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Jameis Winston Files Counterclaim, Denies He Raped Woman

Source: ABC News

Attorneys for No. 1 NFL pick Jameis Winston said in a court filing that the former Florida State University quarterback did not rape the woman who is suing him and that she is motivated by greed.

Attorneys John F. Myers and David Cornwell Sr. filed the counterclaim Friday against Erica Kinsman in federal court in Orlando.

Kinsman's suit filed last month said she was intoxicated at a Tallahassee bar in December 2012 when Winston and others took her back to Winston's apartment and he sexually assaulted her. Her lawsuit accuses Winston of rape, assault, false imprisonment and emotional distress. Winston says the sex was consensual.

The Associated Press doesn't routinely identify people who say they're sexual assault victims. However, Kinsman told her story publicly in a documentary.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/jameis-winston-files-counterclaim-denies-raped-woman-30921146

No, there’s no “hate speech” exception to the First Amendment

Washington Post

By Eugene Volokh May 7
I keep hearing about a supposed “hate speech” exception to the First Amendment, or statements such as, “This isn’t free speech, it’s hate speech,” or “When does free speech stop and hate speech begin?” But there is no hate speech exception to the First Amendment. Hateful ideas (whatever exactly that might mean) are just as protected under the First Amendment as other ideas. One is as free to condemn Islam — or Muslims, or Jews, or blacks, or whites, or illegal aliens, or native-born citizens — as one is to condemn capitalism or Socialism or Democrats or Republicans.

To be sure, there are some kinds of speech that are unprotected by the First Amendment. But those narrow exceptions have nothing to do with “hate speech” in any conventionally used sense of the term. For instance, there is an exception for “fighting words” — face-to-face personal insults addressed to a specific person, of the sort that are likely to start an immediate fight. But this exception isn’t limited to racial or religious insults, nor does it cover all racially or religiously offensive statements. Indeed, when the City of St. Paul tried to specifically punish bigoted fighting words, the Supreme Court held that this selective prohibition was unconstitutional (R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul (1992)), even though a broad ban on all fighting words would indeed be permissible. (And, notwithstanding CNN anchor Chris Cuomo’s Tweet that “hate speech is excluded from protection,” and his later claims that by “hate speech” he means “fighting words,” the fighting words exception is not generally labeled a “hate speech” exception, and isn’t coextensive with any established definition of “hate speech” that I know of.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/05/07/no-theres-no-hate-speech-exception-to-the-first-amendment/

Chris Christie Backs NSA Phone Records Collection, Patriot Act Renewal

Source: Wall Street Journal

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called for the Patriot Act to be reauthorized in its current form and said the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of phone records should continue, a position that separated him from some other potential Republican 2016 presidential contenders.

Asked about the Thursday federal court ruling that the NSA’s program wasn’t authorized by the Patriot Act, the potential Republican presidential candidate said that federal officials can provide appropriate oversight of the bulk-collection program.

Mr. Christie also jabbed at those who agreed with the ruling, without naming names.

“I’m not one of these folks who believe we should bring our guard down, especially in this really dangerous time,” Mr. Christie said Friday morning after a diner stop in this New Hampshire town.

Read more: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2015/05/08/chris-christie-backs-nsa-phone-records-collection-patriot-act-renewal/?mod=WSJBlog

FBI Sent Warning to Police About Elton Simpson Before Cartoon Attack

Source: Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON—The Federal Bureau of Investigation warned Garland, Texas, police to be on the lookout for Elton Simpson just hours before he and an accomplice tried to attack a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest Sunday, FBI Director James Comey said Thursday.

The FBI sent a bulletin that included a picture of the 31-year-old Mr. Simpson to police earlier in the day after agents learned that he’d expressed interest in the event, Mr. Comey said. But they didn’t know Mr. Simpson, who had been under FBI investigation because of social-media postings, was planning an attack or even that he’d left his Phoenix home.

Mr. Comey said he has no reason to think the bulletin contributed to the speed with which a police officer shot and killed Mr. Simpson and his accomplice, Nadir Soofi, 34-years old, when they opened fire outside the event, injuring a security guard.

The FBI’s field office in Dallas had been monitoring potential threats to the contest and warned police about several individuals who were interested in it, Mr. Comey said. He wouldn’t elaborate as to exactly what prompted agents to add Mr. Simpson’s name to the list of people to look out for.

Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/fbi-sent-warning-to-police-about-elton-simpson-before-cartoon-attack-1431028256

Prosense on the NSA phone dragnet

Jun 12, 2013, 01:48 PM

ProSense (116,464 posts)

For some, the goal is to portray the program as a crime.

Only during the Obama administration can the leak of classified information about a legally conducted program lead to a frenzy of claims that gradually spin the revelations into something criminal.

The commentary and reports are becoming careless and terms are being thrown around despite the facts.

The administration was "spying on Americans."

Conflating the programs with Bush's warrantless wiretapping and illegal eavedropping.

The programs was "criminally subverting the Constitution"

It's spin aimed a convince people that the administration did something illegal.

Joy Reid (MSNBC) a year ago: "Thank Congress" for the NSA phone sweep

NSA Defender Joy Reid said it just as Snowden leaked his stuff: https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/342785727811158017

Today, we learned from the 2nd Circuit that Joy jumped the shark because Congress did not authorize such thing.