"We granted certiorari to resolve a conflict in the lower courts over the appropriate mental state for threat prose�cutions under 18 U. S. C. �875(c)."

"Save two, every Circuit to have considered the issue�11 in total�has held that this provision demands proof only of general intent, which here requires no more than that a defendant knew he transmitted a communication, knew the words used in that communication, and understood the ordinary meaning of those words in the relevant context. The outliers are the Ninth and Tenth Circuits, which have concluded that proof of an intent to threaten was necessary for conviction. Adopting the minority position, Elonis urges us to hold that �875(c) and the First Amendment require proof of an intent to threaten. The Government in turn advocates a general-intent approach. Rather than resolve the conflict, the Court casts aside the approach used in nine Circuits and leaves nothing in its place. Lower courts are thus left to guess at the appropriate mental state for �875(c). All they know after to day�s decision is that a requirement of general intent will not do. But they can safely infer that a majority of this Court would not adopt an intent-to-threaten requirement, as the opinion carefully leaves open the possibility that recklessness may be enough."

Writes Justice Thomas, the sole dissenter in Elonis v. United States (PDF) one of this morning's new Supreme Court cases.
Click for more �

"28 busts for sex offender accused of grinding on subway passenger, but mom says he's just looking for a wife."

Headline in The Daily News.

"Mr. Ulbricht�s high-tech drug bazaar was novel and full of intrigue, operating in a hidden part of the Internet known as the dark web..."

"... which allowed deals to be made anonymously and out of the reach of law enforcement. In Silk Road�s nearly three years of operation, over 1.5 million transactions were carried out on the website involving several thousand seller accounts and more than 100,000 buyer accounts, the authorities have said. Transactions were paid for using the virtual currency Bitcoin, and Mr. Ulbricht, operating under the pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts, took in millions of dollars in commissions, prosecutors said... 'He developed a blueprint for a new way to use the Internet to undermine the law and facilitate criminal transactions,' the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a sentencing memorandum this week. 'Using that blueprint,' the office said, 'others have followed in Ulbricht�s footsteps, establishing new "dark markets" in the mold of Silk Road, some selling an even broader range of illicit goods and services.'"

Dread Pirate Roberts � Ross W. Ulbricht, 31 � faced a minimum sentence of 20 years. The judge � Federal District Judge Katherine B. Forrest � gave him life.

"J. Dennis Hastert, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, was paying a man to not say publicly that Mr. Hastert had sexually abused him decades ago..."

"... according to two people briefed on the evidence uncovered in an F.B.I. investigation into the payments...."

The man � who was not identified in court papers � told the F.B.I. that he had been inappropriately touched by Mr. Hastert when Mr. Hastert was a high school teacher and wrestling coach, the two people said on Friday....

The indictment said that in 2010, the man met with Mr. Hastert several times, and that at one of those meetings Mr. Hastert agreed to pay him $3.5 million �in order to compensate for and conceal his prior misconduct against� the man.

"Cops Arrest Subway Riders For 'Manspreading.'"

The Gothamist reports.

"By the way, is anyone asking about the family makeup of the bikers in Waco?"

"No? Exactly."

"The shootout is the latest and perhaps goriest chapter in a long history of violence involving motorcycle gangs in America...."

"The Bandidos began almost 20 years after the Hell�s Angels, but the two gangs soon became bitter rivals."

According to the motorcycle club�s legend, founder Donald Chambers was bored with other bike clubs. �Chambers started the Bandidos in March 1966, when he was 36 years old and working on the ship docks in Houston,� Skip Hollandsworth wrote in a 2007 profile of the gang. �He told his friends that he was naming his club the Bandidos, in honor of the Mexican bandits who refused to live by anyone�s rules but their own...

�Don wasn�t looking for people who fit into what he called �polite society,'� one of the group�s first members told Hollandsworth. �He wanted the badass bikers who cared about nothing except riding full time on their Harley-Davidsons. He wanted bikers who lived only for the open road. No rules, no bullshit, just the open road.�...

�These guys are organized crime but they are also domestic terrorists,� [said undercover cop Steve Cook]. �These guys are heavily involved in methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, motorcycle theft. Those are all primary businesses for them. The thing is, these guys want to put on this appearance, �Oh we�re just motorcycle enthusiasts and we just like to ride bikes.� The evidence is quite to the contrary.�

"A rogue group of subway vandals calling them the �Subway Conquestors� is allegedly on a mission to attack the rail system."

In NYC, "the acts are getting more extreme as the vandals try to one up each other. They have been accused of changing destination signs to confuse passengers, surfing train cars, and stealing MTA equipment and gear. 'It�s extremely dangerous. The tools and keys they have give them full control over subway trains just like any other employee of the MTA � which is incredibly scary, because this is 16, 17-year-old kids.'"

"He said he hadn�t seen that guy in a long time. Then he admitted it and basically said, 'You got me.'"

"Frank Freshwaters... on the lam for 56 years."

Back in the summer of 1957, he was a 20-year-old kid with a full head of dark hair and a lead foot. One night in July, he was speeding through Ohio when he hit and killed a pedestrian. Freshwaters was sentenced to up to 20 years in prison only to have the sentence suspended.... But Freshwaters squandered his good fortune. He violated probation by climbing back into the driver�s seat and was locked up in February 1959 in the Ohio State Reformatory.

It would prove to be a fitting setting for Freshwaters. After its closing in 1990, the reformatory would be used as a set for �The Shawshank Redemption,� a 1994 movie about a wrongfully convicted man who escapes from prison. Freshwaters never escaped from the reformatory, however. Instead, he secured a transfer to a nearby �honor camp,� according to the AP. It was from there that Freshwaters disappeared on Sept. 30, 1959....

"An aide to state Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris and two others are accused of operating a rogue police force that claimed to exist for more than 3,000 years and have jurisdiction in 33 states and Mexico..."

"... authorities said Tuesday."

Brandon Kiel, David Henry and Tonette Hayes were arrested last week on suspicion of impersonating a police officer through their roles in the Masonic Fraternal Police Department....

A website identifying itself as the police force's official site describes what makes the group unique: "When asked what is the difference between the Masonic Fraternal Police Department and other Police Departments the answer is simple for us. We were here first!... We are born into this Organization our bloodlines go deeper then an application. This is more then a job it is an obligation."

"For a time in recent decades, it looked like the reform examples of New York under Messrs. Giuliani and Bloomberg and the growth of cities like Houston might lead to a broader urban revitalization."

"In some places it did. But of late the progressives have been making a comeback, led by Bill de Blasio in New York and the challenge to sometime reform Mayor Rahm Emanuel in Chicago. This week�s nightmare in Baltimore shows where this leads. It�s time for a new urban renewal, this time built on the ideas of private economic development, personal responsibility, 'broken windows' policing, and education choice."

A Wall Street Journal editorial titled "The Blue-City Model/Baltimore shows how progressivism has failed urban America." (Pay-wall protected, but if you Google some text, you can go in.)

Tonight's game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox will be closed to the public.

"The unusual decision to play the game before an empty Oriole Park at Camden Yards follows two straight days of postponements."

Lawprof Roger Groves comments:

Some have already blamed the youth who rioted as the sole culprits, the only cause of the problem. That reminds me of those who can�t understand why their weeds continue to grow when their lawn mower only cuts off the leaves. They didn�t see that the root of the problem requires digging deeper than what was on the surface....

That does not excuse bad behavior.... But as for the baseball aspect of this, playing a game without fans is not the answer.... Yes, a fan-free game minimizes the risk of a lawsuit for having a game in which they could get hurt. But even if it was more expensive to the owners and MLB, sacrificing fans for the profits and logistics is not a good idea. Ticket refunds may ameliorate the problem a bit. But I suspect the fans that paid that hefty ticket price would much rather see the game than have the same money back they already decided to spend.

I'll just add 2 things:

1. Playing before the empty stands makes a powerful visual statement that is entirely different from a postponement. If there's a postponement, there's nothing to see, and seemingly nothing is lost. Some later game between those 2 teams is turned into a double header. But when a game is played to empty stands, the disturbing spectacle will be on TV and radio. Many people will watch/listen and experience the theater of sadness. Fans will live through hours of What Has Happened to Our Proud City. On TV, there will be none of the shots of kids and weird guys and pretty girls to amuse us during the inevitable longueurs of baseball. You might think it won't matter so much on the radio, but it will. The crowd sound in the gaps in the chatter are integral to the beauty of baseball on the radio.

2. Groves's statement "That does not excuse bad behavior" will, I am sure, sound lame to many of you, but I happen to have my copy of Michael LaBossiere's "76 Fallacies" open to the precisely relevant page: "Confusing Explanations and Excuses":
Click for more �

"When nonviolence is preached as an attempt to evade the repercussions of political brutality, it betrays itself."

"When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse. When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con."

Writes Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Texts received at 3 a.m. that you have to check again in the morning to make sure weren't part of your dream about rampaging clowns.

"WiscAlert-453 W. Gilman man wearing a multicolored jacket displayed silver handgun and left running towards University Avenue. Avoid area. Police investigating."

"WiscAlert-Suspect described as a male with orange curly hair wearing a reggae style multicolored shirt with white shirt underneath. Continue to avoid the area."

"The only witness was an 86-year-old roommate, Polly Schoneman, who was on the other side of the curtain..."

"... and who agitatedly told nursing home staff members that she had heard noises that made her uncomfortable. Ms. Schoneman testified that she was not certain the noises had been sexual."

Mr. Rayhons testified that he recalled brief instructions to limit �sexual activity� with his wife made during a conference at the nursing home on May 15. At the trial, Mr. Rayhons testified that he considered �sexual activity� to be intercourse.

Henry Rayhons is the 78-year-old man who was acquitted of sexually assaulting his wife � who had Alzheimer's disease but was always happy to see him and would initiate sexual play � "She would reach in my pants and fondle me sometimes.�

He told the prosecutor, �I always assumed that if somebody asks for something, they have the capacity� to consent.

The link goes to the NYT. One of the comments:

People should choose very carefully who they want as their health proxies or legal guardians. It seems that the husband in this case had very little control regarding his wife's care. It's disturbing to read that even the nursing home had more control and could mandate where the husband could take his wife outside of the nursing home.

The woman had chosen one of her daughters as her health proxy.

"It was premeditated, oh, definitely."

"It was glorious. Angels sung on high.... I reached critical mass."

"How have we gotten so crazy that what was just a normal childhood a generation ago is considered radical?"

Asks Danielle Meitiv, a prominent mother in the "free range children movement," quoted in a WaPo article titled "'Free-range' flap in Maryland fans flames of national debate on parenting." Answering Meitiv's question, WaPo says:

Sociologists date an increasing perception of dangerousness to some highly publicized child abductions in the 1970s and �80s, including 6-year-old Etan Patz, who was headed to a bus stop in New York City.

That terrifying disappearance, now the focus of a jury trial, led to the creation of the Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the faces of missing children showing up on milk cartons across the country....

�Most of what gets reported to CPS does not get substantiated� because the evidence is uncertain, [said David Finkelhor, who directs the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire], noting that the substantiation rates are around 25 percent to 30 percent, depending on the kind of maltreatment. �So the question is, do these cases involve families where there is some need, or is this just an overreach on the part of the state?�

"Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Wednesday he had an 'honest, frank conversation' with Spike Lee to let the movie director know..."

"... that he doesn�t like, 'Chiraq,' the working title of Lee's coming movie on black-on-black violence based in Chicago�s crime-ridden Englewood community."

Emanuel didn�t say whether he asked Lee to change the name.... But the mayor made it clear that he had used the Hollywood pipeline provided by his brother, super-agent Ari Emanuel, to make his feelings known directly to Spike Lee. The face-to-face meeting took place in the mayor�s office prior to Wednesday�s City Council meeting....

In an apparent attempt to soften the blow of the title, "Chiraq," Lee... noted that gun violence is �not limited� to Chicago. It�s happening in Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York, where he�s from. He even talked about the derogatory name used to describe a part of Brooklyn where he�s from. He talked about how similarly insulting names applied to Philadelphia and Baltimore.

Well, apparently "Chiraq" is a great title. It's getting such high level attention. You can't buy that kind of PR. Obviously, it's also negative PR for the city, but Rahm is trying to squeeze good PR out of the bad (on the theory that Chicago isn't really that bad and even if it is, other cities are also bad... or worse).



ADDED: From a year ago: "How Chicago Became 'Chiraq'":

President Obama may have gotten our troops out of Iraq, but the gunfire in his hometown of Chicago is still earning it a searing nickname coined by young people who live there.

Chiraq.

"Two men dressed as women attempted to 'penetrate' the entry point with their vehicle when a shootout occurred...."

ABC reports on the incident at Fort Meade.

"And they handcuffed me to the electrical box for seven hours... At first I was panicking, and then I started singing 'I Shall Be Released' by Bob Dylan."

"I don't know how long I was singing that damn song for, but it was quite some time.... I don't want to be remembered for this alone... I'd like to be remembered for the good things I've done. I'm a husband, a father of two really cool kids. But they're saying it's half a billion worth of artwork. And ultimately I'm the one who made the decision to buzz them in. It's the kind of thing most people don't have to learn to cope with. It's like doing penance. It's always there."

Said Rick Abath, who was 27 a quarter century ago, when he was a night-time guard at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.


(The police photograph you before they un-duct-tape you.)