Year: 2020

The doctrine of qualified immunity grants government officials performing discretionary functions immunity from civil suits unless the plaintiff shows that the official violated clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.  In other words, unless the harm done is blatantly egregious, the government is not responsible for violating the rights of citizens.  Misbehavior which would clearly result in legal action when one party harms another is virtually impossible when one of the parties is the government. Qualified immunity is in the news these days because it is the principal which protects government entities from lawsuits resulting from police…

I went to a high school with about 3,000 students.  I do not remember the exact numbers, but I am sure that there were just over 600 in my graduating class.  To have 3,000 students and 600 graduates in any given year, each class had to be smaller the next. To account for drop-outs, I would assume the classes in my high school had to be something like 900, 800. 700 and 600.   I would have thought that a freshman class of 900 would have yielded a senior class of more than 600, but the assumed numbers are not unrealistic.  …

In 2016, 63 million Americans voted for Donald Trump for president of the United States.  His opponent received more votes, but POTUS is not elected by popular vote.  The Electoral College is an anachronism, but its provisions are clear.  It allows for a candidate with fewer popular votes to be elected.    With possible exception of John Quincy Adams, Hillary Clinton’s credentials for the presidency were probably stronger than anyone who ever contended for the job. In stark contrast, Trump could well be the least prepared candidate ever.  Electing Donald Trump to the White House was the equivalent of signing…

Governments have no bottom line to worry about.  They get their funds from taxes, not customers.  Taxes are levied by legislators who theoretically express the will of the voters.  Legislators do not run governments as businesses. Nevertheless, like people and business, governments have tangible assets. Being so disconnected from market economics, however, governments generally do not view their holdings as assets in the usual sense.  A park is a park, not a piece of real estate.  Or more accurately, a park is a valuable piece of urban real estate, but because it is a public park, this is irrelevant.  Or…

A society in which the citizens all have adequate security, justice, housing, food, education, transportation, health care, and a clean and safe environment is better than one where these things are inadequate.  True love, great sex, tropical vacations and warm clothing are good too. All these necessities and niceties of life are beneficial.  These measures of well-being are the concern of any society.  Yet how they are provided is not self-evident.  With whom does responsibility for their provision lie?   Who assures justice?  Who provides education?  How much education?   Is responsibility with the individual or does it belong to the state? …