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JHan

(10,173 posts)
Sun Nov 25, 2018, 01:46 AM Nov 2018

Dwarf tossing?

Neomi Rao, Trump’s nominee to replace Brett Kavanaugh on the powerful DC Circuit, who has written at least two law review articles and a blog post in which she defended dwarf-tossing.

Especially popular in Florida bars, dwarf-tossing is the strange spectacle in which competitors throw Velcro-clad little people at a wall or mattress like a shotput. The longest toss wins. The sport has been banned in some American states and parts of France, where a judge upheld such bans because of “considerations of human dignity.” Rao considers these laws an affront to individual liberty that fails to recognize the right of the dwarf to be tossed. In one article, she wrote that the decision in France upholding the dwarf-tossing ban was an example of “dignity as coercion” and that it “demonstrates how concepts of dignity can be used to coerce individuals by forcing upon them a particular understanding of dignity.”

Dwarf-tossing is an odd cause for a federal judicial nominee to champion. Even weirder, Rao has invoked it repeatedly in her writing to make the case that a misguided focus on human dignity is leading US courts to run afoul of the Constitution in decisions that advance LGBT rights and racial equality. These are areas of the law where, she argues, judges are letting the pernicious influence of international human rights law creep into their jurisprudence at the expense of American exceptionalism and personal freedom.

Her scholarly work hits on all the conservative bugaboos obsessed over by lawyers in the Federalist Society, the influential legal group that has played a major role in the Trump administration’s judicial nominations, including hers. It also gives a pretty good indication of where she will come down as a judge, not just on dwarf-tossing bans, but on some of the nation’s most contentious issues.

Rao, whom Trump nominated to the DC Circuit on Tuesday, is currently the administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, an agency often called the most important government office you’ve never heard of. Run by political appointees, OIRA has the power to water down health, safety, and environmental regulations created by federal agencies, and it often deploys a brutal cost-benefit-analysis approach that favors big corporations over individuals.


*snip*

Turgid to the point of incomprehensibility, Rao’s writing reflects little of her idol Scalia’s literary genius, but it does hint at some of his homophobia. The work suggests that Rao’s conservatism goes far beyond regulation and extends to some of the nation’s most contentious social issues, including affirmative action, the welfare state, and international humanitarian aid. It’s particularly focused on LGBT rights, with special scorn reserved for Supreme Court decisions written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose retirement this summer elevated Kavanaugh and made Rao’s nomination possible.


https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/11/neomi-rao-dwarf-tossing-kavanaugh-replacement/



WTAF Did I just read?
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JHan

(10,173 posts)
2. i don't think her ideas of Liberty expand beyond throwing people against a wall.
Sun Nov 25, 2018, 02:39 AM
Nov 2018

my ghast is flabbered over here. It's a litany of awful with this administration.

Volaris

(10,260 posts)
3. Smdh. Fuck these people.
Sun Nov 25, 2018, 04:13 AM
Nov 2018

The rights defined in the constitution exist BECAUSE all grown adults are recognized to possess their own Agency (and as far as the right wing loons are concerned, that agency comes from God), and that Agency possess certian dignaties of its own volition.

Now, as far as it goes, specifically, this topic of dwarf-tossing is repulsive to me because it's seems rather barbaric, and so it's not different in kind than boxing or MMA (or honestly, football). But because I believe in the Agency of the participants, it's not necessarily for me to say that what they're doing should be illegal (even tho I happen to think it's barbaric--as I said) UNLESS it can be demonstrated that engaging in this activity produces some overall ill-effect for society as a whole.

Personally, aren't there better ways for drunks in Florida to spend their money than throwing other human beings at a sticky-wall?, Not illegal, but not for the lunatic xenophobic reasons she thinks.

There. I just wrote a better legal opinion than this woman. Can I sit on the DC Circuit now?

Like I said...smdh.

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