This where Clarence Darrow and I are headed…

Weekend Greetings from Ethics Alarms!

1. I’m on the way to New Brunswick, New Jersey for a President’s Day legal ethics CLE seminar for the New Jersey Bar. This is my Darrow program, and my long-time Clarence (18 years!), Paul Morella, is unavailable, so taking on the role will be Bruce Rauscher, who received a Helen Hayes nomination (that’s the D.C. Tonys) for playing the prosecutor in my production of “The Andersonville Trial.” Like so many expert prosecutors, Bruce is now moving over to the defense because the money is better.

2. KABOOM! Ann Althouse found this disturbing dead canary in the mine: over 10 thousand people online thought the cartoon below was racist:

Althouse seems to miss the significance of this: she asks if anyone “gets” humor any more. That’s not what’s going on here. A stunning number of people really believe that voting—or hiring, or admitting college applicants—on the basis of merit is racist. This belief itself is racist, as well as destructive, illogical and batty, but that’s what culture will do to you eventually, if you don’t have a strong foundation of ethical values and critical thinking skills.

How can you argue with someone who “thinks” like this? Are they beyond hope?

3.  More Warren The Demagogue. I was going to let this go, because so many Democrats are embarrassing themselves of late and I don’t want to give more ammunition to those who accuse me of right wing bias. But Professor Turley flagged this blatant example of Senator Warren’s demoagoguery and his reaction was identical to mine, so I’ll let him take over:

Democrats have (for good reason) criticized President Donald Trump for his signature campaign rally chant of “Lock her up." in referring to his then opponent Hillary Clinton.. Many of us objected to the display as obnoxious and demeaning to our political system. That objection apparently does not hold when a Democratic candidate, in this case Elizabeth Warren, is referencing Donald Trump as being locked up. Warren received the predictably wild applause to her suggestion in a campaign rally that Trump will be in prison by 2020. 

…It is of course utter nonsense. The Special Counsel’s report is now expected in March. No compelling case of obstruction or collusion-based crimes has been established against Trump. There is an allegation of campaign finance violations based on the Cohen filings. However, the Justice Department has a long-standing policy (with which I have long disagreed) that it will not indict a sitting president. Moreover, even with such a policy, the indictment of a sitting president would unlikely result in a trial, let alone incarceration, during his term. These trials are often delayed and, in the case of a president, there is a line of cases allowing considerable leeway given to a President and his schedule on such calendars for legal proceedings. In any case, the suggestion of incarceration is pure fantasy fueled by the same blind rage of the “lock her up." chants.

Let me add that Warren, like Turley (and unlike Trump), is a law professor and knows all of this, so she is deliberately deceiving the ignorant and trusting.

Permit me to repeat myself: God, she is terrible!

4. I hate settlements. Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and current Carolina Panthers safety Eric Reid have reached a settlement with the NFL concerning their collusion grievances against the league. The deals included confidentiality agreements, so all speculation about who paid how much is pure spin. This doesn’t vindicate Kaepernick in any way. The NFL made a PR decision that putting Kaepernick’s grandstanding behind it was good business, and I’m sure Kaepernick was grateful for whatever he got. I’m pretty sure that he was going to lose. If he was really the social justice warrior he poses as, he would have insisted on a trial.

5. More on the “Best People” front: Former Fox Blonde Heather Nauert was the State Department spokeswoman when Trump nominated her for to replace Nikki Haley as U.N. Ambassador.  It was a lazy, incompetent choice, like so many other Trump appointments, even accepting his attitude that U.N. is a sham, which it largely is. Still, this is a post that has been held by Adlai Stevenson and Henry Cabot Lodge; even Haley dwarfs Nauert in experience, skills and stature. She was unqualified, and obviously so; she showed a lack of integrity and common sense by accepting the nomination. Now she has withdrawn her nomination.

Good.

6. More ADA madness. Here’s a mother arguing in the Washington Post that Broadway productions should have to offer special performances for autistic children and others whose disability renders them unable to watch a show without making noise, interfering with the enjoyment of the performance by others:

Whitney Ellenby  writes in part:

Sensory-friendly is a civil right. Nothing in disability law requires that disabled people come quietly or conventionally. As long as accommodating someone such as Zack doesn’t require a venue or service to be fundamentally altered, access is required under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), with or without reasonable accommodation.I understand that Zack’s vocalizing and others’ behaviors affect the experience and service of those around him. But there’s a simple workaround to this problem: designated, sensory-friendly offerings. Setting aside a regular number of theater performances or flights or movie showings or restaurant hours to give my son and others like him equal access and opportunity should be regarded as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA.

Discuss. I would have made this an Ethics Quiz, if I thought her argument had any merit at all. The world, and our government, and businesses, are not obligated to minimize all inconveniences and disadvantages arising from physical maladies and disabilities. This is, and has always been, another tyranny of the minority area. If the parent of a child who has to shout out during “Hamilton” wants him to see the show, she can pay for a private showing. I would suggest purchasing a video. [Pointer: Amy Alkon]