Talking to Your Own People

The best part about politics, and particularly presidential elections, is that each news story or political ad  demonstrates the well-known negotiation theory of confirming evidence.  In other words, we only believe data that confirms what we already think.  And, watching the debate last night or listening to the political commentary afterwards probably confirmed for you what you already thought about the candidates.  And, this phenomenon doesn’t really help us or the candidates. 

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9th Circuit: Garcetti Poses Mixed Question of Law and Fact

Scales Thanks to Ross Runkel for providing this summary of an interesting new Garcetti public employee free speech case, Posey v. Lake Pend (9th Cir. 10/15/2008), considering whether the determination of if an employee is speaking pursuant to his official duties is a question of law or fact.  Of course, this is an important question because it goes to whether these cases can be disposed of by the court on summary judgment:

Posey sued the public employer, asserting a claim for 1st Amendment retaliation.  The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the employer.  The 9th Circuit reversed.

The court framed the primary issue on appeal as “whether, following the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 IS 410 (2006), the inquiry into the protected status of speech in a First Amendment retaliation claim remains a question of law properly decided at summary judgment or instead now presents a mixed question of fact and law.”

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Time for Racial Impact Statements in Wisconsin?

As reported in the new issue of Sentencing Times, Iowa and Connecticut adopted new laws earlier this year that call for the preparation of racial impact statements as sentencing bills are working their way through the state legislative process.  In many states, it is already required that fiscal and environmental impact statements be prepared for new legislative proposals, but Iowa and Connecticut are the first to adopt a similar policy with respect to racial concerns.  This seems like a good idea for other states to consider–particularly states like Wisconsin with glaring racial disparities in their prison populations.  Of course, the fact that a sentencing proposal might exacerbate racial disparities would not (and should not) necessarily preclude its adoption, but the debate over such proposals would benefit from more self-conscious and well-informed attention to their racial impacts.

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