete successfully in the society that the child faces as an adult;

(2) The relative strength, nature, and stability of the child’s relationship with each parent, including whether a parent has taken greater responsibility for performing parenting responsibilities relating to the daily needs of the child;

(3) The willingness and ability of each of the parents to facilitate and encourage a close and continuing parent-child relationship between the child and the other parent, consistent with the best interests of the child;

[Other factors, which are much more common in such statutes than factor 1 is, omitted. -EV]

(16) Any other factors deemed relevant by the court.

Now I know that Tennessee is the Volunteer State, but preferring parents who can inspire and encourage the child “to prepare for a life of service” strikes me as an improper judgment on the government’s part, and an interference with the parental rights of those parents who don’t favor “a life of service,” or whose vision of “a life of service” is different from the court’s. And a recent case, Wood v. Wood (Tenn. Ct. App. May 16, 2013) (nonprecedential) (emphasis added), suggests that this isn’t just an empty phrase that would be equally satisfied by all reasonable educational plans:

Mother argues that this factor favors her because she values education more than Father as she has a college degree whereas Father was suspended from college for failing grades. In addition, Mother argues that she cares more about the child’s education because she enrolled the child in a college preparatory school. While we agree that Mother appears to care substantially about the child’s education, even Mother agreed that the proposed school in Union City is a good school for the child to attend. In addition, while Father’s own college endeavors proved unsuccessful, nothing suggests that Father does not value education for the child. Further, beyond school, Father testifies that he exposes the child to a church environment, which may help the child prepare for a life of service. Accordingly, we conclude that this factor favors neither parent.

Yet preferring more religiously observant parents over less observant ones, whether because “a church environment” promotes “a life of service” or for some other reason, strikes me as a violation of the First Amendment; see also Part I.D of my NYU Law Review article on the First Amendment and child custody.

The origin of the phrase in Tennessee law seems to be Bevins v. Bevins (Tenn. Ct. App. 1964); the Tennessee statute seems to, among other things, codify part of the Bevins court’s analysis. Here’s the relevant passage:

The real matter to be considered is what is the best thing to do with these children that they may be left in a home where they are nurtured, loved, appreciated and where the environment is such that is conducive not only to the physical welfare of the child, but to its emotional and moral welfare, and where it can have the instructions from those who have control over it to inspire it to activities so as to develop a personality prepared for a life of service, and to successfully compete in the society which the child faces when an adult. Stated in a few words, it surely could be said that if there is a supreme rule to follow, that the consideration to be given determinative significance is in “respect to its temporal, and its mental and moral welfare” of the child as such, and the personality that it is expected to be when it becomes an adult.

For an earlier reference to the term in another state, see In re Hock, 88 N.E.2d 597 (Ohio. Ct. App. 1947): “It is difficult to conceive of any justiciable subject upon which courts may be required to pass which assumes the grave importance incident to the determination of what shall be the environment of a human life, especially when such determination is made shortly after such life has come into existence. The decree of disposition may result in a happy life of service, or it may be permanently calamitous in its effect upon all concerned.”

If anyone can elaborate further on whether “life of service” has any meaning other than the one I gathered from some quick search — a life of service to the community (or to some other higher cause, such as God) — I’d love to hear it.

From today’s Ferguson v. Secretary (11th Cir. May 21, 2013) (thanks to How Appealing for the pointer). Here’s a longer excerpt:

The Supreme Court has decided that a convicted murderer cannot be executed unless he has a rational understanding of the fact that he is going to be put to death and of the reason for his execution. Panetti v. Quarterman, 551 U.S. 930, 954–60 (2007). In announcing that rule, however, the Court did not decide what rational understanding means in this context. It acknowledged that a concept like rational understanding is difficult to define and cautioned that normal or rational in this context does not mean what a layperson understands those terms to mean....

The habeas petitioner in our case, John Ferguson, contends that under the Panetti decision he is mentally incompetent to be executed. As the facts come to us, Ferguson has a mental illness but he does understand that he is going to die by execution, and he understands that it is going to happen because he committed eight murders. Ferguson also believes, as tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of other people do, that there is life after death. Countless people also believe, as he does, that they are among God’s chosen people. But Ferguson’s religious belief is more grandiose than that because he believes that he is the Prince of God....

One could argue, as Ferguson’s attorneys do, that his belief that he will be resurrected as the Prince of God negates a rational understanding that he will be killed and thereby establishes that he is not mentally competent to be executed. That cannot be correct. Panetti cannot mean that a belief in resurrection or other forms of life after death is inconsistent with the rational understanding of death that is required for mental competence to be executed. If it did mean that, most Americans would be mentally incompetent to be executed.

While Ferguson’s thoughts about what happens after death may seem extreme to many people, nearly every major world religion — from Christianity to Zoroastrianism — envisions some kind of continuation of life after death, often including resurrection. Ferguson’s belief in his ultimate corporeal resurrection may differ in degree, but it does not necessarily differ in kind, from the beliefs of millions of Americans. [Details, including a canvass of many religions throughout the world, omitted. -EV] ...

A conclusion that a particular belief about the afterlife and one’s role in it is extreme enough to be irrational, delusional, and indicative of incompetence to be executed is only a few steps away from the same conclusion about any person who believes in resurrection, in heaven or hell, or in any variation of life after death. Courts should be reluctant to treat as a symptom of mental illness anyone’s belief about what will happen to him after he dies. It is beyond the ken of courts to measure the rationality of religious beliefs –– what will happen to us after we pass through the dark curtain of death is the ultimate non-justiciable question.

Because the state courts’ determination that Ferguson possesses a rational understanding of his execution and the reason for it is not so lacking in justification that there was an error well understood and comprehended in existing law beyond any possibility for fairminded disagreement, AEDPA precludes us from disturbing their judgment.

From James Taranto (thanks to InstaPundit for the pointer):

In a CNN.com column Donna Brazile [writes] with a sinister twist:

A government of, by, and for the people requires that people talk to people, that we can agree to disagree but do so in civility. If we let the politicians and those who report dictate our discourse, then our course will be dictated.

Why am I alarmed? Because two “scandals”–the IRS tax-exempt inquiries and the Department of Justice’s tapping of reporters’ phones–have become lynch parties. And the congressional investigation of Benghazi may become a scandal in itself.

In one breath Brazile urges everyone to be civil and respectful. In the next she labels her opponents with one of the most racially incendiary metaphors in the American lexicon. And note that she is casting government officials who abused their power as lynching victims.

I tend to be skeptical that there is much scandal in the Justice Department investigations of reporters in leak cases, see Orin’s post about the AP matter and mine about the Fox News matter. (Conversely, Brazile seems skeptical that the IRS “scandal” deserves scare quotes, since she writes, “The IRS scandal has sparked bipartisan outrage that should require a bipartisan solution.”) But Taranto’s criticism of the faux call for “civility” strikes me as quite apt. Let me also point to this passage from Brazile’s column:

But in our partisan self-righteousness, we’re destroying our foundations of government more effectively than al Qaeda ever could. Whether it’s the media or the politicians, the churning of partisan passion into anger, indeed hate, has an ulterior purpose: If Obama’s administration is constantly engaged in fighting for its existence, the governing comes to a halt, and his agenda will go nowhere.

I’m sure Brazile sincerely believes that partisan self-righteousness and the churning of partisan passion into anger, indeed hate, ought to be removed from American politics. But I find it hard to take such calls from party officials seriously given the common mainstream Democratic reactions to the Bush Administration (prefigured, of course, by many mainstream Republican reactions — which I think were often over-the-top — during the Clinton Administration, Democratic reactions during the Reagan Administration, and likely more before then). I like civility, and when there are particular demonstrably uncivil statements, they should be condemned (as I’ve tried to do on occasion). But generic calls for civility against self-righteousness and “anger, indeed hate” of the government, in my experience, tend not to be very helpful to the public debate that they are supposed to be trying to elevate.

Leaks to reporters — and investigations of the leaks that included subpoenas of reporters’ e-mail logs and searches of reporters’ e-mail — have been in the news; see this post by Orin about the AP story and this post by Conor Friedersdorf (The Atlantic) about the Fox News story. I thought I’d say a few things about the First Amendment issues involved in such matters, especially in response to the Friedersdorf post.

1. To begin with, let me define the problem, and define it broadly: A wide range of laws that bars certain people from revealing certain information that they themselves learned in confidence, having given a promise of confidentiality. To give just a few examples,

1. Federal law (18 U.S.C. § 793) does this (among other things) for secret defense information.
2. Federal law does it for confidential income tax information, and many other matters.
3. Trade secret law does it for certain kinds of business information (some trade secret claims are civil and some are criminal, but this doesn’t matter for First Amendment purposes).
4. Nondisclosure agreements do the same for other kinds.
5. Professional regulations and related statutes do this for attorney-client, psychotherapist-patient, and doctor-patient confidences.
6. Court orders do this for information gathered through discovery in legal cases.

Relatedly, federal law bars people from electronic eavesdropping on cell phone calls, and also prohibits the illegal eavesdroppers from communicating this information to others. This isn’t exactly the same, because the original misconduct here consists not of illegally leaking information to which one has legal access, but illegally accessing the information in the first place. Still, downstream publication of illegally leaked information and publication of illegally accessed information are quite similar in many ways — they all involve information that by law ought not be communicatable, that the original leaker (or illegal gatherer) has no right to communicate, but that he does communicate to third parties who did not themselves illegally leak or illegally gather the information.

2. These laws are generally seen as constitutional, mostly on the theory that they enforce promises of confidentiality, express or implied, that were legitimately extracted as a condition of access to the information (see Cohen v. Cowles Media (1991) and Seattle Times Co v. Rhinehart (1984)), or, in the case of the cell phone interception law, that the underlying acquisition of the information was illegal. That’s an oversimplification, but it’s a reasonable first approximation.

And in any event, I think it’s pretty clear that it’s constitutional to outlaw leaks of government information by those who have promised to keep it secret. I know there are arguments that the government classifies too much information as secret. But for the government to be trusted, whether by taxpayers, sources of information, foreign governments, or other government employees, it has to be able to punish those government employees who promised to keep a secret (whether a tax return or a defense-related document) but then broke that promise.

3. But what about people who never promised confidentiality, and who just receive — without soliciting or prearranging this — information that they know was illegally leaked (or illegally gathered)? Say you’re a reporter, and you get an unsolicited e-mail revealing something important gleaned from a prominent person’s tax return, a copy of an important secret government document, a business plan to create a controversial product or close a plant or engage in a particular marketing strategy, or a tape of an illegal intercepted conversation in which union members are discussing what sounds like a possible plan to engage in violent crime against management. (“If they’re not gonna move for three percent, we’re gonna have to go to their, their homes .... To blow off their front porches, we’ll have to do some work on some of those guys. Really, uh, really and truthfully because this is, you know, this is bad news. (UNDECIPHERABLE).”) May the law bar even such disclosures by downstream recipients, who never promised confidentiality, never themselves engaged in illegal interception of information, and never solicited the breach of a confidence or illegal interception, or conspired in such an action?

There, the matter is not entirely clear. Bartnicki v. Vopper (2001), the illegal interception case from which the quote above is drawn, holds that revelation of the information by these downstream recipients would be protected by the First Amendment, at least if the released information is important enough and if the initial illegality consisted of illegal interception of cell phone calls. But United States v. Rosen (D.D.C. 2006) holds otherwise as to revelation by downstream recipients of classified defense information. Still, there are very serious First Amendment arguments in favor of protecting such further disclosures by these sorts of downstream recipients.

4. There is, though, an intermediate category of speakers. Part of it consists of those who actively solicit criminal or tortious leaks or information gathering, knowing that what they are seeking is information that the leaker has no right to reveal or to gather. “Could you send me this classified document / tax return / secret about your client? I’ll write a story about it that will promote truth and justice / help advance your ideological agenda / get back at your enemies / make you feel important.” “You know, if you illegally taped that phone call and passed it along to me, there could be a great story in it.” “I like the story idea you’re pitching to me, but I need more proof. Your boss probably has documents that demonstrate this; can you rifle through his desk, and send me a copy of whatever you find?” And part consists of those who actively conspire with the leaker to promote the leak, for instance by working out specific plans that would keep the leaker from getting caught, or by providing tools (physical or electronic) that can help the leaker get the information in the first place.

This is what the government is saying James Rosen of Fox News of did — soliciting the leak of classified documents, aiding and abetting the leak by working out means by which the leaker could leak the documents more safely, and generally conspiring with the leaker. (The government isn’t prosecuting Rosen for this, at least at this point, but it is alleging that he did this, since allegation of such criminal conduct by a newsgatherer allows the government to search the newsgatherer’s papers under 42 U.S.C. § 2000aa, the federal statute limiting searches of newsgatherers.)

And it seems to me that this behavior is rightly treated as criminal. Solicitation of crime (see United States v. Williams (2008)), aiding and abetting crime by providing instrumentalities for the crime, and conspiracy to commit a crime are rightly punishable, and I don’t think that the answer should be different when the crime is an illegal leak of information (however newsworthy that information might be).

Glenn Greenwald (The Guardian) argues the contrary, pointing out that publications of leaked information can be valuable to the public, and are a staple of investigative journalism. But I don’t think this suffices to provide constitutional protection to actively soliciting, aiding, or conspiring with someone who is committing a crime. Perhaps the underlying leak shouldn’t be a crime, or perhaps Congress should limit the criminality just to the leaker. But I don’t see that this is constitutionally mandated, given the longstanding understanding that actively participating in criminal conduct can be prohibited as much as the underlying conduct can be. And note that Bartnicki specifically stressed that, in that case, “respondents played no part in the illegal interception” but rather “found out about the interception only after it occurred” and “their access to the information on the tapes was obtained lawfully, even though the information itself was intercepted unlawfully by someone else,” so Bartnicki doesn’t dispose of the aider/solicitor/conspirator case.

I think this distinction between publication by an unconnected downstream recipient and an aider/solicitor/conspirator responds to Conor Friedersdorf’s argument in The Atlantic that Justices Douglas and Black in the Pentagon Papers case “directly addressed and discredited” the government’s theory in the Rosen/Fox News matter, and that “the Obama Justice Department is using a WWI-era espionage law” in the Rosen/Fox News matter “to criminalize journalism in a way that its authors never intended.” It’s true that Justice Douglas’s opinion, joined by Justice Black, took the view that the federal classified defense information statute, 18 U.S.C. § 793(d), didn’t generally apply to downstream publishers:

There is, moreover, no statute barring the publication by the press of the material which the Times and the Post seek to use. Title 18 U.S.C. § 793 (e) provides that “[w]hoever having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over any document, writing ... or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of theUnited States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates ... the same to any person not entitled to receive it ... [s]hall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.”

The Government suggests that the word “communicates” is broad enough to encompass publication.

There are eight sections in the chapter on espionage and censorship, §§ 792-799. In three of those eight “publish” is specifically mentioned: § 794 (b) applies to “Whoever, in time of war, with intent that the same shall be communicated to the enemy, collects, records, publishes, or communicates ... [the disposition of armed forces].”

Section 797 applies to whoever “reproduces, publishes, sells, or gives away” photographs of defense installations.

Section 798 relating to cryptography applies to whoever: “communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available ... or publishes” the described material. (Emphasis added.)

Thus it is apparent that Congress was capable of and did distinguish between publishing and communication in the various sections of the Espionage Act.

The other evidence that § 793 does not apply to the press is a rejected version of § 793. That version read: “During any national emergency resulting from a war to which the United States is a party, or from threat of such a war, the President may, by proclamation, declare the existence of such emergency and, by proclamation, prohibit the publishing or communicating of, or the attempting to publish or communicate any information relating to the national defense which, in his judgment, is of such character that it is or might be useful to the enemy.” 55 Cong. Rec. 1763. During the debates in the Senate the First Amendment was specifically cited and that provision was defeated. 55 Cong. Rec. 2167.

Judge Gurfein’s holding in the Times case that this Act does not apply to this case was therefore preeminently sound. Moreover, the Act of September 23, 1950, in amending 18 U.S.C. § 793 states in § 1 (b) that:

“Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize, require, or establish military or civilian censorship or in any way to limit or infringe upon freedom of the press or of speech as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States and no regulation shall be promulgated hereunder having that effect.” 64 Stat. 987.

Thus Congress has been faithful to the command of the First Amendment in this area.

But beyond the obvious point that this was just the opinion of the two most-speech-protective Justices on the Court at the time (or perhaps at any time), I think the argument only applies to the “unconnected downstream recipient” publications discussed in item 3. As to the publications by a recipient who solicited, aided, or conspired in the underlying criminal leak, the Douglas/Black statutory argument doesn’t apply, because federal law does cover such behavior: 18 U.S.C. § 2 specifically criminalizes aiding or soliciting a crime, and 18 U.S.C. § 371 specifically criminalizes conspiring to commit a crime. Perhaps there ought to be a First Amendment defense even when those statutes are violated, though I’m skeptical about that. But I don’t see the Douglas/Black statutory argument as relevant here.

5. Finally, just to return to item 1, note that the constitutional question is similar (though not identical) for a wide range of disclosures — and solicitations or conspiracies. If there’s a First Amendment right to solicit, aid, and conspire in leaks of classified defense information, then there’d be such a right to solicit, aid, and conspire in leaks of tax return information, leaks of attorney-client confidences, leaks of psychotherapist-patient confidences, illegal interception of cell phone conversation, illegal breakins into people’s computers, illegal rifling through people’s desks, and so on.

I’m told that such arrests and charges are very rare, so I thought this was noteworthy, from the Austin American-Statesman, April 19, 2013 (thanks to Lawrence Goldman [White Collar Crim Prof Blog] for the pointer):

Former Williamson County District Attorney Ken Anderson was arrested ... after a specially convened court found that he intentionally hid evidence to secure Michael Morton’s 1987 conviction for murder.

In a blunt and scathing ruling, District Judge Louis Sturns said Anderson acted to defraud the trial court and Morton’s defense lawyers, resulting in an innocent man serving almost 25 years in prison.

“This court cannot think of a more intentionally harmful act than a prosecutor’s conscious choice to hide mitigating evidence so as to create an uneven playing field for a defendant facing a murder charge and a life sentence,” Sturns said.

Sturns, presiding over a court of inquiry that examined the Morton prosecution, found probable cause to believe that Anderson broke two state laws and committed criminal contempt of court for lying to Morton’s trial judge. He then signed a warrant for Anderson’s arrest as required under state law governing courts of inquiry....

Sturns’ ruling is the first step in a potential criminal case against Anderson, who was Williamson County’s celebrated law-and-order district attorney for 16 years before he became a district judge in 2002. His current term as judge will end in 2014. State law does not require him to step down as the case against him progresses....

Morton was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his first wife, Christine, in their Williamson County home. He was freed and declared innocent in 2011 after DNA tests pointed to another man as the killer....
Sturns told the standing-room-only courtroom that the evidence showed that Anderson improperly concealed two pieces of evidence that could have helped Morton fight the murder charge:

• The transcript of a police interview revealing that the Mortons’ 3-year-old son, Eric, witnessed the murder and said Michael Morton wasn’t home at the time.

• A police report about a suspicious man who had parked a green van near the Morton home and, on several occasions, walked into the wooded area behind the house.

Anderson also improperly concealed the documents from District Judge William Lott, who presided over Morton’s trial, Sturns said.

“Judge Lott specifically asked Mr. Anderson in open court whether the state had any evidence that was favorable to the accused,” Sturns said. “To which Anderson replied, ‘No, sir.’ ” ...

Judge Sturns’ report is here (thanks to Grits for Breakfast for the pointer).

A comment reminded me of this passage from Justice Stevens’ opinion in County of Allegheny v. ACLU:

It is also significant that the final draft [of the Establishment Clause] contains the word “respecting.” Like “touching,” “respecting” means concerning, or with reference to. But it also means with respect — that is, “reverence,” “good will,” “regard” — to. [Footnote: "Respect," as defined in T. Sheridan, A Complete Dictionary of the English Language (6th ed. 1796). See S. Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language (7th ed. 1785); see also The Oxford English Dictionary 733-734 (1989); Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary 1004 (1988).] Taking into account this richer meaning, the Establishment Clause, in banning laws that concern religion, especially prohibits those that pay homage to religion.

This seems to be a very weak argument — more a play on words than legal analysis.

First, the Clause doesn’t ban laws respecting religion. It bans laws respecting an establishment of religion.

Second, the fact that an English word has multiple meanings doesn’t mean all those meanings are applicable in each context. Indeed, any usage of a word in a legal document (rather than in a joke or in a poem) is usually understood as triggering just one meaning, at least when the meanings are relatively far removed from each other.

For instance, one can debate what “common law” means in the Seventh Amendment protection of a jury trial in suits “at common law,” since at various times (and even at the time of the Framing) “common law” has meant several things: (1) judge-made law (or, if you prefer, judge-found law, though that’s a legal fiction) as opposed to statutes, (2) a particular body of law that was once made by judges, even if now it is codified in statute, as opposed to law that was originally created by a legislature, (3) Anglo-American law as opposed to European civil law, which is derived from Roman law, and (4) law that is sufficiently linked to the sort of law historically enforced in common-law courts as opposed to the sort of law historically enforced in so-called courts of equity. But once courts conclude — and rightly so, I think — that “common law” in the Seventh Amendment is rightly understood using definition 4, they don’t then also bring in the other definitions.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” has long been understood to mean “no law with reference to establishment of religion” [UPDATE: i.e., either an establishment of a national religion or an interference with state establishments of religion] and this understanding of the word “respecting” was pretty clearly the understanding at the time of the Framing (as well as the Fourteenth Amendment). Compare, for instance, article IV, sec. 3, cl. 2 (emphasis added): “The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.” Or compare the uses of the word “respecting” in the Federalist. That doesn’t tell us just what qualifies as a law that is with reference to establishment of religion [UPDATE: nor does it tell us how the Fourteenth Amendment should affect all this]; but it does give us a general sense of the meaning of “respecting,” though not the meaning of “establishment of religion.”

What reason is there to then read “no law respecting an establishment of religion” as also having the “richer” meaning of “no law that expresses reverence for religion” (omitting the phrase “establishment of” before “religion”)? I see none, other than an interpreter’s preference for the particular result.

The Huffington Post has an article titled, “Kaitlyn Hunt, Florida Teen, Faces Felony Charges Over Same-Sex Relationship”; Opposing Views picks it up as, “Florida Teen Kaitlyn Hunt Arrested, Expelled Over Same-Sex Relationship”; Examiner.com, which is linked to by the Huffington Post piece, has the headline, “Florida teen fights expulsion and criminal charges for same sex relationship”; Think Progress has the headline, “What’s Next For Kaitlyn Hunt, The Teen Charged With A Felony For Same-Sex Relationship With Classmate.”

Except that, as the bodies of the articles indicate, the charge isn’t “same-sex relationship” — it’s the non-sexual-orientation-specific statutory rape statute, Fla. Stats. § 800.04, which says, in relevant part,

A person who:

(a) Engages in sexual activity with a person 12 years of age or older but less than 16 years of age ...

commits lewd or lascivious battery, a felony of the second degree ....

Kaitlyn Hunt, who is now 18, is continuing a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl; that seems to me to be a pretty clear violation of the statute. And while statutory rape laws are notoriously underenforced, I would imagine that it would be hardly unheard of for an 18-year-old boy in Florida to be arrested and expelled for having sex with a 15-year-old girl. The ThinkProgress article states, “Kaitlyn’s father suggests his daughters arrest — and the substantial sentence sought by the prosecutor — are motivated by anti-gay bias.” (The proposed deal from the prosecutor was, “She could plead guilty to child abuse, a felony, and spend two years under house arrest. The judge would determine if she would have to register as a sex offender.”) But are Florida prosecutors really materially more lenient when the parents of 15-year-old girls complain about 18-year-old men having sex with those girls? I’ve heard nothing suggesting that this is so.

The story alleges that the 15-year-old girl’s parents are upset about the same-sex nature of the relationship, so it’s possible that their motivation in complaining to the police relates to that. (I’m not certain that this is so, since it’s quite possible that the parents would also be upset about their 15-year-old daughter having an opposite-sex relationship with an 18-year-old man, so the same-sex nature of the relationship may not even be a but-for cause of the complaint; but let’s set that aside for now.) But the police and the school can’t just say, “Your motivation for the complaint is hostility against lesbianism, so we’ll refuse to act on the complaint, even though this is a crime that we’d take seriously if we thought your complaint was motivated by general disapproval of sex between 15- and 18-year-olds.” And absent some evidence that Florida authorities turn a blind eye on parental complaints about 18-year-old men having sex with 15-year-old girls, I don’t really see this as a case about “same-sex relationship[s]” as such.

Now this having been said, one can actually make a rational argument for treating lesbian relationships less severely than opposite-sex relationships. Lesbian relationships can’t lead to unwanted pregnancy, and, to my knowledge, are much less likely to spread the most serious sexually transmitted diseases. And while they can involve lies, lead to heartbreak, leave one or both members with a sense that one has been emotionally mistreated and taken advantage of, and so on, one can imagine a parent who can reasonably think “Phew, better that my daughter is having sex with a woman than with a man.”

One can even imagine legal rules that draw this distinction, and constitutional rules that uphold such a distinction. Michael M. v. Superior Court (1980) upheld a sex-specific statutory rape law, which punished only males and not females, on the grounds that the law reflects real sex differences, including differential susceptibility to pregnancy. That argument would be even stronger as to a distinction between women-women relationships and other relationships, even given that sex classifications are subjected to heightened constitutional scrutiny (see Michael M. itself), and even if sexual orientation classifications come to be subjected to heightened constitutional scrutiny as well.

But such an approach, while not irrational, is certainly not the law in Florida, and it’s far from clear that it is correct. The risk of emotional harm to 15-year-olds — harm that they may be even less prepared to deal with than older people are, and harm that they can’t reasonably be seen as consenting to, given their immaturity — remains in lesbian relationships even if the risk of pregnancy is removed and the risk of disease is very low. And in any event this is not, I take it, the argument being made by the articles I cite.

The Court just agreed to hear Town of Greece v. Galloway, a case involving legislative prayer. In Marsh v. Chambers (1983), the Supreme Court upheld legislative prayers against an Establishment Clause challenge, based on the very long American tradition of such prayers (dating back to the same First Congress that proposed the Establishment Clause); nonetheless, the scope of Marsh is unclear, and in particular it’s unclear to what extent legislative prayers might be seen as unconstitutionally preferring a particular religion or denomination.

Or that at least is the narrow question raised by the case. But I think it’s also possible that the Court may use the case as a means of reconsidering the “endorsement test,” under which the Establishment Clause is read as barring government speech (or even government action) that a “reasonable observer” would see as “endorsing or disapproving” of religion (either a particular religion or religion generally). The test has long been controversial; it was relied on by the decision below, so it’s very much in play in this case; and I suspect that there are five votes to overrule it. (Justices Kennedy, Scalia, and Thomas are on the record as rejecting it, and I suspect Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito take a similar view.) Should be a very interesting decision, which will be out in the first half of next year.

A very interesting question, raised in Intercollegiate Broadcasting System, Inc. v. Copyright Royalty Board, a certiorari petition now pending before the Court. Profs. John Duffy (Virginia), Peter Strauss (Columbia), and Michael Herz (Cardozo) — an illustrious trio who often take quite different views about other subjects — have an item about this at Concurring Opinions; here’s an excerpt (click on the Concurring Opinions post for links):

Earlier this year, more than 100,000 citizens petitioned the White House to overturn a copyright rule issued by the Librarian of Congress that made unlocking a cell phone a crime. The White House responded by promising to seek legislation to overturn the Librarian’s rule. That was the most the President would or could do because “[t]he law gives the Librarian the authority,” and the Administration would “respect that process,” even though the Librarian acted contrary to the Administration’s views. See here. As the New York Times reported, “because the Library of Congress, and therefore the copyright office, are part of the legislative branch, the White House cannot simply overturn the current ruling.” See here.

There’s only one problem with all of this: The Department of Justice has been vigorously arguing precisely the contrary constitutional position in the federal courts.

According to the Administration’s filings in litigation that has now reached the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress is “an executive Department,” and the Librarian himself is “subject to plenary oversight by the President.” Justice Department lawyers have explained that Congress made a “purposeful decision to place the Library under the President’s direct control and supervision”; that the Librarian of Congress is the “Head” of this “executive Department”; that the President may remove the Librarian “at will” just as he may remove other heads of executive departments; and that this removal power creates the Librarian’s “here-and-now subservience” to the President. See pages 16 & 17 of the Government’s Brief in Opposition filed at the Supreme Court, available here and pages 23, 29 & 37 the Government’s Brief for Appellees filed in the Court of Appeals, available here.

In light of that clear legal position, an obvious question arises: If the Librarian is really a head of an executive Department subject to “plenary oversight by the President,” why hasn’t the President either taken responsibility for criminalizing cell phone unlocking or ordered the Librarian to reverse his decision?

The answer is that no one in the political arena actually believes for one minute that the Librarian is the head of an executive department. The current Librarian has repeatedly testified to Congress that the Library is “arm of the United States Congress,” “a “branch of the Legislative branch,” and “a unique part of the Legislative Branch of the government.” Members of Congress also understand this to be true. To take but one prominent example, Senator Orrin Hatch has noted not only that “the Copyright Office is in the legislative branch of the Government” but also that this arrangement presents difficulty because “whenever the Copyright Office is tasked with an executive-type function, [a] constitutional question arises.”

The President’s supposed powers of “plenary oversight” and at-will removal are utter fiction, as the controversy about cell phone unlocking shows....

Why then are the Administration’s lawyers arguing that the Librarian is a presidential underling? The answer is easy. The Librarian has been vested with the power to appoint all of the officers who execute the copyright laws—including the Registrar of Copyrights and the judges of the Copyright Royalty Board—but the “Appointments Clause” of the Constitution makes clear that such power can be lodged in the Librarian only if he is the head of an Executive Department....

Prof. Dennis Crouch, at the respected and often-cited Patently-O blog, had a post several weeks ago with a heading that was good advice, Don’t Write This Letter to the Patent Office:

We all get frustrated. After an examiner rejected his client’s application for a telescoping tripod sprinkler, patent attorney Andrew Schroeder could no longer resist and filed the following remarks:

REMARKS: Are you drunk? No, seriously…are you drinking scotch and whiskey with a side of crack cocaine while you “examine” patent applications? (Heavy emphasis on the quotes.) Do you just mail merge rejection letters from your home? Is that what taxpayers are getting in exchange for your services? Have you even read the patent application? I’m curious. Because you either haven’t read the patent application or are… (I don’t want to say the “R” word) “Special.”

Numerous examples abound in terms of this particular Examiner not following the law. Clearly, the combination of references would render the final product to be inoperable for its intended use. However, for this Special Needs Examiner, logic just doesn’t cut it. It is manifestly clear that this Examiner has a huge financial incentive to reject patent applications so he gets a nice Christmas bonus at the end of the year. When in doubt, reject right?

Since when did the USPTO become a post World War II jobs program? What’s the point of hiring 2,000 additional examiners when 2,000 rubber stamps would suffice just fine? So, tell me something Corky…what would it take for a patent application to be approved? Do we have to write patent applications in crayon? Does a patent application have to come with some sort of pop-up book? Do you have to be a family member or some big law firm who incentivizes you with some other special deal? What does it take Corky?

Perhaps you might want to take your job seriously and actually give a sh.t! What’s the point in having to deal with you Special Olympics rejects when we should just go straight to Appeals? While you idiots sit around in bathtubs farting and picking your noses, you should know that there are people out here who actually give a sh.t about their careers, their work, and their dreams.

Your job is not a joke, but you are turning it into a regular three ring circus. If you can’t motivate yourself to take your job seriously, then you need to quit and let someone else take over what that actually wants to do the job right.

See U.S. Patent Application No. 13/068530 (PAIR). [Update: It appears that the PTO has now removed the letter from the file history.] ...

An effective way for a patent lawyer to communicate with the patent office? You decide.

But Andrew Schroeder wasn’t done — instead of posting an apology (which I expect Patently-O would have been glad to post), or even just ignoring the publicity, he doubled down on rude, with several posts such as this one, calling Prof. Crouch a “dickhead” and then using various further vulgarities. This unsurprisingly led to more coverage, for instance at Above The Law and TechDirt.

The reputational consequences of these communications to Mr. Schroeder can be seen by Googling Andrew Schroeder patent. There is one bit of good news from this, though: The winners are Mr. Schroeder’s prospective clients, who can now more easily get a sense of the sort of conduct that they can expect from him.

Here’s a newspaper article containing an allegedly defamatory statement by Gov. Sundquist:

[Some death row inmates] accuse the governor of being “mean spirited” because he took away their satellite dish.

Three inmates and four citizens have filed a federal lawsuit against the governor and correction officials, claiming the satellite dish was paid for by donors and that the governor had no right to remove it.

“That was the guy who committed 14 murders and two rapes on death row who said I’m mean spirited,” Sundquist said. “If they think I’m mean-spirited, I would question the origin of the statement. How can someone who’s committed the most grievous crimes imaginable — who is slated to be executed — expect to have television access that most people in Tennessee don’t have.”

“A satellite dish with all the Playboy channels may be dangerous to their health.”

The dish carried HBO and Cinemax to the prisons at Nashville’s Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. The suit was filed by convicted murders Terry King, Rocky Lee Coker and Michael Sample....

Here’s what the Tennessee Commission said in rejecting Coker’s defamation lawsuit, see Coker v. Sundquist (Tenn. Ct. App. 1998) (nonprecedential) (patragraph breaks added):

The main reason why this Commission finds this to be a claim on which relief cannot be granted is that the newspaper article in question is not libelous or injurious at all. Any body who reads that newspaper article gets the message: men who have been sentenced to death in a Tennessee Court deserve to be deprived of entertainment, and when such men use language like “mean spirited” and go to Court to get their entertainment back then they are being ridiculous. Anybody who reads that newspaper article recognizes that the quotation, “That was the guy who committed 14 murders and two rapes on death row who said I’m mean spirited,” was an exaggeration, just a piece of mockery; anybody who reads that newspaper sees that this statement is not statistically precise.

All human-beings — not just holders of high offices and newspaperwomen — use exaggeration sometimes. People may say that men sentenced to death by Tennessee juries have “committed the most grievous crimes imaginable,” while they know that only people like Mao Tse-Tung and Pol Pot really have “committed the most grievous crimes imaginable.” We all talk like that sometimes, and talking like that is not slander or libel. And there is a very good reason why it is not slander or libel: because nobody who hears it takes it with nit-picking precision.

Take the case of the mother who says to her child, “You’re just the worst little boy I’ve ever seen!” Nobody would say to her seriously, “You’re a liar! You’ve seen two little boys this morning who are worse than he is!” This claimant is arguing that mockery is libel, and it is not....

Apropos the recent stories about the IRS’s quizzing conservative groups about their intentions and their speech, and delaying approval of those groups’ tax-exempt status, here are two items from a few years ago:

1. In 2011, the IRS quizzed Christian Voices for Life about whether they “[do] education on both sides of the issues” and whether they “attempt to talk to [people] trying to enter a medical clinic, or any other building facility.”

But though groups that engage in advocacy related to political campaigns, or that engage in substantial advocacy related to legislation, can’t have 26 U.S.C. § 501(c)(3) status, there is no such limitation for groups that try to talk to people entering medical clinics. Moreover, Big Mama Rag, Inc. v. United States (D.C. Cir. 1980) pretty strongly suggests that § 501(c)(3) status can’t be limited to groups that are evenhanded in their speech (“[w]e can conceive of no value-free measurement of the extent to which material is doctrinaire”), and indeed many groups that engage in one-sided advocacy (PETA, the ACLU Foundation, and more) have § 501(c)(3) status. After the group got a lawyer to write a letter to the IRS about this, the IRS approved the exemption request.

2. In 2009, the IRS allegedly demanded that the Coalition for Life of Iowa promise, as a condition of getting tax-exempt status, that it wouldn’t “picket” or “protest” outside Planned Parenthood or similar groups, or organize others to do so. It also demanded that the Coalition “explain how all of your activities, including the prayer meetings held outside of Planned Parenthood are considered educational as defined under 501(c)(3),” “explain in detail the activities at these prayer meetings,” and “explain in detail the signs that are being held up outside of Planned Parenthood and explain how they are considered educational.”

If it is indeed standard practice for the IRS to demand that all groups that engage in protesting and demonstrating — liberal, conservative, or otherwise –”explain in detail” all their past speech qualifies as “educational,” I’d like to hear that; § 501(c)(3) does limit the exemption to (among other things) “charitable” and “educational” groups, and if the IRS is defining “educational” narrowly and applying the narrow definition evenhandedly, then that may explain why it was applied to the Coalition for Life of Iowa. But my suspicion is that most groups aren’t required to provide such detail about their speech. Again, after the group got a lawyer to write a letter to the IRS about this, the IRS approved the exemption request.

Thanks to Paul Milligan for the pointer. I should note that the groups I mention were represented by the Thomas More Society, with which I’m working on my pro bono Scott v. Saint John’s Church in the Wilderness petition; but they didn’t approach me about blogging on this subject.