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HEIEN v. NORTH CAROLINA Syllabus HEIEN v. NORTH CAROLINA ( ) 367 N. C. 163, 749 S. E. 2d 278, affirmed. Syllabus [HTML] [PDF] Opinion, Roberts [HTML] [PDF] Concurrence, Kagan [HTML] [PDF] Dissent, Sotomayor [HTML] [PDF] NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued.The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321. SUPREME COURT...

Lena Dunham and the federal government ain’t volunteering to advocate for rape victims; they would like compensation—in millions, please. Faceless and nameless men and women volunteer every day, all across the country, to counsel, shelter and heal sexual assault victims. Hollywood darling Lena Dunham is advocating for women too. But Dunham is neither offering women practical tools to deter rape nor taking a six-month sabbatical to volunteer at a woman’s shelter. She is offering a book, that women may purchase, containing her tale of rape. So, after contributing to Dunham’s coffer, a rape victim may read Dunham’s story in commiseration...

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid pulled out one of his most familiar threats during perhaps his last week as majority leader, pledging to keep the Senate in session through the weekend to get 23 of President Barack Obama’s nominations confirmed and pass bills extending billions in tax breaks and providing terrorism risk insurance to commercial buildings. The Senate already worked one Saturday this month, so why not another? While the Nevada Democrat is not yet warning senators that the chamber could work on Christmas, his remarks on Monday morning were clearly aimed at getting Republicans to relent on procedurally fighting...

Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria and allied rebel groups have taken control of two key army bases in the northern province of Idlib, activists say. Members of al-Nusra Front, supported by those from Jund al-Aqsa, captured Wadi al-Deif base on Monday after launching a fierce offensive on Sunday morning. Ahrar al-Sham later joined their assault on the nearby Hamidiya base. Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had until now managed to repel a number of assaults on the facilities. Situated outside the town of Maarat al-Numan and next to the country's main north-south motorway, they have been surrounded since 2012. A...

U.S. Army Chaplain’s Constitutional Rights Violated By Timothy W. Linzey Contact: lavonjusa@aol.com FORT BENNING, Ga., Dec. 14, 2014 -- In the United States Armed Forces, there are three types of special staff officers: 1) the Judge Advocate (JAG), 2) the medical doctor, and 3) the chaplain. These three officers enter the military with advanced degrees, and so come in at a higher rank than all other officers. No commander would dare tell a JAG how to do his job. No commander would dare tell a medical doctor how to do his job. Likewise, no commander has the authority to tell...

A few minutes ago SWAT found out that the PTSD gunman who killed four in Souderton and Lansdale, Pa was not in home in Souderton, PA. Escaped. Whereabouts of gunman unknown, more deaths expected. New crime scene in Pennsburg, Pa with police investigating.....unknown.

One of the BBC’s top presenters has admitted that the corporation ignored mass immigration because it feared critics would say it was racist. Radio 4’s Today interviewer John Humphrys accused his employer of being ‘soft’, ‘complacent’ and ‘institutionally nervous’ when it came to tackling the story or questioning multiculturalism. And he said that BBC employees are unable to understand the concerns of ordinary people because they typically lead ‘sheltered’ middle-class lives and are overwhelmingly ‘liberal Oxbridge males’. The criticism, which is the latest in a string of admissions of Left-wing bias by senior BBC figures, comes weeks after the Government...

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad has said it many times recently. But each time he says it, he likely makes it more apparent the Republican Party of Iowa has held its final Straw Poll. “We’ve had discussions,” Branstad said Monday morning of his talks with top party leaders about what could replace the straw poll in 2015. Branstad several times said it will be up to his party’s state central committee to make the final decision on whether to end the straw poll, a much-watched event his party has held since 1979. The party holds the straw poll in August in...

The journalists at CBS This Morning on Monday compared the violent, bloody attacks on African Americans during civil rights marches in 1965 to voter ID laws passed by various states in the last few years. Co-anchor Norah O'Donnell talked to Oprah Winfrey, producer/star of the new film Selma. O'Donnell marveled, "...Given the Voting Rights Act, 1965, I went back and looked. Thirteen states have passed more restrictive voter ID laws in the last three years, that states are trying to make it harder to vote." [MP3 audio here.]Actor David Oyelowo, who plays Martin Luther King in the film, slammed the...

Interestingly, they don’t specify that she’s going to re-report it *for Rolling Stone.* RS is supposedly revisiting the UVA story too but you would think at this point they’d want nothing more to do with Erdely, especially with her previous work for them and others newly under suspicion. What happens if they agree to let her “re-report” Jackie’s story for them and then her previous bombshell for the magazine begins falling apart under scrutiny?There are only two ways an Erdely mea culpa can go. She could in theory blame the whole thing on Jackie, but she won’t. “Rape culture” true...

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- OPEC doubled-down on its commitment to current levels of oil production, triggering a fresh selloff in crude prices on Monday. The fall in commodities alongside nerves heading into the Federal Reserve meeting Tuesday pulled stocks lower to start the week. Crude oil prices were falling again after secretary general of OPEC, Abdallah Salem el-Badri, said the oil cartel had not set a fixed oil-price target. Separately, United Arab Emirates oil minister Suhail Al-Mazrouei said the group would stick to production levels even if oil falls to $40 a barrel.

For all of their foresight on other matters, America's founders were somewhat taken aback by the natural development of political parties. It happened anyway, even during George Washington's presidency. And although party ideology has fallen along different lines at various points in American history, it has long governed the allegiance of a majority of American voters in elections. In legislative matters, party ideology takes the form of the modern party caucus system. In order to achieve their goals, partisan lawmakers collaborate, choose leaders, and agree on strategies in advance. On Saturday, lawmakers demonstrated why this system evolved and is necessary....

If you had to imagine the communications between the two of them over the last few months what do you suppose they are up to? Leave you ideas in the comments.Three pieces were linked at the Drudge Report today on the rising Idol of the progressive political cult, first by Michael Goodwin at the New York Post: “Elizabeth Warren poses a challenge to Hillary in 2016“: The polls say it’s Hillary’s turn, but I’m starting to believe 2016 could be 2008 all over again, with Warren taking the nomination from her the way Barack Obama did. As Mark Twain said,...

One of the more irresponsible aspects of the reporting on the Senate Select Intelligence Committee’s long-awaited report on the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques is the prevalent suggestion that there is little debate over the efficacy of the tactics the report exposed, particularly among Democrats. A new poll suggests that there is a robust debate ongoing outside of America’s newsrooms over both the value of and the justification for the CIA’s interrogation methods. While 69 percent of those surveyed in a recent CBS News Poll said they believe controversial tactics like waterboarding are “torture,” 49 percent also said they think...

Depending upon whose estimate one accepts, anywhere from 1,000 to perhaps 1,800 Second Amendment activists turned out for a midday rally opposing Initiative 594 in Olympia Saturday, while the Washington Arms Collectors’ monthly gun show at the Puyallup Fairgrounds drew a couple of thousand more looking for pre-Christmas deals, and answers to questions about the state's new, and confusing, gun law.

HARTFORD, Conn. – The families of nine of the 26 people killed and a teacher wounded two years ago at the Sandy Hook Elementary School filed a lawsuit Monday against the manufacturer, distributor and seller of the rifle used in the shooting. The negligence and wrongful death lawsuit, filed in Bridgeport Superior Court, asserts that the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle should not have been made publicly available because it was designed for military use and is unsuited for hunting or home defense. "The AR-15 was specifically engineered for the United States military to meet the needs of changing warfare," attorney Josh...

The official White House holiday card was rather staid this year, with President Obama and the first lady writing: "May your family have a joyous holiday season and a new year blessed with hope and happiness."

DELAVAN, Wis. – The Delavan-Darien School District denied a family’s request to enroll their children in a neighboring school district by citing the “best interest” of the children. “We believe it is in the best interest of your children to attend the Delavan-Darien School District,” said a letter from Superintendent Robert Crist to Les and Carol Paur. “Your application for the above students to transfer out of the Delavan-Darien School District into the Williams Bay School District under the open enrollment program has been denied by the Delavan-Darien School District for the 2014-15 school year.” Carol Paur, the mother of...

A nation, a workplace, an ethnicity, a passion, an outsized personality. The people who comprise these things, who fawn or rail against them, are behind Merriam-Webster's 2014 word of the year: culture. The word joins Oxford Dictionaries' "vape," a darling of the e-cigarette movement, and "exposure," declared the year's winner at Dictionary.com during a time of tragedy and fear due to Ebola. Merriam-Webster based its pick and nine runners-up on significant increases in lookups this year over last on Merriam-Webster.com, along with notable, often culture-driven ? if you will ? spikes of concentrated interest.

CAIRO — Egypt’s government has aggressively cracked down on Islamist and liberal opponents over the past year. Now officials are increasingly targeting another group: gay people. Police raided a public bathhouse in Cairo this month and arrested at least two dozen men, parading them half-naked in front of television cameras before hauling them off to prison. It was the latest in a series of police busts at suspected meeting places of homosexuals across the country. Arrests of gay people have been on the rise since President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi seized power in a military coup in 2013, but in recent...